Saturday 8 November 2008

I'm still not sure whether this is a joke!

Have I gone through some kind of time warp? Is it April the 1st already?!

We've had loopy councils in England banny Christmas because it might offend people (it never has and never will), we have had councils wasting tens of thousands of pounds "refreshing" logos and now we have this...

Schools to give unruly kids foot massages

I'm really glad that I spend a good proportion of my income on council taxes! Here's a radical idea - why not show these kids that doing bad things means that you lose out in life rather than benefit?

4 comments:

  1. *cough*

    You've gone all right-wing. You don't read the Daily Mail do you?

    I hate to break it to you but the banning Xmas stuff is a myth, as for this story, you'll notice it mainly is occuring in Primary schools, where such therapies actually work really well and help children and young people not only become more comfortable with their bodies and touch but also enables peer learning.

    I wouldn't poo-poo it just yet, can we not have a a bit more post-Obama positivity and open-mindedness?

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  2. positive and open minded is far too easy!

    And as for the Daily Mail - they can rot in their own negative hell!

    When I was at school (twas a long time ago I admit), the bad kids were dealt with in a way that made them think seriously about their actions.

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  3. has anyone noticed how kids show little respect for adults or each other? they seem to be a very angry generation despite the great standard of living most have. dont ya think that giving them prizes for being unruly is just going to make it worse?

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  4. I presume the easy thing is a joke?

    I wouldn't drag out 'when I was at school anecdotes' becaue things have changed, schooling used to play a large part in social exclusion with 11+, a system of physial punishment that I hope we can all agree on was cruel and unusual and low levels of retention and development.

    And I also presume that anon and yourslef have never taught or worked with young people and children, which I have, so trust me when I say that it is not as easy as you seem to make out.

    Anon: your lay-socialism is as wrong as it is painfully repeated in many right-wing news outlets. It's not a prize but an alternative method to try and not leave any chid behind.

    Thankfully, we live in a time where we want to not leave any child out of the educational process, so we try anything at our disposal.

    We could do what we used to do in the 40s, 0s, 60s, 70s and 80s, with high levels of exclusion, truancy and failure and leave those at the bottom of the pile to rot but thankfully, now, we try our best with them and do whatever we can.

    And long may it continue.

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