Katherine Birbalsingh Weighs In On The London Rioters, And She Deserves To Be Heard!

Her essay is here.

For anyone of OS's readers who have not yet bought and read, and shared Miss Katherine's book, To Miss With Love, now, not tomorrow, is the day to purchase this book and read it cover to cover. It's not long, but you'll have to put it down from time to time to give yourself a moment to recover.

She describes, in detail, the rioters burning portions of London to the ground, and how they became who they are.

Her recent essay gives more insight:

Many of these mindless thugs involved in the riots don’t think more than 10 minutes into the future. They think that stealing trainers is ‘fun’, not even considering that it might be wrong. Many of them are, quite literally, unable to read and write: 17 percent of 15-year-olds are functionally illiterate. If you de-educate an entire generation, if you constantly make excuses for their behaviour, if you never teach them the difference between right and wrong, then chaos is what you reap. These young people are just implementing what they’ve learnt at school!

Teachers can only keep the peace in the classroom because they have established authority. Where there is order in classrooms, children show respect because they have been taught to respect teachers. ONE teacher can therefore command the respect of hundreds of children. It is the same with the police and order in society. The police cannot hope to outnumber the rioters. As a civilised society, we rely on a sense of morality in our people to keep the order. How did the Japanese survive their recent nuclear disaster? They queued quietly for food and help, and waited. They didn’t say ‘ME ME ME’! Do young people wear hoodies in Japan? Do Japanese children question their teacher’s authority? Do Japanese adults defend the appalling behaviour of their youth? NO.

We are an international disgrace. What would happen if the teacher left her classroom and said that she was ‘keeping a close eye on things from her holiday home’? Theresa May, Home Secretary, was the only one of our leaders, whether Conservative or Labour, who returned from holiday immediately when Tottenham exploded. Where were all of our leaders? If even our politicians refuse to take responsibility for their ‘classrooms’, then how can we expect the children to remain in their chairs?

Buy the book, ya'll. Read it. Buy some more copies, and give them to your kinfolks and friends. This lady has something hugely important to say to our time.

To Miss With Love: Katherine Birbalsingh's Book A True 'Must-Read'

Outside of a circle of friends and colleagues in the UK, OS suspects very few people had ever heard of Ms. Birbalsingh before last October.

Boy-oh-boy, did that circumstance ever change overnight. This mid-30's black inner-city London school teacher, with her Oxford degree, her wild wild hairdo, and a devastating command of the English language addressed the Conservative Party Conference for eight minutes one fine day, and set an existential bomb off in the education establishment of the UK. Not surprisingly, when she returned to work, she was promptly canned for having the temerity to speak the obvious truth. The Left hates people who wander off the plantation, and in the tradition of all who hate freedom and truth, take pains to make a public example of anyone who dares attempt an escape.

(By the way, the school that fired her for criticizing the failures of the education system, was itself shut down, for...well...failure to perform....but never mind...we'll just not talk about that bit....)

If you haven't seen The Speech yet, here it is. Eight memorable minutes, and a career changed forever. (Booooom!)



The week following was a bloody awful mess. Archbishop Cranmer, Heaven bless him, jumped to her defense, as did a number of others, but to no avail. She was fired, pure and simple, and her former bosses, compassionate types they are, attempted to blacken her name and make her radioactive and unemployable on the way out the door.

Sweet, huh? (Don't-chew evah wander off the fahm! Look-whut we did to that Birbalsingh person, and remembuh!)

After the shock of it all, she landed on her feet. Penguin Books UK picked up on her story, and she was offered the opportunity to tell her story, via the work she had already invested in her blog. The result was To Miss, With Love.

It was published in the UK, but OS had no problem ordering his copy via Amazon in the US.

He began reading, couldn't put it down, had to put it down 'cuz it made him weep and cuss, had to pick it back up 'cuz he couldn't put it down, had to put it down 'cuz...

Miss Birbalsingh knows how to write! And, in telling her story, she fictionalizes herself and her colleagues and students into composite characters. She's Miss Snuffy, her husband is Liberal, her friends are Banker and Compassionate, colleagues Mr. Hadenough, Headmaster Mr. Goodheart, and students with names like Furious, Beautiful, Dreamer, Excluded, Cavalier. Ya'll get the drift.

The book follows an academic year at her school (Ordinary School), a year with a lot more losses than wins, including breaking up violent bloody brawls, trying to keep kids off the path to prison, and working with a handful that really are (or could be) Oxbridge material. It's madness she's describing, a Kafka-esque world where all common sense and logic has been tossed aside, but the stakes could not be higher for the children she teaches.

If you have kids, or even if you don't, this book must be read. For US readers, there will be some unfamiliar elements, such as the different exam and university admissions system, but nothing insurmountable in that. It's the stories of the lives of the kids and the faculty that will nail you to your seat, until you have to take a break and recover a bit.

