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Yet another superb argument for home schooling When I read this:
Head teachers in Cheshire have warned parents they will report them to the authorities if they allow their children to play computer games rated for over-18s.
“We are trying to help parents to keep their children as safe as possible in this digital era.”
… I concluded the best way to keep your children safe is to home school them so that they stay as far away as possible, not from GTA, but from power obsessed busybodies like these people.
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There are those who espouse the idea that allowing one’s children to attend “free” (US) public schools is tantamount to parental abuse.
“Instapundit”, for one, has a roster of exactly why.
I live in Cheshire and I heard about this. It is ludicrous. Look, if I ever wanted to go into teaching (and I’d only work at a private school) I would want to teach my main subjects – maths and physics and not be a bloody net-nanny.
As a kid I played very violent games and still do. I watched violent movies and still do. Etc. A huge and vital part of growing-up is to learn to separate fantasy and reality. And yeah, doing violent and nasty things on screen is a huge part of this.
The powers that be simply don’t understand this. They think everyone who plays Call of Duty will pull on their combats and execute everyone in a Little Waitrose. But then these are people who probs can’t get a Sky box to work.
In the early 1990s, I shared a house with a trainee primary school teacher. She asked her class of 8 year olds to re-write a fairy tale in a modern-day context. Amongst the gems that she got back were:
‘Goldilocks and the Terminator’ with a graphic description of the scene where the ‘droid does his own cosmetic surgery on his eye socket in his hotel room.
and
‘Robocop and the Beanstalk’.
The UK becomes more like East Germany with every passing week.
Thus were the Eloi and the Morlocks born…
Parents in Cheshire have warned teachers they will report them to the authorities if they allow their vehicles to exceed the speed limit at any point, even by a few mph.
“We are trying to help teachers to keep our children as safe as possible in this car dominated era.”
Yep, that works too. Works both ways. See how you like it.
“In the early 1990s, I shared a house with a trainee primary school teacher. She asked her class of 8 year olds to re-write a fairy tale in a modern-day context.”
I’d pay good money to see some of those.
Was thinking the same 😀 Goldilocks and the Three Daleks? Snow White and the Seven Samurai?
The fun could be endless!
In loco parentis turned on its head
Do we expect teachers to turn a blind eye to poor behaviour by parents? My nephew works in Argos and could get the sack and a criminal record if he sells a 18 rated game to a minor, so if a shop assistant is expected to participate in child protection in this area surely teachers should to.
As for home schooling I’m sure it is very good when done well, but in many parts of the country increasing numbers of children are starting school unable to speak properly, or use a toilet or eating utensils.
For an increasing number of children, their parents are the biggest problem in their lives, not the state education system.
It is long past time to get new authorities.
And what is the ‘problem’ in the parents’ lives? The State? That same State that had educated them? That same State that might subsidise their fecklessness and indolence?
(sic.).
Not a sensible comparison, private enterprise will show them how to act rationally in life, the State will simply teach hatred.
And this is about control, not protection.
I’m reminded of a party political broadcast by the BNP I saw 10 or 15 years ago. They had some gruff, Brigadier General type sitting in front of a Union flag talking about “Helping immigrants back to their own country….”
Of course, they didn’t mean “help” at all. They meant force. Rather like these people. Of course these teachers think they are “nice” and the BNP are “nasty”, but in reality you couldn’t slide a razor blade between them in terms of their attitude to authority.
And Pete, with all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been homeschooling my kids for 9 years and I’ve met a good cross section of the types of people who homeschool. I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that no homeschooling parent, no matter how cooky, hippy-dippy, weird, religious, hyper-vegan or autistic, would do as bad a job as the average state school teacher. Sure there are a few teachers at the extreme end of the curve who are very good, but in general homeschooling produces far better outcomes for one very simple reason: parents who homeschool are interested in their child’s education and that tends to produce a motivation to strive for good outcomes. The same cannot be said of your average state school teacher.
The fortunately very rare parents-from-hell people love to trot out as an argument for an authoritarian state do not (with almost no exceptions) homeschool. It would be the last thing they would do. They don’t love their kids. They don’t like their kids. They sure as hell don’t want them around during the day. Heck, they don’t want them around at night. And even if you could prove otherwise, why should good parents be made to pay the price for the conduct of bad parents?
The day the state decided education was part of its remit was a dark day indeed.
I don’t think home schooling will survive another Labour government. Not even sure it’ll survive another ten years whoever’s in power.
Pete, we’re talking about the child’s parents, not some stranger running a store.
And even if you accept the notion that the state has an obligation to protect children from irresponsible parents, schoolteachers have no right to be self-appointed agents of the state in that role. It’s arrogant of them, and frightening, that they presume they have that right. And even more arrogant of them to assume that they know what’s better for a particular child than his or her own parents do — to say nothing of the violence it does to the parents’ right to raise their child as they see fit.
We have some way to go before the schools start to churn out Pavlik Morozovs, Stalin’s poster boy. Although, doubtless, children are encouraged to inform to the school on the adults in their household (‘parents’ would be judgmental).
Today’s wooseyfied (I’m coining that word) leftists would faint if they ever read any genuine Grimm’s Fairy tales and knew they were to be told to children of an “impressionable age”. I took a gander (I’m taking poetic license on that phrase as well) at some of the criteria for video game ratings and they included such ‘hot topics’ as “references to alcohol” and “references to tobacco”. I ask you, the wise and sensible Samizdatistas, which is worse, a “reference” to a brewski or tobacco product in a video game, or raising ones kid in a sterile bubble that does not reflect reality at all?
Jaded Voluntaryist;
Unfortunately here in the states, particularly in Tennessee, “home schooling” is a phrase that strongly suggests that the poor kid’s parents are christian extremists that are allergic to the mere idea that Jesus didn’t design the universe 6kyrs ago. That’s unfortunate.