Slow sunday

is there any other kind?

For reasons known only to herself, Big ignored the ringing phone this morning, but I rang Kirsty back and arranged for her to come round anyway. Then I got myself organised and went off to shop (for food this time) hoping to get back before Kirsty arrived.

Managed, although only one of the offspring had followed instructions to get dressed, and neither had lunched. As Kirsty turned up minutes after I had, they went off the idea of eating anyway, and Big and A cleared off upstairs, while Small and M got cars out all over the floor.

Kids were at low level grump – I’m having to keep a very close eye on Small at the moment who is striking out first and asking questions later. I’m sure he’ll work through it quickly (or I’ll end up following Mark Twain’s advice). Kirsty and I managed to chat a bit though, so all was not lost.

Kids are now ensconced in front of the caped crusader again, although at least they’ve spent some time playing this afternoon instead of just staring at a screen.

Kirsty and I did have one bit of an interesting conversation about education this afternoon. (Well, actually, we had lots, but only one bit I’m going to blog.) It was about this fascination with basic skills that we keep being told about. Reading is the basic skill apparently, so basic that we must beat it into the head of every three and four year old. However, it doesn’t seem to be the basic skill to me – surely there are other more basic skills that could be considered? Such as being civilised to each other, looking after themselves, being able to get themselves a drink, wash their hands? And as the child gets a little older, being able to make their own food, and understand how to negotiate with other ppl for what they want/need, as well as understanding what money is, what work is, and other aspects of looking after themselves? I daresay that parents are supposed to impart all this stuff, but given that we’re supposed to be focussing on reading, and making sure children are in school all hours, I’m not sure when we’re supposed to fit it in.

I wish that the government and the opposition would step back and think about what education is really all about. Is it really about creating a nation of failures? That’s what will happen if you insist on formal learning at increasingly young ages. You might produce children who can parrot certain words from a screen, but they won’t know what they are reading, they won’t have any context. It’s like kids who can recite their timestables but still can’t do mental arithmetic as the facts are hidden in the recitation rather than being available to them. (I’m one of those by the way, there are certain multiplications that I have to kind of work up to by starting at a point in the timestable that I do know about. It’s just I’m pretty quick at it, so most ppl don’t notice).

That’s not to say that there aren’t some children who can and will learn to read at very young ages, of course there are. But that is what educational policy needs to recognise, that children are different. That having a national target of a reading age of 6 or 7 is wrong, that the time to worry is if a child who wants to read can’t, rather than insisting that a whole bunch who aren’t interested must.

I’d like to know who the educational experts are that advise both the conservative and the labour parties. I’d like to know what their experience really is, and what they know about a wide range of educational methods. I don’t want education for our children to become something that they get despite the government edicts rather than because of it, and all of this is about the only reason I can think of to be grateful that I haven’t had a third child yet.