

Most of the kids are alright - trusche
http://rosamicula.livejournal.com/540476.html

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jseliger
There are lots of problems in this and no real solutions. If there were real,
easy, or plausible solutions, they would already be here. The author says, "We
kick twenty percent of our kids out of school illiterate, innumerate and
socially dysfunctional . . .", as if... what? Those kids can be made more
literate by more time in the school system that's had them for 13 – 16 years?
How much of the responsibility is the schools, and how much is the
individual's or the parents'?

Bear that in mind before you propose a large-scale, institutional,
governmental, and bureaucratic solution. Before you propose that government is
the problem, remember that these people are still people and you still have to
live in society with them. There isn't a simple answer to the problems being
described, and if your glasses are colored by ideology, you're going to miss
that essential fact.

EDIT: Removed gratuitous and incorrect comment WRT the author.

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dazzawazza
I have a child that is six years old and I go and read to/with her and other
children in her class. She's been in school for two years, before that she was
in a nursery for a year but she's been 'reading' for six years.

In her class I meet children who already display worrying problems. Some can't
concentrate for more than a few minutes, some already fear failure and don't
understand that everyone in the room is struggling at something (and that tbh
everyone in the world should be struggling at something). Some are rude and
some, rarely, are aggressive. Some are learning English for the first time and
their entire experience of school is that it's in a foreign language to them
and their parents. Few value learning at all. All of these problems can be
traced back to their parents. Many of the kids NEVER read outside school and
NEVER see their parent read yet they all talk to me about video games, movies
and TV. IMHO many of the parents work too hard to either get by or for
material gain and see school as a cheap day care system. In a class of 30
children I am the ONLY parent that regularly spends 30 minutes a WEEK to read
with the kids. I would spend more but that's the allotted time and I'm happy
to help.

The problems these children face are multifaceted and individual to them but
NOT unsurmountable. Firstly the parents need to be told that the school isn't
there to baby sit and some of the children are not ready to socialise. The
parents/children need to be taught how to socialise in an acceptable manner,
not excluded from a young age. We need, as a society, to accept that not all
children are ready to learn from day one of school. Why do all kids start at
the same age? Kids should enter school when they are ready to learn. Within a
single class of first year kids their ages range from 5-6, this is a huge age
range. Some children should just wait a year or two and society should just
learn that there is nothing wrong with that. Kids should be held back if they
are not ready for the next year. Some kids are WAY out of their depth. What is
the use of sending kids up from reception to year one when they can't
write/hear simple sounds or comprehend simple tasks. It just places too much
burden on them. Obviously kids who are kept back should receive extra help and
borderline kids should be helped before they are held back.

We've all experienced moments where we don't understand something and we plug
away and suddenly it all falls in to place and pow we are like gods for a
moment. Most politicians , being high achievers, have certainly experienced
this. I think some children never get to experience that because they are
always chasing, always behind. They loose sight of what learning is and see
themselves are dumb/difficult/slow. Politicians don't seem to comprehend this,
it's alien to them as they just got it all the way through life. I fear they
just label the 'others' as dumb/difficult/slow and imagine this is the way of
things. Maybe they even think they are superior and deserve to be 'on top'.

If we let children grow and be challenged at their own rate I feel a greater
number would be succeeding by the time they move to senior/highschool. Of
course that means letting go a little and trusting teachers which is
problematic for some here in the UK.

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willyt
I think you are right and make many valid points. But I think there is a
parenting problem that goes deeper than this. My friends _4 year old_ has
learnt to call people a 'motherfucking bitch' from his classmates at
_preschool_ in Hackney and he said that reason his best friend is his friend
is because he is the only one who doesn't hit him. Needless to say my friend
is moving out of London. I've got 2 toddlers and I did the same.

I grew up in Hackney, I didn't go to secondary school in Hackney because the
system was totally broken 20 years ago; my nearest school, the school I would
have gone to if my parents didn't take an interest in my education, was closed
after a teacher got raped and then another got stabbed to death. The schools
are struggling to keep control of kids let alone teach them anything.

Yet, at the same time the rent on a 2 bed flat that is clean and safe in
Hackney is absolute minimum £1300 pcm, outside the state provided housing
system. The current government has told people that their right to stay on in
a council house is no longer secure and they are raising rents across the
board, but the people that live there have nowhere else to go because they
can't afford to rent privately. They don't have the skills to make the money
needed to get any job let alone one that pays enough to rent in the private
housing market. This is why tensions are at fever pitch, people are feeling
trapped and the walls have started to move in.

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Triumvark
Is this NSFW?

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ordinary
I almost missed it, but there is a 100x100 pixel drawn image of a woman with
her breasts out in the top right. I'm not sure why it's there at all, it has
nothing to do with the text, but there you go.

~~~
Jem
It's the user's chosen avatar.

