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conuly
Are having their childhoods ruined. (Unlike all the times we've said that in generations past, this time it's true!
"The childhood experienced by today's children is significantly different from that of previous generations,"
Yup. Today's kids aren't expected to be working on the farm (or in mines, or in factories!) by the time they're six or seven. They aren't lucky to have *one* doll, either.
As for "dressing them like adults", at least we're not putting them in hoop skirts or small swords anymore, like wealthy children in ages past apparently did, at least to judge by old paintings. (Which the children no doubt had to sit through - talk about a lack of activity!)
Does that mean that this is a perfect age for children nowadays? I doubt it. But I don't think it's all that much worse than all the other times people have said that it's worse than when they were young.
"The childhood experienced by today's children is significantly different from that of previous generations,"
Yup. Today's kids aren't expected to be working on the farm (or in mines, or in factories!) by the time they're six or seven. They aren't lucky to have *one* doll, either.
As for "dressing them like adults", at least we're not putting them in hoop skirts or small swords anymore, like wealthy children in ages past apparently did, at least to judge by old paintings. (Which the children no doubt had to sit through - talk about a lack of activity!)
Does that mean that this is a perfect age for children nowadays? I doubt it. But I don't think it's all that much worse than all the other times people have said that it's worse than when they were young.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 01:08 am (UTC)Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the ooh-scary statistics they're citing are the result of better detection of the problems.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 01:59 am (UTC)When I left primary school (precisely 10 years ago) we were taught in a topic based manner (ie after the summer hols we'd do "holidays" and the teachers would bring English, maths, art etc into that topic.)
In 2004 (or 2005?) my mother had to appeal directly to the Local Education Authority with details plans so that she would be allowed to teach her 4-year-olds with a topic based approach, rather than the prescribed "1 hour of literacy each day, 1 hour of numeracy each day" system. (This is still done for the ages above of course.) Before she moved down to teach 4 to 5-year-olds, she'd spent the last few years teaching mixed classes of 5 to 7-year-olds because that was the only way her school could keep class sizes legal. So she had to simultaneously work on the most rudimentary of skills with her 5-6s whilst preparing the 6-7s for the national exams they would take at the end of the year (I was the second (or thereabouts) year to sit those.) And all of this working within the bounds of the National Curriculum which dictates what schools must teach.
When I ate school dinners as a young child chips were an occasional treat every couple of months. Meals were served with vegetables and you were expected to eat up. Last year a television programme brought to the nation's attention that the budget for each child's school dinner was 37p ($0.65) and this was almost universally being spent on reconstituted meat shapes, chips and the like. In the schools that hadn't had to close down their kitchens and require all children to bring packed lunches. After the national outcry that ensued, the budget was raised (to about 50p as I recall) and some schools have broken free from the authorities to sort out their own catering. But this is still the exception, not the norm, and children are still being fed utter shite for lunch every day.
And that's just the young kids. I'll not go into detail of the pretty disasterous switchover from taking national exams at 16 & 18 to taking them at 16, 17 & 18 (I was the second guinea pig year for that, so we got the enormous stress of having to follow courses being labelled a failure, use text books that hadn't been proof-read and know that there was some damned dodgy marking going on, even ignoring the (nationally set) exams which were copied from practice papers.) Or the fact that every year our 16/17/18-year-olds are told that they're only achieving good marks because the exams are getting easier, whilst simultaneously it is getting harder and harder to get into universities (whose fees have just tripled) - to get a parallel imagine that to get into university the highest requirement they can technically ask for is A+ in three AP subjects, but that to stand a chance at that level you really need at least four and preferably some well rounded and time-consuming extra-curricular activities.
I never want to have to revisit the stress of my last few years of school, and I would not wish it on anyone.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 03:25 pm (UTC)I am so utterly glad I was homeschooled right now. Yeah, that's no good at all.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 03:30 am (UTC)Because if you did, I'll interject that I have the same feeling about growing up in the city - because, of course, I grew up in, not just a city, but the city I think everybody should be lucky enough to grow up in!
Not to argue with your point at all - more generally, I think all kids should grow up doing some sort of useful work. Not slaving away, just pulling their own weight.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 01:08 am (UTC)Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the ooh-scary statistics they're citing are the result of better detection of the problems.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 01:59 am (UTC)When I left primary school (precisely 10 years ago) we were taught in a topic based manner (ie after the summer hols we'd do "holidays" and the teachers would bring English, maths, art etc into that topic.)
In 2004 (or 2005?) my mother had to appeal directly to the Local Education Authority with details plans so that she would be allowed to teach her 4-year-olds with a topic based approach, rather than the prescribed "1 hour of literacy each day, 1 hour of numeracy each day" system. (This is still done for the ages above of course.) Before she moved down to teach 4 to 5-year-olds, she'd spent the last few years teaching mixed classes of 5 to 7-year-olds because that was the only way her school could keep class sizes legal. So she had to simultaneously work on the most rudimentary of skills with her 5-6s whilst preparing the 6-7s for the national exams they would take at the end of the year (I was the second (or thereabouts) year to sit those.) And all of this working within the bounds of the National Curriculum which dictates what schools must teach.
When I ate school dinners as a young child chips were an occasional treat every couple of months. Meals were served with vegetables and you were expected to eat up. Last year a television programme brought to the nation's attention that the budget for each child's school dinner was 37p ($0.65) and this was almost universally being spent on reconstituted meat shapes, chips and the like. In the schools that hadn't had to close down their kitchens and require all children to bring packed lunches. After the national outcry that ensued, the budget was raised (to about 50p as I recall) and some schools have broken free from the authorities to sort out their own catering. But this is still the exception, not the norm, and children are still being fed utter shite for lunch every day.
And that's just the young kids. I'll not go into detail of the pretty disasterous switchover from taking national exams at 16 & 18 to taking them at 16, 17 & 18 (I was the second guinea pig year for that, so we got the enormous stress of having to follow courses being labelled a failure, use text books that hadn't been proof-read and know that there was some damned dodgy marking going on, even ignoring the (nationally set) exams which were copied from practice papers.) Or the fact that every year our 16/17/18-year-olds are told that they're only achieving good marks because the exams are getting easier, whilst simultaneously it is getting harder and harder to get into universities (whose fees have just tripled) - to get a parallel imagine that to get into university the highest requirement they can technically ask for is A+ in three AP subjects, but that to stand a chance at that level you really need at least four and preferably some well rounded and time-consuming extra-curricular activities.
I never want to have to revisit the stress of my last few years of school, and I would not wish it on anyone.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 03:25 pm (UTC)I am so utterly glad I was homeschooled right now. Yeah, that's no good at all.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 03:30 am (UTC)Because if you did, I'll interject that I have the same feeling about growing up in the city - because, of course, I grew up in, not just a city, but the city I think everybody should be lucky enough to grow up in!
Not to argue with your point at all - more generally, I think all kids should grow up doing some sort of useful work. Not slaving away, just pulling their own weight.