Posts Tagged ‘Parenting’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Children Protected From Experiencing Anything Remotely Fun

January 17, 2013

bath

Reflecting on my childhood (which wasn’t THAT long ago), I remember playing sporting games on our street with the neighbours, climbing trees, building Lego villages and riding bikes.

I was stunned when I first heard a class of grown kids that confessed to not being able to ride a bike. Sure, they are experts at driving a computerised racing car or skateboard on their game consoles. But an actual bike? Not a chance!

Why then, should I be surprised that many can’t jump or throw a ball correctly either:

Thousands of children are starting secondary school unable to run, jump, throw a ball or catch, the head of UK Sport has said.

Susan Campbell has claimed ‘physically illiterate’ children ‘hardly move’ by the time they are ready to make the transition from primary school.

And she said the legacy of the Olympics in the summer could be lost if teachers in primary schools did not receive specialist PE training.

She warned some 11-year-olds aren’t able to take part in the most basic of sports by the time they go to secondary school.

Baroness Campbell, chairwoman of UK Sport and the Youth Sport Trust, said sport should be taken as seriously as literacy and numeracy in primary schools.

And she has called for primary school teachers to receive extra training in PE.

Parents, not without good reason, are reluctant to give their children the opportunity of playing on the streets because of the many potential risks that exist. Whether these risks are as prevalent as we have been raised to believe is questionable. Whether these risks should be weighed up with the many benefits of having our children experience the joys of bike riding and outdoor sports is worth discussing.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Child Welfare | Leave a Comment »

The ‘Meanest Mother’ Isn’t Mean at All (Photo)

January 17, 2013

mean

Bravo to this mother for imposing real and lasting consequences for her son’s serious breach of law and common sense. She is not even close to ‘mean’. In actual fact, if she had done nothing she would have been far meaner. This response may well save her son’s life (not to mention others).

If only more parents were able to deal with incidents in a decisive, exacting, yet fair manner.

 

Click on the link to read When Do I Admit That the Tooth Fairy Doesn’t Exist?

Click on the link to read The Most Popular Lies that Parents Tell their Children

Click on the link to read The Innocence of Youth

Click on the link to read Kid’s Cute Note to the Tooth Fairy

Click on the link to read A Joke at the Expense of Your Own Child

 

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Parenting | Leave a Comment »

Teacher Sues For Making Her Teach Young Children

January 15, 2013

I’ve never heard of the condition pedophobia, but I would have thought that teaching doesn’t lend it itself well to somebody who suffers from such a condition:

Retired Ohio teacher Maria Waltherr-Willard is suing her school district, claiming it discriminated against her because of her disability — a debilitating phobia of young children.

Waltherr-Willard, 61, claims in her lawsuit against the Mariemont school district that for 35 years, she taught Spanish and French to high school students in the system. But when she helped fight the district’s decision to cut French class in favor of an online course, officials retaliated by reassigning her to younger students at a middle school in 2009, ignoring her hypertension, specific phobia and general anxiety disorder, Waltherr-Willard says, according to Cincinnati.com.

She claims that district officials were previously sympathetic and aware of her medically diagnosed pedophobia.

While the public and a number of commentators have taken to ridicule the teacher and her lawsuit, Dr. Caleb Adler, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati, says it’s a serious phobia, as the illness causes Walterr-Willard to experience stress, anxiety, chest pains, vomiting, nightmares and high blood pressure when she’s near young children.

“It’s a tough phobia. You can’t really get away from [children] when you’re outside,” Adler told Cincinnati.com. “When you’re a teacher, it may not be an issue with older students.”

Working with younger children at the middle school “adversely affected [Waltherr-Willard’s] health, due to her disability,” the lawsuit claims, according to ABC News. Although she reportedly helped the younger students succeed in their foreign language endeavors, the move still increased her blood pressure to levels that placed her at risk for a stroke.

When the district denied her request to transfer back to the high school for the 2010-2011 academic year, Waltherr-Willard was forced into early retirement at the age of 59, the suit claims.

