MANY people will find the idea that more than 60 school children in Oxfordshire were excluded for racist abuse in just one year shocking.

We would like to think most readers would find it shocking.

However, it might also in a way be a kind of good news.

Racism has, of course, always existed, and as a rough rule, the further back in time you go, the worse racism was.

The difference in this country between today and years gone by is that, in the olden days, racism wasn't something you would get excluded for.

In the bad old days, racism was simply something that some children had to put up with; were told to put up with; possibly even endorsed and encouraged by adults and even some teachers.

The amount of racism faced by school children of previous generations was at least as bad as today, if not worse.

Now, we not only tell children to report racism, but we punish those who use it – severely.

So yes, these figures are both shocking and saddening, but they are also part of the long, slow process of weeding this evil out of our society.