Unwrapping the cotton wool kids

Gordon Cairns

By Gordon Cairns
Community contribution / November 16, 2016

When I went to school a few decades ago, myself and my classmates certainly looked different to children the same age today. I don't only mean the unfashionable haircuts or the width of flare on our trousers, but rougher looking.

Grubbier, with dirt under our fingernails and probably with more bruises, scratches and scabs on our knees.

The dirt and ...

Instrumental Music Tutor - Strings

Hume Anglican Grammar Donnybrook VIC

A committed Strings tutor is sought to join our team in a supportive and professional environment at our Donnybrook campus!

Non Teaching Positions/Roles / Dec 17, 2025

Instrumental Music Tutor - Strings

Instrumental Music Tutor - Strings

A committed Strings tutor is sought to join our team in a supportive and professional environment at our Donnybrook campus!

Non Teaching Positions/Roles / Dec 17, 2025

School Management Accountant

Hume Anglican Grammar Craigieburn VIC

Seeking a passionate, highly organised School Management Accountant to join our rapidly growing, successful, independent multi-campus school.

Non Teaching Positions/Roles / Dec 17, 2025

By Gordon Cairns

Community

Gordon Cairns is an English teacher and education journalist in the UK.

Similar news

Professional development / Winter's Big Wool Day Out Leadership / Unsung Heroes NZ 2019: for Cotton it's all about whanaungatanga and relationship building School news / Martial arts keeping kids in class

Latest comments

Timed to take effect at the start of school holidays so that teachers won't have to deal with the withdrawal symptoms...

— Phil Uren on Difficult Period Ahead As Kids’ Social Media Ban Officially Takes Effect From Today

Top events

Professional Development / February 5, 2025 / 2026 Filmmaking Summer School

Running around the woods for 30 minutes however is not going to overcome the conditioning from school, society and family that has created a nation of risk averse children and so the first task which involves minor peril is to climb a large bay tree.

— Gordon Cairns

Through being entrusted with doing something risky, they want to show they deserve that respect and hopefully in later life will benefit from being able to measure risk and judge whether doing something is too great a chance or is worth taking.

— Gordon Cairns

School news / Vic Govt resources supporting students’ mental health at school and online

The Victorian Government has released new resources for schools to help students, teachers and parents navigate the impacts of social media and screentime.

School news / ‘Timely intervention’: almost 80 per cent of adults support social media ban for kids

With Australia’s social media ban now in full swing, a new survey from Monash University has found that almost four-out-of-five Australian adults support the Federal Government’s social media ban for children under 16.

School news / Global review reveals what works for older students with reading difficulties

A comprehensive new review of interventions for students in Grades 4-12 who struggle with reading challenges the misconception that support beyond the early years of school is ineffective.

School news / Welcome turnaround: encouraging improvements in ear health for First Nations children

The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) children who reported a long-term ear or hearing problem has more than halved over the past couple of decades.

School news / Not up to scratch: calls for SA Govt to address its ‘outdated’ education standards approach

There are calls today for the South Australian Government to commit to a basic minimum standard for all public education facilities.

School news / Independent schools community rallies in response to unthinkable Bondi tragedy

Leaders from the Jewish and broader community have broken down after 15 people, including a child, were shot dead by father-and-son terrorists at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

School news / Just days in and social media ban slugged with second legal challenge

Reddit should not be considered social media, the app’s management argues, as it fights Australia’s world-leading ban for under 16s.

School news / ‘Infringement of fundamental rights’: Austria passes headscarf ban for under-14s in schools

Austria’s lower house of parliament has passed a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools for girls under 14 ⁠despite uncertainty over whether the legislation will be ruled unconstitutional as a previous ban was five years ago.

School news / ‘Grave and serious breach of that trust’: principal avoids jail for assaulting Indigenous pupils

A former NRL referee has been spared jail after abusing his position of trust as a school principal by putting Indigenous students into choke holds and painfully twisting their ears.

School news / ‘Backed into a corner’: striking Tassie teachers take a stand for school support staff

Most of Tasmania’s government schools have closed for half of today’s school day as hundreds of staff walked off the job in protest at the Liberal Government’s failure to provide fair pay for school support staff.

Comments