A federal judge has dismissed three of Walterr-Willard’s claims in the suit, arguing that the district violated an implied contract to keep her away from young students. The three remaining discrimination claims are awaiting district response, and a tentative trial date is set for February 2014.

Walterr-Willard seeks past and future pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

If I was a high school student I would not want to be taught by someone who has a fear of kids. Not only does this lawsuit sound insane but it exposes a system which isn’t able to determine for themselves what type of teacher isn’t appropriate to preside over a classroom

 

Click on the link to read Alleged Gang Rape in a Classroom and the Teacher ‘Does Nothing’!

Click on the link to read The Most Sickening Abuse I Have Ever Seen a Teacher Commit

Click on the link to read Brawl Between Student and Teacher Goes Viral (Video)

Click on the link to read Teachers Continue to Fail the Common Sense Test

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

 

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Should a Children’s Book Celebrating Anti-Vaccination be Banned?

January 10, 2013

mel

I don’t believe in banning material just because I find it misleading or insulting. In a true democracy people should have the right to voice their opinion on a range of issues, whether they are right or wrong is immaterial:

A BOOK promoting the “marvellous” health benefits of potentially fatal measles should be taken off the shelves, doctors say.

Melanie’s Marvelous Measles is an anti-vaccination book aimed at children. It claims – despite evidence that measles can kill and cause brain damage – that it’s a “good thing” to have.

The Australian Medical Association said the suggestion was wrong and misleading and that publishers “should be ashamed of themselves”.

On the cover of the book ‘Melanie’ is happily playing in the garden and showing off a rash on her belly. In the story, she is home with measles and her friend Tina is worried – but her mother reassures her.

“Firstly Tina, measles don’t run and catch you or hurt you… for most children it is a good thing to get measles,” she says.

“Many wise people believe measles make the body stronger and more mature for the future.”

Tina then asks if she can go and catch measles from Melanie. “That sounds like a great idea,” her mother responds, and suggests some carrot juice and melon might help Melanie recover.

AMA President Steve Hambleton said only the “crazies” thought that it would be better to get a disease than be vaccinated.

“They should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.

Click on the link to read This New Craze Proves that Adults are Just Bigger Versions of Children

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Child Welfare | 3 Comments »

A Teacher’s Guide to Talking to Students About the Newtown School Shooting

December 28, 2012

newtown

A brilliant resource compiled by The New York Times. I strongly recommend this for parents too.

 

Click on the link to read The Children Must Be Safe Because Their Teacher is Carrying a Gun

Click on the link to read Adam Lanza’s Brother: I am a Victim Too!

Click on the link to read Revealed: Adam Lanza’s Motive

Click on the link to read Do You Really Want to Arm Me?

Click on the link to read Living With Adam Lanza

Click on the link to read School Shooting Showcases the Heroic Nature of Brilliant Teachers

Click on the link to read Let’s Make Sure that this School Shooting is the Last

Click on the link to read Get Rid of Your Guns!

Click on the link to read Explaining the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting to Children

 

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Dealing With Tragedy | Leave a Comment »

Redefining Gifted and Talented

December 28, 2012

font

If a school’s gifted and talented program goes no further than those who are gifted at calculations and essay writing they are limiting their scope dramatically. Creativity and the wonderfully imaginative and artistic ways children express themselves warrants some attention when it comes to devising gifted and talented groupings.

The child below may not be a writer or a human calculator but I defy you to argue that he isn’t gifted or talented:

 

Click on the link to read School Calls Police to Stop A-Grade Student From Studying

Click on the link to read Schools are Failing Gifted Students

Click on the link to read Skills Your Child Should Know but Isn’t Taught at School

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Educational Programs | Leave a Comment »

Should High Schools Install Condom Vending Machines?

