Twelve year-olds can’t even make a bed. Why we would trust them behind the wheel beats me:
The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport has developed a pilot program designed to teach children to drive properly before having potentially damaging lessons with a well-meaning parent.
The two-hour course for students aged 12 to 18 includes classroom instruction on road safety, driver attitude and an off-road driving lesson.
CAMS president Andrew Papadopoulos said the course aimed to reduce Australia’s road toll, especially among young adult males.
Mr Papadopoulos wants the pilot rolled out at schools across the state.
“We do sex education from an early age, we don’t expect them to go out and have sex at that early age,” he said.
“It’s a matter of learning.”
Kids already drive at school – they drive their teachers crazy!
Here’s a novel suggestion – Instead of arranging tutors for your toddlers, spend more quality time with them. Whilst I am all for starting early when it comes to reading and writing, the most crucial thing for pre-school children (and for all children for that matter), is spending quality time with their parents.
THE age of children seeking the help of tutors is getting younger and younger, with parents now forking out thousands of dollars to have preschooolers privately coached for school entrance assessments.
As part of dozens of school readiness programs across Sydney, children as young as three are learning how to count, sound letters and write their name to prepare for big school.
Parents hope it will give their child an edge in school entry interviews at private and Catholic schools and in the best start kindergarten assessment, which evaluates their skills when they start school.
Begin Bright early learning centre director Tina Tower said more than 600 children were enrolled in school readiness programs across five centres around Sydney.
Children attend weekly one-hour classes at a cost of $26 from age three.
“They learn all the foundations and develop a really good attitude to learning so when they start school they don’t encounter any problems,” Ms Tower said.
It sounds like the school readiness program for toddlers is more comprehensive than the school readiness program for teachers.
Some of my fondest memories and proudest moments in teaching have been related to working with children with extreme behavioural issues. Sure, I could have blamed the home situation of these students, but how is that going to fix the problem? In teaching, one has to expect that they will encounter many students who have violent tendencies and flawed parents.
A growing number of primary school children are too violent and disruptive to be in school, the Government’s behaviour tsar said today.
Charlie Taylor, the former headteacher who advises ministers on discipline, said; “There is a group of children showing very extreme behaviour, very difficult, challenging, violent behaviour – often quite young children. There is an increase in those kind of children.”
They would often resorting to kicking or biting fellow pupils in the classroom, MPs on the Commons select committee for education were told..
He said a school could be “a good school” in terms of the discipline it promoted but still find itself unable to deal with such children
Mr Taylor’s comments follow claims from headteachers’ leaders that children often arrive at primary school — lacking in personal skills and ill-equipped to communicate with their fellow pupils.
They have put the blame on parents who fail to communicate with them – and allow them to remain in front of computer screens or TVs for the most part of the day.
We teachers need to stop blaming others and accept that we have a difficult job to do that requires doing. If we are the only stable presence in a child’s life, so be it. If we invest the time and energy into kids who are difficult and self-destructive, we have a realistic chance to make small but crucial changes to their self-esteem.
Growing numbers of children are failing to develop properly at a young age because of the toxic pressures of modern life, it was claimed.
The powerful lobby of childcare experts said that many “commercially vulnerable” under-16s were spending too much time sat unsupervised in front of televisions, games consoles and the internet in their bedroom instead of playing outdoors.
Children are also among the most tested in the Western world after being pushed into formal schooling at an increasingly young age and more likely to be exposed to junk food and poor diets than elsewhere, they said.
The comments were made as a new group – the Save Childhood Movement – was launched today in bid to highlight the multiple threats facing young people.
Jiang Xiaoshan died from exhaustion on June 19 after reportedly staying up every night to watch the Euros with his friends.
After watching Italy defeat the Republic of Ireland, the 26-year-old fan went back to his home in Changsha, took a shower and fell asleep. Mr Xiaoshan never woke up.
Technology addiction is a universal problem and one of the signs that one is addicted is sleep deprivation. We are seeing an increase of exhausted kids in the classroom. Part of the reason for this is children have access to televisions, computers and smartphones in their bedrooms. This often results in late nights and a lack of concentration during the day.