Miss Birbalsingh has been teaching for about twelve years now, in these conditions, which she admits are better than those endured by many of her colleagues. The Almighty did her a favor last October, although it didn't feel like it at the time. No one can keep up that life and not completely burn out, physically and mentally. It is good to see that she is out of there, and working to set up her own Free School (our equivalent of a charter school, more or less), with a board of like-minded parents. It was time to leave, and all in all, perhaps better to leave the way she did, although it certainly must have been devastating at the time. To be forcibly separated from the students she loved, without even the chance to say 'farewell' is wrenching. OS has seen it happen before, and it leaves a real scar on a teacher's soul.

So, ya'll. Buy the book, and read. The parallels between the two school systems are chilling. It's all happening here as well. Tell your friends. If you live in the US, thank Heaven every day that most states are friendly to private schools and home schools.

And make sure your state representative knows how you feel.

Here's hoping this book sells by the trainload, and that Miss Birbalsingh will make time to keep writing.

To Miss With Love Hits The Stores Today In The UK

To Miss With Love is on first-day sale today.

OS sends long-distance best wishes Ms. Birbalsingh's direction.

Here's hoping her book makes into many hands and hearts and minds, on both sides of the pond.

To Miss With Love: Katherine Birbalsingh's Book To Launch March 3 In The UK

To Miss With Love

'Miss', in this instance, is Katherine Birbalsingh, who has lived a most interesting few months, following her address to the UK Conservative Party conference last Fall.

For her audacity in speaking the simple, unvarnished truth about the failure of public sector schools, she was sacked by the headmaster of her failed school, which the authorities came and shut down, because, well, it was a failure.

Since revenge is always sweetest when served cold and at a distance, Penguin Books will publish her first book in the UK on March 3.

The release event has sold out, with a waiting list.

The failed headmistress of the failed school does not yet appear to have a book deal, but undoubtedly she will serve at some high position in the Ministry of Education in the next Labour government. Who better to occupy such a position?

In the meantime, if you haven't heard The Speech That Got Her Fired--here 'tis.

The Cold Comfort Of Being Correct: The School That Fired Katherine Birbalsingh Is Forced To Shut Its Doors And 'Recycle'

Cranmer shares the news.

And, further detail from the local paper.

CHILDREN at a struggling academy are to be sent to new schools so it can be demolished and redeveloped.

Around 150 Year 7 and 8 pupils at St Michael and All Angels CofE Academy in Wyndham Road, Camberwell, are to be sent to other schools in Southwark from September, it has emerged.

The school is to stop taking new pupils until 2013 as it goes through a major restructure.

The faith academy has struggled since it opened in 2007 and was judged to be inadequate by Ofsted inspectors in April last year.

The report said it needed to urgently address poor behaviour of pupils.

Which is precisely what Ms. Birbalsingh shared with the Conservative Party Conference last October 5. OS can't urge his readers strongly enough to take eight minutes and view this address, and then pass it along to friends.



For which candor, she was...well...sacked. For saying the unmentionable truth: 'The system is broken, because it keeps poor children poor.'

She just wasn't fired, she was publicly tarred and feathered by the board of the school and its headmaster. They attempted to make her 'radioactive', and poison her future career as a teacher.

Now, we learn, following that good day's work, they have been forced to admit, that, yes, the school is a shambles, and it has to be shut down. Then demolished. Then reopened under new management.

Hmmm....

Now, shouldn't the penalty fall upon the school head and board that drew the knife on the teacher that told the truth and appealed for sanity? Miss B wasn't even particularly singling out the school she taught in to be vilified, but offered it as an example of a much greater systemic failure.

But, being a realist, OS knows that there will be zero disruption experienced in the career of ‘Dr’ Irene Bishop, the 'Executive Head', and no fallout for the Bishop of Southwark (who could have come to Miss B's defense), or anyone else involved in her mistreatment.

Except Miss Birbalsingh. And the students. And their families. And the neighborhood.

That's ok, though. They're just the people who do the work and do the work and do the work, and pay and pay and pay the taxes, and try to survive the school, and try to better their kids lives. What matter they? They'jest the LittlePeople.

OS is soooooo grateful to live in Tennessee. The rest of the world thinks we don't wear shoes here, that we're rednecks and hillbillies chawin' 'baccy and playing banjos on the tailgates of our pick-em-up trucks. And we do have our share of failings, no doubt about it.

We, however, elected successive state legislatures that deliberately leave home-schoolers alone. That allows charter schools, and doesn't legislate private school start-ups out of existence.

We have a by-God choice! We can, and do, vote with our feet, to the eternal anger of the teachers unions and the bureaucrats in the Department of Edumahcation.

Go, Miss B!

By the way, ya'll: Her book, To Miss With Love, publishes in March.

Not at Amazon yet--OS just checked.

But wouldn't it be a joyful thing to see it arrive to opening day with about 25K in pre-orders?

Revenge, sweet sweet revenge, served cold.

At a distance.