You know that thing when you assume everyone has the same views as you, so you don’t give it much thought, but then it turns out people have opposite views and it pulls the rug out from under you? No reader, this isn’t yet another rant about Brexit or Trump, it’s on a far less controversial topic: the supreme pontiff. Or more specifically, the Pope’s slap, a phrase that could easily be mistaken for the title of a Ray Cooney farce.
On chatting about it with one of my bestest pals, a fierce warrior goddess who’s a fellow teacher/writer, I joked that a column on the subject would write itself. She was resolute that she’s not going near the Pope, I assume for fear of controversy.
I pointed out that I’ve been called every name under the sun in response to columns I’d deemed about as hard-hitting as The Gruffalo. So I may as well chuck my two penneth in on Mr His Holiness.
Anyway, if you haven’t seen the Pope slap to which I refer, have a peep:
What do you see?
I see an 83-year-old man getting up close with people who value his interaction more than I (as an agnostic) could possibly imagine. As he moves away from the crowd with a smile, one, let’s be kind and say over enthusiastic fan, yanks his arm back, pulling him towards her and refuses to let go. Clearly this has taken him by surprise and possibly caused some physical discomfort. His reaction is to slap her hand twice to free himself, moments before his security guards remove the woman’s clutch. Pope Francis walks away with what can only be described as a right face on.
I see a failure in security against a vulnerable assassination target, a woman who was disrespectful, and a human response to a surprise threat. Good for him I thought.
Obviously it was a smidge awks when his speech, hours after the incident, was big on condemning violence against women, but to be honest I wouldn’t call this violence on his part, so much as self-defence.
In the same speech he addressed the incident, apologised for losing his patience and setting a bad example. Ahhh no worries Mr The Pope, I thought, I would totally have done the same.
Position of responsibility
This is where the point of discussion arose. My pal, who I almost always agree with, was really clear that The Big P was well out of order. That in a position of such responsibility his reactions should be different, just as one would hope that ours would be if we were aggressively grabbed by a student. She also pointed out that if we as teachers reacted in the same way with a student, we would at the very least be held to account.
Of course, she’s right, we mustn’t slap students and we may well get the boot if we did. But I’ll be honest, if I was taken by surprise, yanked about and caused pain, I can’t be 100 per cent sure that I wouldn’t instinctively protect myself. And yes, I know it wouldn’t be professional or appropriate, but like the Pope, I don’t go to work to be shoved about.
I don’t know if my pal and I have such different views on this because she teaches children and I teach adults and there’s a more pronounced disparity in physical strength. We’ve had similar experiences in terms of managing extremely challenging behaviour, so it’s not that. Maybe it’s because she has 20 years more teaching experience than me and has encountered a far wider range of incidents and their consequences.
Maybe my stance is biased by my recent viewing of the Netflix film The Two Popes, which portrays Pope Francis as a flawed, vulnerable, thoughtful and humble human being who tries his best, rather than something distant or other-worldly. I like that.
Or maybe the lesson for me is that it’s OK to disagree with each other.
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