a different guest wrote:should it be the SES that apologises, not just the former teachers?
I'm not so sure. Obviously I do not agree with the SES and it's interpretations of "the Truth", but while they were responsible for the ideology that was followed by the schools' teachers, it was and still is a voluntary organisation.
I attended the SES for many years while at St Vedast, primarily to get away from a difficult family life, and to be with adults that treated me as an equal. It is very important for a young lad to feel that he is taken seriously, and I swallowed a lot of shit to achieve this.
All my peers that also went to SES in the evenings had various reasons for joining, but it was not compulsory, unless it was their parents that were forcing them to go.
On the other hand, school was compulsory, and far from being treated like adults, we were treated like plasticene that had to be knocked into shape, before we were flattened and the whole process started again. We had no choice in this and those in charge had a responsibility to provide a good education and a safe environment. Personally, I received neither.
So, in my book, the SES can continue deluding themselves that they are superior beings that would be tainted by outside influences, as long as they are not adversly affecting others [BTW, I'm not conviced this is actually the case, as families suffer]. On the other hand, the schools, ultimately controlled by the school govenors, chose to take the SES influence and force it upon boys and girls of four and upwards. This is a big mistake and one that seems to be still being made. Not only does this require appologies for the past, it requires action in the present to divorce the two organisations completely.