December 27, 2012

control

Whilst I would ideally wish that condom vending machines were not on school grounds, I can understand why there is a push for them. What I didn’t realise was just how bad the STD ‘epidemic’ was among teenagers:

One-third of Philadelphia’s high schools will be offering free condoms to students in a pilot effort to fight “an epidemic of sexually transmitted disease” in the city, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Students will return to 22 schools following the holiday break to see new clear plastic condom dispensers installed inside the nurse’s office, WTXF reports. While 12 schools in the city already offer condom in health resource centers, the new move aims to increase contraceptive access to students in a city where teens comprise 25 percent of new HIV infections.

The initiative has sparked outrage among a number of Philadelphia parents, who say free condoms will only serve to encourage teens to engage in sexual activity. But school officials point out that parents are able to sign a waiver to opt their child out of the program, and teens will have sex regardless of whether condoms are made easily available to them.

“The reality is: Many of our teenagers, regardless of what adults think, are engaged in sexual activities,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told the Inquirer. “Discussion about whether or not they should be sexually active is an appropriate discussion, but if they are, then we need to make sure they’re engaged in safe sexual practices.”

Across the U.S., at least 418 public schools make condoms available to students, according to Advocates for Youth, a group dedicated to educate and assist young people in sexual health. Of those schools, more than half distribute condoms via school nurses or teachers, while just 3 percent use “vending machines.”

The dispenser program in Philadelphia comes after a new initiative in Springfield, Mass. made waves this year for making condoms available to both high school and middle school students, giving students as young as 12 free access to contraceptives at school.

New York City school officials also sparked controversy in September, when the Department of Education announced a plan to make Plan B emergency contraception available to high school girls at 13 schools across the city. Under the program, an effort to curb the city’s teen pregnancy and abortion rate, girls as young as 14 are able to get the morning after pill without parental consent.

New York’s pilot initiative was launched as an addendum to an existing program that distributes free condoms to students.

Click on the link to read Teaching Union Wants Porn on the National Curriculum

Click on the link to read Adding Sex Education to the Curriculum Comes at the Expense of Something Else

Click on the link to read 3rd Graders Perform Sex Act in the Classroom Without Being Noticed

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Sex Education | Leave a Comment »

Children Should Not Be Told That Santa is Real: Jake Wallis Simons

December 23, 2012

santa

 

My daughter asked some pointed questions about the tooth fairy last week and my wife and I decided to come clean and tell her the truth. She took it well, but we felt like we had clearly breached her trust by misleading her all this time.

I’m not surprised that there are parents who are opposed to making their children believe in Santa Claus:

OK. I have never, and will never, encourage my children to believe in Father Christmas. That might sound heretical – but, to me, the whole phenomenon seems bizarre. I cannot understand why people try to make their children believe what is not true, in an effort to create a synthetic innocence and wonder. Parents go to great lengths to peddle this lie, from dressing up in a Father Christmas costume late at night to interpreting meteorological phenomena as evidence of Santa’s journey to Britain. People encourage their kids to leave a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie out for Saint Nick, and a carrot for his reindeer. Then, before going to bed, they drink half the mulled wine and take a bite out of the mince pie and the carrot. This is normal?

Arguing that a belief in Santa Claus injects magic into childhood is, in my view, rather cynical. It tacitly implies that the world by itself is insufficient to inspire a child with awe and delight. That is simply untrue. A child can be astounded by the smallest brush-flick of nature – the spinning sycamore seed, the sea, snow – they don’t need to be lied to. In general, I am with John Stuart Mill: “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”. But this sentiment does not apply here. Children are perfectly capable of being happy without their parents recoursing to Santa stories. I think this speaks more about the jadedness of modern adulthood than anything else.

That’s not to say that I’d actively debunk the myth. My son occasionally says that he reckons Santa is real, and I wouldn’t dream of contradicting him. The point is that he hasn’t reached that conclusion because of my own behind-the-scenes machinations. But if he ever asks me point blank whether Father Christmas is real, I’d say no. It’s just a fun story. It’s a game that we play, even though some other children believe it.

