ONE of the best things about living in a modern, liberal democracy is that everyone of schooling age is entitled to a free education.

One of the worst things about living in Britain is that there are many people who would seemingly like this reversed.

Incredible as it might seem, there is a large group of people who would like Britain to turn back the years. To about 1869, prior to the first (and there have been many) Education Act.

Of course, they would phrase it in their own inimitable style. 'We don't want 'em here', 'they're not welcome' or 'I won't have my kid sitting next to one of them'.

The group being referred to in each case are Travellers - the minority group it is seemingly still ok to loathe without fear of censure.

Travellers and Gypsies (Gypsies tending to be Anglo-Saxon, Travellers Irish) have the same rights as everyone else, and yet somehow those rights don't seem to apply.

Which other group would find a deputy head teacher refusing them a place in school purely on terms of race? Would parents tell teachers that their children weren't to mix with any other group?

Would a solicitor joke about the genocide of any other group, stating 'there was only one person who had an answer to this Gypsy problem and that was Hitler.'

Unsurprisingly, the fact that Travellers risk constant overt abuse every time they go to school tends to put them off going. Their attendance rate, especially in High School, is shockingly low, but then perhaps that's not too surprising given the sort of abuse meted out from fellow pupils.

An eight-year-old was sent a Christmas card in the school post that read 'f ** k off you f*** ing Gypsy." At another school, three out of the four Travellers enrolled were forced out within weeks, the other stayed, but only after lying to convince everyone that she was Indian and not a Traveller.

Johnny Delaney

They got off lightly though, 15-year-old Johnny Delaney was kicked to death by local youths in Ellesmere Port. Despite one of the youths shouting 'he deserves it, he's only a Gypsy' as he jumped on his head, the attack was not deemed to be racist. The case, unlike any other I can think of involving youths killing another youngster, failed to make the front pages.

Perhaps, and I'm just speculating, after writing stories that Britain would be 'swamped' by Travellers from Eastern Europe following the expansion of the EU , Johnny's case didn't quite tie in with the editorial bias of our right wing press.

Incidentally, local councils report that there has been no increase in numbers coming from Eastern Europe since the expansion - apparently people aren't all that keen to leave beautiful Prague to come and sign on here.

As a teacher I will be happy to integrate Travellers into my classroom. I recall my own school days when members of a travelling circus would come for a few weeks at a time. They brought a new perspective, were exciting to talk to and were universally popular, perhaps in part due to the free tickets they'd give out. However, I will only be able to do so much. There are so many adults that need re-educating, but where to start?

Should it be with the great and good of a village in East Sussex who decided to torch a mock-up Gypsy caravan complete with models of Gypsy children on Bonfire Night?

How about the solicitor who, in defending a well-healed shoplifter, said 'this is not some Gypsy from some part of Czechoslovakia who has come here on the make to go into our stores to steal with a gang.' Finally, there's the parent who filled in the section of a school form asking for suggested improvements with 'get rid of the Gypsy children.'

I find it all so depressing. As a trainee teacher you like to feel that you can make a difference, you won't be changing the world, but you might help a few hundred kids grow up the right way. However, if they're going to be filled with racist filth at home and, worse still go to a school with racist staff, then the influence of one right minded teacher will probably be negligible.

In any case there's not even much time for the teacher to work on any correcting the misconceptions. There's 10 hours of Literacy and Numeracy a week to be fitted in, not to mention endless ICT, Design Technology and singing practice.

Small matters like tolerance or not growing to be a racist bigot will just have to be left to chance.

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