Not that there are all that many of you out there to read it! 😉
So, for the diehard bloggers…
education, maths and society in general.
I have a theory (well, actually, I’ve got lots 😉 ) that we are currently suffering in society from the results of compulsory state education. We have disaffected youth, and a culture rapidly growing up that everything is someone else’s fault/ responsibility. We have a high level of illiteracy (went searching google to try to work out if I could find out how high, and how very telling that was. Did you know that in order to hold the percentage passing the tests at age 11 at 75%, they’ve had to drop the pass mark 3 times in the last three years? The pass mark is now 41 out of 100) and we recently failed to return results to the OECD PISA research.
So what is my pet theory to explain all of this? Well, from another document, the Social Trends report from the National Statistics office, I picked up this little gem. “The proportion of three and four
year olds enrolled in schools in the United Kingdom rose from 26 per cent in 1972/73 to 65 per cent in 2002/03.” As a society, we’re desperate to get our children into childcare. This despite the fact that research shows that parental involvement is key. This bit for example: Tizard, B., and Hughes, M., Young children learning: talking and thinking at home and at school. London: Fontana, 1984. So our children are in childcare and then school, and all they are learning is that they are not important, have no power and no say in their lives. Is it any wonder they are disenchanted? We go on about them growing up so fast – how is being unable to earn a living, vote, drink or anything else (apart from have babies of course!) being grown up in comparison to the world our grandparents or parents lived in, where they were out earning their keep by the age of 14 or 15?
I drove down the road today and passed a group of teenagers chatting and smoking in a bus stop. They looked younger than 16 to me. Another group were walking down the pavement and a girl threw down her packet of crisps into the gutter as I drove past. Bit further along the road and the glass from another busstop littered the pavement – now I don’t know that was teenagers, could just have easily been drunken adult revellers, but this isn’t a world I’m particularly happy to inhabit.
It strikes me that worrying about literacy and numeracy is not what the government should be doing. Chasing home educators shouldn’t be high on the priority list – given that parental involvement increases educational achievement, they should be handing us a rosette and keeping well out of the way. Instead, how about some time spend on tolerance, respect for the environment, financial awareness? Oh no, I’m sorry, that might get in the way of producing good little consumers…
ps, sorry, I appear to have forgotten to mention maths – got carried away on literacy while googling. Will try to do maths tomorrow 😉
Comments
6 responses to “That promised post”
Well, if you’re in literacy mode, what do you think of the Quiddler game on the Set game site? I can generally beat the required score for the day by a couple of points (+6 is my best), but I’m nowhere near the high scores! I only realised tonight that you can move cards into empty spaces, so maybe that will help, lol.
I have 2 copies of the Tizard and Hughes book. It’s a fascinating read, and essential, I would say, for anyone who is seriously wondering whether parcelling their babies out for someone else to look after is a good idea. If anyone wants to read one, just let me know.
Ooh, Jan, I’ll bring you your George Monbiot back (which I’ve never got to grips with, somehow I’m never in the mood to depress myself that much 😉 ) and swap it for a Tizard and Hughes!
It’s a deal Jax. Yes, Monbiot has little cheerful to say. Mum gave Jonathan a Michael Moore for Christmas, and whilst it is more amusingly written, it is small consolation that the government he shreds in his books is not actually ours
yes, I would agree about the increasing tendancy farm out children- I sort of got caught up in it myself, really, as the Nursery Education Grant enabled me to send children#2&3 to, albeit ‘alternative,’ nurseries, and not be full time at home. It seems that everyone is doing it- there is a kind of social pressure to do it- Now I have realised it’s difficult to return to having them full time at home I think i wont send #4, and I take every opportunity I can of reminding people that it is not compulsary to farm children out. Its kind of sad, come to think about it.
I agree about putting children into day care – I haven’t, and am considered seriously weird. But I have a relationship (whether good or bad!) with my children that many mothers will never have, because of all the time we spend together.
And now our government in their wisdom want to bring in free ‘education’ for 2 year olds, and force all schools to provide ‘wrap around’ care so you can leave them at 8am and not fetch them till 6. Of course, to start with it will be seen as a bonus for parents who need that sort of childcare, and they will choose those schools for their children. Then, every primary school will be forced to provide wrap around, and soon it will be the norm for every child to attend…
Its pretty much what happened with pre-school, isn’t it? How many children actually stay home with parent till 5 these days, and then go to school?
Rant over!
D