Are we all paedophiles?

Newish government regulations have made it necessary for artists and other regular visitors to schools to become registered, and probably vetted as a means of protecting our children.

Now before I go on, I do believe that children need protecting from predators but I don’t believe that there are significantly more of them than there were when I was a kid. Even in the small village that I was dragged up in there were weirdos, including the farmer who’d often present his meat to passing girls, and the Desperate Dan lookalike with his permanent five o’clock shadow who loved to walk around after dark in his wife’s clothes. As far as I know, neither of them ever did anyone any harm. The kids of the village just saw them as figures of fun and the village tolerated them.

Bringing talented people into schools has so many benefits. An enthusiast can inspire and encourage the development of budding talents or even show that there is more to life than what they have so far experienced. The outcome of this legislation, I am sure will be a reduction in the numbers of those willing to go into schools. Schools, like playgrounds and other areas where children gather are becoming no go areas for adults, especially men, and that is very sad. From a personal point of view, I will avoid other people’s children more or less, and have no wish to be in places where they are likely to be. I feel uncomfortable carrying my camera around children, and I would have to think long and hard before going to the aid of a child in distress or even reprimand a child that was doing wrong. I would imagine that most adult males probably feel very much the same.

So, our children have become untouchable and even unapproachable. Each day they are herded into hermetically sealed, sterile classrooms and exposed to a bland and dull school curriculum. They are sheltered from the realities of life, fed processed food and a diet of awful television. Girls are forced by the advertisers to grow up long before they are ready, and boys exposed to an alien culture that worships indolence, violence and all that is opposite to excellence.

There are so many things that our children need protecting from. Poets, artists and authors are not amongst them.