Teacher's Diary

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For the 2014 Thai film, see Teacher's Diary (film).
Over the course of two weeks in April 2004, the British satirical magazine Private Eye
published a journal, Teacher's Diary, written by an anonymous maths teacher at what he
called (quoting Tony Blair's spokesman, Alastair Campbell) "a bog standard
comprehensive".
The diary described an undercurrent of pupil misbehaviour and incompetence in the
school, including girls who were sexually active before they could do simple sums,
students who asserted that they had rights if any attempt were made to punish them, and a
pervasive attitude of indifference.
The diary, in a special pull-out section of the magazine, drew widespread messages of
support and confirmation of the problem, which were printed in the following issue; the
messages came not only from teachers, but from pupils too.
Within weeks, the anonymous teacher's identity was discovered by the UK press, with
stories in the Sunday People and the Daily Mail. He was subsequently interviewed by the
Sunday Telegraph.