Ledbury Portal Community Forum

The Doctor Who episode 'The Caretaker' has been criticized for being racist and overtly hostile to the army. While it is critical of the army and racial matters are present, there is a big grey elephant in the room here - the school itself.

While the Doctor whistles 'we don't need no education, we don't need no thought control' and scathingly asks a teacher what they learned in 'stupid' school, the episode is littered with examples of negative schooling, while showing nothing positive in the experience at all. But it's easy to miss this elephant, because it is so damn normal.

Teachers barking at and bossing students; a teacher who, when told what she is teaching is incorrect, just becomes defensive and tries to belittle her (caretaker) inquisitor; and a boring classroom reading aloud exercise which has no pedagogical function.

Then there's the Parents Evening - the only access parents have to the school, which we see is not positively anticipated by teachers who all wear false smiles. One set of parents are told their child is still a disruptive influence - a year on from the last meeting. The only other access to the school's interior is by climbing a ladder and looking through the window.

I'm surprised the episode didn't include the feared and loathed school gatekeeper, aka the receptionist.

The PE/maths teacher incident between the Doctor and Mr Pink harks back to the bad old days, when schools were full of ex-soldiers who couldn't teach for toffee. It particularly reminds me of one old boy PE teacher who doubled up as a crap maths teacher. He bullied and barked his way through both.

It's not surprising that schoolchildren indoctrinated into this state system did not like this episode. But were there other children who thought 'yes, that's how boring school is, that's how teachers and the police treat us, and, on the plus side, it was about time a copper got it on Doctor Who.