英國準備於曼徹斯特(Manchester)市中心,開辦第一所為LGBT學童設計的學校(LGBT School),預估在3年內,將招收女同性戀(Lesbian)、男同性戀(Gay)、雙性戀(Bisexual)和跨性別者(Transgender)的年輕學童。未來除作為教育機構經營之外,將更強調個人的技能與建立信任。
楊迺仁 我不贊成,英國這種做法,也許消弭了「校內」的霸凌,卻無助於消弭整個社會的霸凌,甚至因為這座學校標榜只招收LGBT學生,可能讓學校的學生更容易成為反LGBT團體攻擊的標的。
這種情形就像過去主張男女分校或男女分班,雖然可以避免一些男女長期相處下可能發生的事情(如談戀愛或性行為),但卻無助於學生學習及接受社會其實是男女共處的現實。
再對照美國過去的大學教育,將黑人及白人予以隔離,看似是希望避免衝突,但本質上仍無助於消弭歧視的經驗,我覺得要消弭社會對LGBT的歧視,仍然還是要讓他們學著共處,再由校方及教師積極輔導,避免LGBT族群被霸凌。
School for LGBT pupils planned for Manchester
School will teach 40 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students who are struggling in mainstream education.
The first school in Britain for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people could open its doors within the next three years. Based in the centre ofManchester, the specialist state school plans to take 40 full-time students from across the area and will offer up to 20 part-time places for young people who want to continue attending a mainstream school.
“This is about saving lives,” said Amelia Lee, strategic director for LGBT Youth North West, the youth work charity behind the plans. “Despite the laws that claim to protect gay people from homophobic bullying, the truth is that in schools especially, bullying is still incredibly common and causes young people to feel isolated and alienated, which often leads to truanting and, in the worst-case scenarios, to suicide.”
Last September 14-year-old Elizabeth Lowe hanged herself in a Manchester park because she feared telling her parents that she was gay. “Lizzie felt the only option was to kill herself. There was another girl with a similar story in Bolton,” said Lee. “This is not about making a little, safe enclave away from the real world: we work with 9,000 mainstream pupils and 1,000 teachers a year to help educate them about homosexuality. In addition, the support this new school will offer to part-time pupils could happen in their mainstream school, if that’s what they want,” she said.
“But we have an education system that sets up 5%-10% of pupils to fail through fear and structure, because it routinely fails to recognise and incorporate the needs of young people struggling with their identities. We can either hope every school is going to be inclusive, or we can recognise we are not there yet and so, for the moment, we need more specialised schools,” she added.
The school will be specifically designed for LGBT young people who are struggling in mainstream schools, but will be open to other children, including young carers, young parents and those with mental health problems. “It will be LGBT-inclusive, but not exclusive,” said Lee.
A £63,000 feasibility study into the plan is under way thanks to a grant from the Department for Communities and Local Government. The charity has also been involved in discussions with Manchester city council about how it can provide an alternative education for LGBT children in the area.
Lee, who said she hoped the school would act as a trailblazer and inspiration for other areas, said it was unlikely that it would be a free school. “The consultation has a long way to go, but free schools tend to operate at arm’s length from local government, while we are thinking more along the lines of an alternative education provider that’s networked through the local pupil referral units, who will refer children to us for whom mainstream education isn’t working,” said Lee.
A year at the school, which will be funded by the government, will cost £16,000, the same as other specialist schools. But Lee claims that the charity is saving other council services about £1.3m through early intervention and support for struggling children.
“The school will have a gentle, supportive atmosphere. Its curriculum will be closely tailored to each child’s needs and incorporate academic work with youth-work techniques, such as building self-esteem and functional skills by working in the charity’s cafe or community garden,” she said. “It is about trying to develop something that helps people that need extra support.”
Ellie (not her real name) turned to the LGBT Youth North West charity after she was outed by a school friend. “School was awful,” she said. “The PE teacher made me change clothes with the lads because she said I wasn’t attracted to them.
