Kids Shouldn't Have Best Friends, Says U.K. Educator

Feelings might be hurt

A head teacher of a leading primary school has said young children should not have best friends because it could leave others feeling ostracised and hurt. But are people programmed to have best friends?

Besties, BFFs - whatever you want to call them, best friends make the world go round for many people.

Plenty of children naturally seek out a special friend and the childhood pal is a constant motif in children's literature - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn or The Wind in the Willows' Ratty and Mole.

So it may come as a surprise to many that parents of children at a private day school in south-west London have been told it's not good for their offspring to have best friends.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Incorrect link.

[jekesheraf06]

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[ant1sthenes]

Educators who think children shouldn't have best friends shouldn't have jobs.

[LynchPin1477]

Just think of how bad it must make the jobless feel!

[Aresen]

Here is a link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22383453

From the article:

Instead they should be encouraged to have "lots of good friends" to avoid overly possessive relationships and upsetting fall-outs, head teacher Ben Thomas was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying.

Anyone want to guess how many friends "head teacher Ben Thomas" had when he was a kid? (His gerbil doesn't count.)

[Scarecrow Repair]

Does his poster of Richard Gere count?

[JeremyR]

You two could probably be arrested in the UK for those comments.

[Scarecrow Repair]

They wouldn't dare -- that would imply we were BFF.

[Lady Bertrum]

Other than outright abuse, it isn't the responsibility of educators to determine what types of friendships students should have.