[Politics] Schooling

B-right-on said:

Got a 14 year old daughter who is being 'taught' over the interweb by (mostly) decent teachers who have been handed a bad lot.

It's next to impossible to do what's been asked of them. Many of the kids don't even turn up.

She's seen her friends for a couple of months in the last YEAR. Spends most of her time in her room on her computer. At the start we were cutting down her time on the laptop but it gets harder to enforce the longer it goes on.

The long term educational and psychological problems from these knee jerk reactionary lockdowns, on teenagers and younger, are going to affect a whole generation.

Sad to see kids not being kids and enjoying their younger days.

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drew said:

Your post was going well until your comment about knee jerk lockdowns.

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B-right-on said:

Got a 14 year old daughter who is being 'taught' over the interweb by (mostly) decent teachers who have been handed a bad lot.

It's next to impossible to do what's been asked of them. Many of the kids don't even turn up.

She's seen her friends for a couple of months in the last YEAR. Spends most of her time in her room on her computer. At the start we were cutting down her time on the laptop but it gets harder to enforce the longer it goes on.

The long term educational and psychological problems from these knee jerk reactionary lockdowns, on teenagers and younger, are going to affect a whole generation.

Sad to see kids not being kids and enjoying their younger days.

Click to expand...

B-right-on said:

Got a 14 year old daughter who is being 'taught' over the interweb by (mostly) decent teachers who have been handed a bad lot.

It's next to impossible to do what's been asked of them. Many of the kids don't even turn up.

She's seen her friends for a couple of months in the last YEAR. Spends most of her time in her room on her computer. At the start we were cutting down her time on the laptop but it gets harder to enforce the longer it goes on.

The long term educational and psychological problems from these knee jerk reactionary lockdowns, on teenagers and younger, are going to affect a whole generation.

Sad to see kids not being kids and enjoying their younger days.

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jackanada said:

If the government had been prepared to jerk knees a fortnight earlier each time we'd have had less than half the deaths and we'd be closer to schools getting to open.
Your angst is real and relatable. Your analysis is deeply flawed.

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PILTDOWN MAN said:

Suppose it's better than seeing their grandparents or parents die.


Kids are resilient, second World War was worse for kids and somehow they all appeared to enjoy their lives later on in the 60's

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dsr-burnley said:

I wonder how many grandparents would have died if there hadn't been any lockdown at all? We know that about 500,000 die in a normal year, and this year it must be closer to 600,000 becaise of coronavirus, and that even with lockdowns the UK has had close to the highest figure of any nation. If we had gone like Sweden (intelligent but possibly misguided?) or like Brazil (total fruitcake), how much worse would it have been?

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PILTDOWN MAN said:

Suppose it's better than seeing their grandparents or parents die.


Kids are resilient, second World War was worse for kids and somehow they all appeared to enjoy their lives later on in the 60's

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PILTDOWN MAN said:

Undoubtedly there will be inquiries and such forth that examine the what ifs, but we are where we are. Yes it’s been hard for children but also many adults have suffered some will never recover. Hopefully the children will all live long lives and will adjust back to living normally. They are resilient generally and to me keep harping on how everyone feels sorry for them is damaging. We need to look forwards and deal with the future. If it means some need to remain in education to achieve their goals, a year longer, so be it. As long as the support is there they will hopefully live a prosperous life.

We like many have a lot of catching up to do, we haven’t seen three of our adult children or our grandchildren for 11 months.


Tomorrow will be a better day.

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LamieRobertson said:

I think our understanding of mental health is far greater now ...their is a great amount of information available to show that many in fact did not cope with what happened in WW11 ....children maybe resilient physically but I wouldn’t quite agree that all cope mentally

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PILTDOWN MAN said:

You're right we do know a lot more and it is something very close to home for me. We have dealt with issues in our family both with my father and with my son, who now 19 missed over a year of schooling.

However one thing that we know is that positivity is key. There's too much negative in the World without this covid coming along. The constant reminding of the every day buzz words relating to mental health, so much so some believe there's something wrong with them if they aren't suffering and are happy.

I attended courses for years on mental health, going back to the 80's when I was asked by my company to act as a councillor (laymen). I appreciate the need to expand the awareness and welcome the fact people should no longer feel ashamed to have mental health issues. You do have to be careful though, tell people often enough and they all end up with it. The worse thing my grandmother ever got given was a medical dictionary, she had every ailment known to man, died eventually in her late 90's! The reason I say this is because it's like coming across an accident, two people lying there one screaming one alive but silent, who do you go to first, we know it's the silent one.

Those openly able to talk about their mental health are typically dealing with it, still may need help and understanding, but it's the silent ones I worry about. Most of us know our children's head space and in the last year we as parents, even of adult children, have had a huge role to play. As we come out of lockdown our role perhaps will be even greater as we all pick up our lives.

We need to see a step change in the media, we need a positive slant to the news, not picking holes in everything.

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LamieRobertson said:

I think our understanding of mental health is far greater now ...their is a great amount of information available to show that many in fact did not cope with what happened in WW11 ....children maybe resilient physically but I wouldn’t quite agree that all cope mentally

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sparkie said:

It seems ludicrous to open the schools before the Easter holidays. Use the 3 extra weeks to really hammer down the virus and save lives. If necessary add the 3 weeks back on to the school year in the summer.

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LamieRobertson said:

I think our understanding of mental health is far greater now ...their is a great amount of information available to show that many in fact did not cope with what happened in WW11 ....children maybe resilient physically but I wouldn’t quite agree that all cope mentally

Click to expand...