“It annoyed me so much that I stopped going to PE, which meant I got in trouble for missing the lessons,” she added. Ellie eventually changed schools at 16. “There were comments all the time, in most of the classes and in the corridors, and none of the teachers did anything to help me.”
Rob (also not his real name) said homophobic bullying made his education in a mainstream school horrendous. Teachers need to teach about how homophobia is bad and how it affects the lives of LGBT people, he said.
“They need to help us feel safe in our own environment of school. And they should teach the other students how LGBT people just want to be like anyone else. But none of this happens and, as a result, LGBT pupils routinely experience bullying that, if it was racist or sexist, wouldn’t be accepted by the school for a second.”
The new school is being planned as an extension to Manchester’s Joyce Layland LGBT Centre, currently a council-owned, site dedicated for LGBT organisations, incorporating a meeting space, offices, an LGBT library and a cafe.
Sue Saunders, national chair of Schools Out UK, which has been campaigning for the rights of LGBT people in education for 40 years, said a specialist state school focusing on the needs of gay children was a crucial enterprise.
“We are only too aware of how some schools leave their LGBT and questioning students to flounder and we know the high level of attempted suicides,” she said. “We strongly support this exciting and important venture.”
A spokeswoman for Manchester City Council confirmed that the council had been in discussions with the charity about providing an alternative education facility for LGBT children in the area.
“We supported LGBT Youth NW in their bid for funding to look at the feasibility of expanding their premises and developing the work they do,” she said. “One of their development ambitions is around how they might make additional educational support available to LGBT young people. We’ve had an initial discussion with them about that but there are no current plans that we’re aware of to open a LGBT school in the city.”
- This article was amended on 16 January. The original said Elizabeth Lowe killed herself last month. This has been corrected.
研究:英格蘭經濟增長南北差異增大
調查發現英格蘭南部城市的經濟增長速度遠超其他地區的城市。
一項最新研究顯示,過去10年,英格蘭北方和南方城市經濟增長速度差異顯著擴大。
研究機構城市中心(Centre for Cities)的研究顯示,2004年,南方城市每新增12個工作職位,其他地區只增加1個。
全國經濟增長主要由南方城市驅動,但蘇格蘭幾個大城市表現不錯。
另一個機構最新公佈的調查結果證實了英國整體經濟表現增強。
EY Item Club(EYIT)預計今年經濟增幅將達2.9%,比財相奧斯本12月公佈的最新官方預計高0.5個百分點。
EYIT預計油價低企將助燃今年英國的經濟增長。
該機構首席經濟顧問斯賓塞教授(Peter Spencer)說,英國經濟前景比三個月前有較大改善,油價持續下跌部分抵消了出口疲軟,但同時也加劇了經濟對國內市場的依賴,不平衡狀態較嚴重。
另外,歐元區疲軟仍然對英國經濟增長構成威脅。
英國工商聯的一項調查顯示,金融服務業正得益於經濟表現的改善,行業增長速度是1990年代中期以來最快的。
南北差異
調查機構城市中心報告顯示,蘇格蘭幾大城市中,阿伯丁增長速度超過愛丁堡、格拉斯哥和鄧迪,主要原因是它靠近北海油氣田。
威爾士三個主要城市,卡迪夫、斯旺西和紐珀特,表現都低於全國平均。
2004-2013年,倫敦新創就業機會增加了17%,但布萊克普、羅奇代爾和格勞斯特這三個城市卻下降10%。
新創企業方面的情況於此類似。南方的斯文頓新創企業數量增加了三分之一以上,而北方的格里姆斯比則減少了5.5%。
城市中心是桑斯布利勳爵2005年創辦的獨立研究機構。
該機構希望倫敦向地方更多放權,以幫助各地提振經濟。
不過,政府城市事務次長克拉克表示,本屆政府制定的長期經濟計劃在全國各地都在發揮作用;之所以給英格蘭北部地區額外撥款70億英鎊,並賦予27個最大的城市更多地方自主權,也正是針對發現的問題採取的措施。
(編譯:郱書責編:董樂)
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