IF - A Song for Teachers and Children.

Thor (image courtesy Comic Vine)

I have been reading about some very disquieting ideas and practices in education and if I had a hammer...

                                                 IF
(with apologies to Pete Seeger and Lee Hays - who would I think have understood.)

1 The Clicker (children in some schools are trained to 'click' every correct answer given in class).

If I had a clicker
I'd click it in the morning
I'd click it in the evening
All over this land
I'd click out "danger!"
I'd click out a warning
I'd click for love between 
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land

2 The Vertical Hand (some teachers are trained in putting up a hand so their pupils do it faultlessly)

[Oh, I have a hand!
Watch me raise it in the morning
Watch me raise it in the evening
All over this land
It's the hand held vertical
It's the hand compliant
It's the hand just like
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land]

3 The Teacher's Oath (as recently mooted by Tristram Hunt MP)

If I took an oath
I'd swear it in the morning
I'd swear it in the evening
All over this land
I'd swear of the danger
I'd swear out a warning
I'd swear at the walls between 
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land

4 The Hammer We Are All Born With

Thank God, I've got a hammer!
I shall crush my little clicker
I shall swing it with my good hand
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the hammer of freedom
And I swear I'll hammer till there's love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land.