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Send them to school at 2!

3rd Apr 2014
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Why would the government want to start teaching children at 2, it can't teach them at 5.

Then there are the implications of costs, nursery supervisors (they are not TEACHERS) will have to become teachers and the costs will increase.

I think the pillock at Ofsted suggesting this misses the point that nurseries are privately run (for the most part) childcare arrangements - they are not educational establishments. If the are to be part of the school system then the government needs to fund them!

Does anyone really think extra years at school will promote better social skills! I agree weak parenting is to blame but I don't see a nanny state as competent to remedy this - aside from the fact I do not think it healthy to subject children to 15 years of socialist brainwashing (as most teachers stand well to the left). I do agree parenting skills are weak and children are left far too long to play on electronic devices rather than have their children read too and otherwise interacted with.

Ironically "Poor under-fives are still 19 months behind their affluent peers when they start school at five. What a dire start to their educational lives. Those children have low-level social skills, especially reading and communication. They're not ready to learn at school. Weak parenting, low educational attainment of parents, poor diet, poor housing and so on, the gap between affluent and disadvantaged is greatest in that group."

These parents are the ones who have the time to sit with and interact with their children, but choose to spend it watching trash TV or out drinking. The parents of "privileged, affluent" offspring most likely have far less free time to spend on their children, but understand the importance of it and make sure their children have "quality time" spent on them.

Rather than think up stupid laws like the proposed "Cinderalla Law" for denying children sufficient "love" (whatever that completely subjective word means, although we will then have a legal definition to work on - ffs!) it would be better to ban all unsupervised computer/communication device access to under 12's  and have a legal limit of 1 hour per day non-educational use. Mobile phones for under 12's could also be set up so they can only communicate with 5 registered "emergency" contacts (mum, dad, gran etc) and the emergency services. Having 4 year olds sitting for hours playing on i-pads, or 10 years olds constantly texting and cyber bullying, is not healthy. 

Another report though suggests UK children are among the best at problem solving, in Europe only bettered by Finland, better than the US and most of the world except Asia.

This is no surprise to me, it was why we lead the world in engineering and design.

The question is why is our education system based around rote learning of facts rather than building on this inherent strength. Even as an accountant I do not remember everything, as most on here do too I am sure, I am constantly referring to reference material - regurgitating memorised facts is no proof of anything except the ability to memorise facts and has no significant beefit to the workplace.

What is needed is tax breaks and dialogue with industry to help mould an education system that teaches children the proper skills they need to be of use to employers rather than some perceived educational standard that has no basis in the real world. We also need to re-designate poly's and tech's back from being "universites", take away the stigma of trades and practical skills and ensure that the problem solvers with a practical bent are given the best chance to build those skills rather than hammering their round practical pegs in to square academic holes.

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By A mum and an accountant
07th Apr 2014 21:56

Formal Education

I don't think formal education at 2 is a good idea but I noticed with my older daughter who is now 3 that she seemed to learn so much at around that age. From about that age she started doing jigsaws by herself, counting and recognising numbers, singing nursery rhymes. I know all children are different but it would be good if there were more mum/carer and baby groups where you could learn and teach your child different things and which were not so expensive.

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By User deleted
08th Apr 2014 00:26

This is the modern malaise

When I was growing up we had a service twin tub, so washing was an all day chore twice a week; a small fridge so shopping was fresh food daily which needed preparing and cooking and an noisy old hoover, I used to have to help sweep the stairs with a dustman and brush.

We had a wireless in the back room and didn't get a tv in the front room until I was nearly 5, we had not long had it before the moon landing.

Most mothers therefore did not work, or if they did it was dinner lady or cleaning and the like, certainly not full time and not at all before the kids were safely settled in infants.

Also, church was much more important and all the churches has young wives and mother's union where mums could get together, and in the absence of tv and only a smattering of radio channels we did the things you yearn for. Most children could read, write and do arithmetic to a basic level well before they went to school, They had also been in general toilet trained for many years, showed due respect to adults, especially policemen, and would dream of not saying please or thank you, they knew not to touch or take without asking and that no meant no, especially in the shops, not least because a) there was no spare money after food, clothes and mortgage, and b) credit and hp was positively frowned upon, and there was no meeting for a mocha and a Danish after the school run, more like a cup of Nescafe and a digestive round someone's house, and certainly no "me time", not until the childrenwere in bed, which was usually by 6/7, as we were worn out from doing things and not just sitting in front of computers or tv's.

Funny, but it seems to me that although we think we have so much, really we have very little - not of any real value anyway! Children were certainly happier, better behaved, fitter (1/2 mile walk each way to school, 2 miles to secondary) in general anyway,

 

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By Henry_8
28th Aug 2021 11:15

good post like it

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