school rules

[Earthbabe]

Mad Hare day is next wednesday isn't it??

[bubblewrap]

Mad Hare day is next wednesday isn't it??

Depends how mad you are?

[Two_Sheds]

Our Year 2 kids have fruit in the afternoon, so I thought it'd be fun to give them some allotment peas in pods. Ha ha. It had to go through the Health and Safety Risk and Hazard Assessment Procedure first!
But I think turkey (Bootiful!) is still on the menu....

[madderbat]

It always amazes me that at ever stage down the education pathway shools managed to alienate families. The older the kid the less welcome families seem to be in their child's school experience.

Isnt that because the Maths gets more difficult? When they are 7 we parents can help them, by the time they're 14 we've never heard of what they are doing!

[johnty greentoes]

Isnt that because the Maths gets more difficult? When they are 7 we parents can help them, by the time they're 14 we've never heard of what they are doing!

OK, point taken, but don't you think your child's nursery and primary were more parent-fiendly places than their latter schools?

[madderbat]

OK, point taken, but don't you think your child's nursery and primary were more parent-fiendly places than their latter schools?

LOL 'fiendly' -yes!!!
Seriously though I do agree, parents of teenagers don't seem to be valued as having anything to offer. Much like their kids ....
Shame really, but I don't think the system has all the answers.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Remind me to come back and have a serious rant on this thread when i have a spare 1/2 hour! 'Non competitive fun activities day', my foot - what happened to school preparing pupils for the 'orrible real world?!

[Mrs Dobby]

Our society seems to reaching a point where all have to be treated equally at all times, regardless of talent or ability! Yes, people need to be treated fairly, and all offered the same opportunities, but to treat all as equal in terms of ability is not only unfair to those with high talent levels as it restricts them, but also is unfair to those who are of lesser ability than the majority, as they will be unfairly stretched.

Competition spurs individuals and teams to perform at their highest levels, promoting innovation and experimentation, no two of us are born with the same talents, those talents need to be developed, and only through competition is the individual spurred on to perform at their highest level.

We seem to have become a society where it is frowned on to stand out from the crowd or to excell, as it may upset others whose abilities and talents are not the same as our own, which to my mind means if you legislate to the lowest common denominator, then you are only going to get mediocrity!

The other thing that to my mind has gone completely out of control is political correctness! We seem to be so afraid of offending anyone that even things that are a part of 'our' culture are now frowned upon. I'm sorry, but if I were to emigrate to another country, then I would attempt to live by their rules, and not seek to censure their culture for things that I didnt agree with, rather than trying to change things to fit in with my worldview. If I were to emigrate, then I would learn the language and do my best to fit in, not try and create my own enclave of my own culture and expect others to provide me with translations of their language into my own!

Sorry, rant over!

[Flummery]

Our Year 2 kids have fruit in the afternoon, so I thought it'd be fun to give them some allotment peas in pods. Ha ha. It had to go through the Health and Safety Risk and Hazard Assessment Procedure first!
But I think turkey (Bootiful!) is still on the menu....

Oh don't get me goingon Risk Assessments. In essence they can concentrate your mind on what might be a hazard, but the forms they send you are barmy. Best one I heard at a Wildlife Group meeting was 'Be careful!' summed it up really.

Flum

[Waffler]

Sports days annoy me with the over PC approach of not being competitive. The bug bear with sports day is also the fact that there's no wheelbarrow, sack or 3-legged race: far too dangerous, and, for me, the most annoying one, no egg and spoon race, due to the risk of salmonella (this one runs along side Easter, and not being able to decorate a hard-boiled egg); I seriously heard of one school that had replace the E&S race with an P&S race - that's 'potato & spoon'!!!

As someone mentioned the 'white board' earlier, I just wondered, what are the repercussions of the 'interactive white board' - surely we could read all sorts in to that suggestion!!

[madderbat]

. I'm sorry, but if I were to emigrate to another country, then I would attempt to live by their rules, and not seek to censure their culture for things that I didnt agree with, rather than trying to change things to fit in with my worldview. If I were to emigrate, then I would learn the language and do my best to fit in, not try and create my own enclave of my own culture and expect others to provide me with translations of their language into my own!
Sorry, rant over!

I quite agree Suzanne, I too would expect to adopt the culture of my new country, not take England with me, but I think you may find that it's not always the immigrants who object to these things, it's dozy half-baked legal graduates importing dozy half-baked ideas.

OK, I have to admit that calling black people ****** is/was offensive, but Baa baa black sheep has nothing to do with any of that, anymore that a blackboard does, and faiing to celebrate Christmas because of fear of offending other religions is just plain stupid.

I have lived and worked in a multicultural city with men and women of many faiths that I have been able to relate to. However, my opinion of some Muslim men is not enhanced by the fact that their women cover themselves completely because the men can't control themselves otherwise. It's all about power and control.

Health and Safety and political correctness are about power and control too.
When adults are afraid to speak to children in case they are labelled 'child molesters', when people are afraid to speak their minds and laugh together, when people are conditioned to expect that 'the government' or 'the council' or 'somebody else' will be responsible for looking after things, we are in deep doo and in danger of forgetting our own power and humanity.

The legal profession and the media have a lot to answer for, as we do for allowing it.