For many years I was taught to express a non-partisan perspective on life towards my clients, the students, and to be as non-political as was possible whilst towing the ethos of the school beliefs and values.
Basically I was taught to leave my true opinions at the door and to withhold my own ideas in favour of the group identity. It shaped most of my working days and even into the business I set up after leaving the classroom.
Remaining neutral took a great deal of emotional energy but it left me watching the news and people's conversations in a different way.
One example I can remember was a statement read out in the House of Commons.
I listened to the words which were used to construct the sentences, and the impression it gave to the house. It was an interesting statement, so it stayed with me.
Imagine my surprise when I heard the newscaster placing a slant on it which was not there in the original prose. Imagine my inner annoyance when the newspapers took the words and twisted them about in such a way as to make the original sentences sound completely opposite.
I was shocked by this falsified reporting, which really it was, and was even more surprised at the interview which followed where the minister was tackled about what had been reported not what he had read out.
It was then I realised the efficacy of holding the school's values and listening hard to what was said by the student themselves, not what was retold to me by his/her friends.
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