“Cellphones, Facebook, iPods and video games are keeping kids up later at night. And the literature is suggesting it’s getting worse, not better,” Collop says.
At the AASM annual meeting in June, dozens of studies were presented indicating school performance is dropping because of student sleepiness, Collop says.
“There’s more and more information showing insufficient sleep affects cognitive ability, and emotional and physical well-being,” says Dennis Rosen, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Program at Children’s Hospital Boston.
About 25% of children overall experience some type of sleep problem, ranging from difficulty falling asleep and night wakings to more serious primary sleep disorders. More than a third of elementary-school-aged kids and 40% of adolescents have significant sleep complaints, according to AASM.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Young bullies may be acting out due to their own “need for a sense of significance and belonging“, but they have to accept responsibility for their actions. The children who bullied their school bus monitor acted completely inappropriately and deserve far more than “positive discipline”:
The New York middle school students caught on video taunting and mocking a 68-year-old school bus monitor don’t deserve to be punished, says parenting expert Jane Nelson.
Everyone else in America might be calling for harsh, swift justice to be meted out by both the Greece Central School District and the parents of the kids involved. But not Nelson.
Co-author of two dozen parenting books including the “Positive Discipline” series, Nelson says the traditional means of punishment — yelling, shaming, hitting, grounding, etc. — are counterproductive.
“I think to go after these kids in a punitive way, it just doesn’t help,” she said. Nelson knows that the vast majority of parents will scoff both at that notion — and at her belief that the young bullies are merely acting out due to their own “need for a sense of significance and belonging.”
Television, long seen as a negative influence on children has managed to turn the tide thanks to the recent spate of reality programming:
What do reality television shows The Block, MasterChef and Australia’s Got Talent have in common?
Your child.
According to a TV Tonight report, in 2011, those three shows were the most popular with children under 15.
It seems that feel-good family oriented sitcoms, popular with tweens and teens of the past generation have given way to talent quest shows and experts say that this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Competency based programs showcase hard work and discipline, while graphically depicting the euphoria of success and and the bitter disappointment of failure. In contrast, popular family sitcoms of the 80s and 90s like The Cosby Show or Full House featured safe, insular worlds, in which a happy ending was assured.
Laura Kiln, internationally recognised parenting expert and owner of Laura’s Place, a practice where she offers counselling to families, cautiously endorses reality TV saying some shows expose children to a wide spectrum of issues and offer useful advice without sugar-coating difficult matters.
Kiln notes that a show like The Biggest Loser can help children develop empathy by observing the severe impact of weight problems on contestants’ lives, especially in cases where the children’s own families have no experience of obesity.
A new study from the University of B.C. shows kids might be generous and giving because it makes them happy, contrary to the popular belief children are inherently selfish.
Adults report feeling better when spending money on other people instead of themselves and research shows the part of the brain that processes rewards is activated when donating to charity.
Three UBC researchers hypothesized very young children — under age two — experience similar emotional benefits from generosity. For adults, the happiness that results from giving could be caused by many things, like conforming with social pressure or receiving rewards.
“But looking at young kids helps us get a little closer to understanding whether this is something rooted in human nature or not,” said Lara Aknin, a PhD in social psychology. Aknin designed the study with her UBC thesis supervisor, Elizabeth Dunn, and developmental psychologist Kiley Hamlin.
This is the first study to look at the emotional benefits of giving in young children.
Aknin cited news and parenting websites that argue young kids are innately selfish and self-absorbed, and she admitted some studies have shown kids can be territorial with their possessions.
“But you also don’t have to look far to see really young kids wanting to share their soggy Cheerios,” she said. “There is this dichotomy when we look at kids, and I think most people’s assumptions are that kids are self-oriented and hoard things for themselves.”
It just goes to show how effectively adults can model good behaviour.
Unfortunately swearing has become part of our vernacular. Curse words are no longer seen as rude or unsociable and parents are less conscious of avoiding sprouting certain words around their children. Many will not see this as a problem. They will argue that swearing is harmless and a popular fixture of everyday conversation.