Because to do otherwise seems unfair to the child. Mum and Dad are the people children trust most in the world, the people who teach right from wrong, truth from deception. And now they are pretending that a fat, jolly man wearing Coca-Cola colours delivers their presents on a flying sleigh? Isn’t that an abuse of trust?

Click on the link to read When Do I Admit That the Tooth Fairy Doesn’t Exist?

Click on the link to read The Most Popular Lies that Parents Tell their Children

Click on the link to read The Innocence of Youth

Click on the link to read Kid’s Cute Note to the Tooth Fairy

Click on the link to read A Joke at the Expense of Your Own Child

 

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Parenting | 6 Comments »

Being Raised Catholic is Worse than Child Abuse: Dawkins

December 23, 2012

dawk

How dare Richard Dawkins, the grumpy old man with nothing positive to say about anything, even equate child abuse with religion, let alone comment that religion is worse.

Whilst I am not a Catholic I appreciate the role the religion plays in guiding its believers in thinking beyond themselves, giving charity and promoting acts of kindness.

These recent comments by a person who deserves little to no recognition should banish the rest of his bile fuelled views to the dustbin for all eternity (whether he believes in eternity or otherwise!):

Raising your children as Roman Catholics is worse than child abuse, according to militant atheist Richard Dawkins.

In typically incendiary style, Professor Dawkins said the mental torment inflicted by the religion’s teachings is worse in the long-term than any sexual abuse carried out by priests.

He said he had been told by a woman that while being abused by a priest was a ‘yucky’ experience, being told as a child that a Protestant friend who died would ‘roast in Hell’ was more distressing.

Last night politicians and charities condemned the former Oxford professor’s views as attention-seeking and unhelpful.

The remarks are due to be broadcast tonight by Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera.

Click on the link to read Revealed: Adam Lanza’s Motive

Click on the link to read Do You Really Want to Arm Me?

Click on the link to read Living With Adam Lanza

Click on the link to read School Shooting Showcases the Heroic Nature of Brilliant Teachers

Click on the link to read Let’s Make Sure that this School Shooting is the Last

Click on the link to read Get Rid of Your Guns!

Click on the link to read Explaining the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting to Children

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Child Welfare | Leave a Comment »

Instead of Teaching a Baby to Read, Teach it to Smile

December 13, 2012

read

What is the rush? So your child reads when he/she is developmentally ready instead of when they’re a baby? So what?

Reading is not the greatest gift you can give a young baby. Love, optimism, hope and friendship are much more important to a baby’s development that the ability to read:

John Wilkey was just four days old when his mother Dana set about teaching him how to read. The fact that newborns can’t focus on anything more than a few inches away — let alone understand words in any form — did not deter her.

Dana, 39, an events organiser who lives in Chelsea, West London, is so passionate in her view that it’s never too early to make your child brilliant, she used to run through a set of ten flashcards with her son twice a day. ‘I would show John words like “milk”, give him my breast, and then show him the baby sign language for milk,’ she says. ‘I did it morning and evening.’

Baby sign language, for those not familiar with modern  parenting, is something ‘Tiger parents’ like Dana are well versed in. It works on the theory that children want to communicate long before they develop speech and can be taught little hand signals to communicate their needs and thoughts.

When he was nine months, Dana says John — her only child — was pointing and using basic baby sign language to show he could recognise up to 20 words and phrases, including ‘I love you’, ‘nose’, ‘ear’ and ‘arms-up’.

From there, Dana says his vocabulary grew at break-neck speed. A video of John at 20 months shows him sitting in his high-chair using a chubby finger to trace underneath the words ‘eyes’, ‘clap’ and ‘book’ from left to right.

Dana, who lived in the U.S. with John’s father before they separated, now lives with her fiance, Philip, in an £3.5 million London townhouse, once owned by a well-known footballer.

She is now one of a growing number of mothers convinced that getting children reading before they are potty-trained will help them get ahead in later life.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Child Development | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »