In yet another bid to instil classroom discipline and manners - those elusive qualities - teachers are urged to be polite to their pupils, in the hope of getting politeness back.
Ralph Sturman, of the government's Steer inquiry into school discipline, is to urge delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' conference today to "over-exaggerate" their manners in the hope of getting a polite reply. He hopes that a charming "good morning, class" will be responded to with an equally formal "good morning, sir". Or, indeed, "miss".
Moving on from how on earth teachers currently deal with children, this does conjure up images of a Jane Austen world of mannered behaviour and impeccable manners, with a cunning under-current of point-scoring and small victories that at least seem more civilised than last week's court case over racist abuse.
For teachers, though, it could be a new tactic - previously they have concentrated on dealing with the worst excesses of violence and bad behaviour rather than with the mass of low-grade disobedience and bad manners. Mr Sturman is hoping that the government will give £4,000 to each school to promote manners - giving out medals to pupils who ask nicely for them perhaps?
But how will such wish-washy methods work in inner-city schools beset by violence? If a school has a scanner looking for knives, how far is a well-enunciated "thank you" going to get you? And are some kids just going to think that "sir" is just taking the piss?