I do not find swearing offensive per se, but I am grateful that my parents brought me up to express myself in a more dignified way. It would greatly upset me if my children swore, like many children are nowadays:
CHILDREN as young as three are swearing – and it’s not just “bloody” coming out of the mouths of babes either.
“F—” and “s—” are the first naughty words that toddlers usually let fly.
They pick up swear words from the playground, at home and on TV and they do it because it gets them “maximum attention”, linguistics expert Kate Burridge says.
“In the old days they might have had their mouths washed out with soap or been sent to the bedroom with no supper,” Prof Burridge, of Monash University, said.
“But (now) they get maximum attention and learn how potent these word are.”
Parents say almost 60 per cent of children swear by three years of age and that by kindergarten more than 90 per cent of children have uttered their first rude word, an exclusive Herald Sun survey found.
Etiquette expert June Dally-Watkins said the level of swearing on TV and in public was unacceptable.
“I think it is disgusting,” she said.
“Parents should not permit it.”
Most parents agree with Ms Dally-Watkins – 70 per cent believe schools and parents should do more to crack down on swearing.
But parents (52 per cent) admit their children often hear their first curse at home.
Second was the playground (48 per cent) at school or pre-school, followed by TV (31 per cent).
Most parents (78 per cent) still actively discourage swearing.
Prof Burridge advises parents not to panic if their child swears.
She says: “It is probably best to treat these as ordinary words, because they are.
They have always been an important part of the Australian vernacular.”
There has been an overwhelming amount of approval from the general public following teacher David McCullough Jr’s declaration to his graduating class that they are “not exceptional.”
I can understand why people have agreed with his comments and I, like many, found his speech very entertaining. However, I do not agree with the method of reducing people down to a lowly level.
Sure, the standard graduation speech, like many parenting styles, reveal an untruthful optimism that makes the student/child believe they are more than they really are and are bound to achieve more than they really do.
But don’t replace one extreme viewpoint with another.
Sure, the students at a graduating ceremony may not be exceptional, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be. Who is exceptional anyway? Who has the authority to label someone as exceptional?
I believe that everyone in the world has the capacity to live a life of integrity. Is integrity not an exceptional character trait? Not according to David McCullough Jr . I believe everyone has the potential to make others feel better about themselves. Is that an exceptional character trait? Not according to David McCullough Jr .
According to David McCullough Jr.’s standards we should just all replace our arrogance with something that doesn’t seem especially satisfactory:
A Massachusetts high school teacher who told graduating students in a speech that they were nothing special and should learn to come to terms with it has won widespread approval.
The no-nonsense David McCullough Jr told Wellesley High School’s “pampered” and “bubble-wrapped” class of 2012 that they were “not exceptional” at a graduation ceremony last weekend, the NY Daily News reports.
“Capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counselled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again,” Mr McCullough said.
“But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not.”
The English teacher illustrated his point mathematically.
“Think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you,” he said.
The son of Pulitzer prize-winning historian David McCullough told the graduates and their parents that around 3.2 million other students would be graduating from over 37,000 US high schools that year.
The teacher warned that gestures have taken precedence over deeds and that today people sought to accomplish thing for the recognition rather than the pursuit of a goal.
“As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of the Guatemalans,” he said.
Despite his unusual approach the speech was welcomed by students and parents alike who said they appreciated being told “what we need to hear and not necessarily what we wanted to hear,” local newspaper The Swellesley Report commented.
Mr McCullough told FOX News in an interview that parents are often overly protective of their children and this doesn’t help them learn to deal with a tough and competitive world.
“So many of the adults around them — the behaviour of the adults around them — gives them this sort of inflated sense of themselves. And I thought they needed a little context, a little perspective,” he said.
“To send them off into the world with an inflated sense of themselves is doing them no favors.”
I quite liked aspects of the speech and think that it made some very good points expressed with great humour. What I didn’t buy into however, was his version of what life should be like. It seemed almost as unsatisfactory as the things he warned against.
I wish that graduating class well. I hope they grow up to be kind, caring, selfless people who try to enrich the lives of others and resist from judging or ignoring the people around them. I hope they grow up to use their skills for good, be charitable with their time and money and raise children that will do the same.
Is that exceptional? Not according to David McCullough Jr .
Topical Teaching 