Children growing up today,

In a world gone mad, only those with the will to survive, will survive.

It must be a really confusing world them. Especially so here in the U.K. where regulations created by people who really should know better, simply must be upheld irregardless of the damage it causes. My personal definition of children are boys and girls in the 5 to 12 age bracket. Before 5 years old they are babies then toddlers, after 12 years old they become teenagers and teenagers are classed as kids then youths. Maybe these definitions are old hat? If they are then perhaps we should tell the babies/toddlers/children/kids/youth's.

Forget the fact we force our children into the, what should be, but has not been since the mid 1970's, strict world of education at an age in the childs development cycle when they should never be. Forget the fact that, by the demands laid upon them in so many ways, children are not allowed to be children any more. Forget the fact that our nations early educational demands stunt whatever learning potential the children may or may not have then or in the future. Forget the fact that we have a government that has consistently failed our children. Forget the fact that we allow despot individuals to lay down stupid rules that govern both our children and we parents. Forget the fact that parents are no longer allowed to bring up our own children as we see fit.

All of which leads me to this. My attention was captured by the story of a 3 year old boy who was sent home one day because of his haircut. Yes, i thought that too. His haircut.

What signals does this send out to a 3 year old child? It must tell him that he should conform to someone's, other than his own parents, ideals. it must tell him that he has no choices to make. It mus tell him that his own choices are somehow bad and by extension he is somehow bad. It must tell him that his parents are somehow bad because they allowed him to be put in the position. It must tell him all the wrong things. Things that will help to shape this litle boys view of the world.

Poor little chap.

This sort of story, with all the undertones it carries, is unfortunately all too prelevant in todays society. It is one of many that sends out all the wrong signals to a child struggling to make sense of a world so wrapped up in itself it misses the big picture.

Is it any wonder then that we are seeing an ever increasing amount of children being classified as 'troubled'.?

New Labour folly.

Oh my good grief! Such folly I have never read. View this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=490925&in_page_id=1770&ct=5


Then tell me it is not pure unadulterated folly!

Labour's favourite think-tank has come up with the idea that we should 'downgrade' Christmas in favour of festivals to improve race relations. Though, they say, it would be hard to 'expunge' Christmas from the national calendar, 'even-handedness' means public organisations must start giving other religions equal footing.

Now, I have no problem at all with other religions or races having their own festivals or celebrating their own Deity but to seek to 'expunge' Christmas celebrations is quite simply stupid. Instead of fostering race relations it is ideas like this that foster race hate.

In fact, under current race relations legislation in the U.K. I would be very surprised if something like this does not break that legislation in some way. Mind you, in England, a land of the English whatever that may be defined as, the race relations legislation was crafted around other races from other nations. Because of this design we English have been vilified for years as more and more silliness has crept in and put up barriers between the English and other nationalities. It was not meant to be this way but as with every level of legislation there are those who will abuse the system and sure enough the system got abused against the indigenous peoples. However, as time moves on more and more Britons are fighting to keep those things that identify us as a nation of like minded people.

Our little country has held open its arms to every nation in the world and they came. But, by taking away things that we Britons have had for centuries is plain folly.

Primary school education.

Never far from the news.

Parents up and down the U.K. always have their say on their child's education, never is this more true than on their child's primary school education. In these times of SATS, which are ridiculous for children under 11 years old as they prove nothing, nothing is more ridiculous than forcing children to sit tests. Tests that could determine their entire working future. Children of that age mature at different ages and alongside that maturity comes the ability to soak up that which they are being taught, therefore, making them sit for tests is an exercise in futility.

During the 1980's games where seen as a bad thing as they, they said, fostered a winning personality. Taking part became the mantra is better than winning. Most sensible parents debunked this mantra. Nowadays children are vilified for being lazy none games playing children. The truth behind this is that it was the government that stopped our children playing energentic games.

Again during the 1980's the governments educational policies frowned on children's creativity. Most primary and secondary schools removed everything to do with creativity from the schools daily work load. Again it was the governments educational policies that dictated this should be so.

Pre-school and primary school children need a lot of 'playtime' to help in soaking up the energy levels they all have. Added to this they need an avenue for their build in creativity. Both of these activities were removed from the curriculum during the 1980's. Perhaps more accurately they were squeezed out due to the curriculum being overcrowded.

Over the course of the last few years the Commons education committee has seen the folly or sheer stupidity of previous decades and is now coming out on the side of creativity for children. It has come as no surprise to sensible parents.

In 1964 I started preschool. The day consisted almost entirely on play. This play was punctured now and again with creative learning. In 1965 I started primary school. During the first term the format of preschool followed. During the second term the mornings consisted entirely on creative learning and the afternoon was playtime. During the third term, mornings were more mainstream, formal learning and the afternoons creative learning. During the fourth and final term the whole day consisted of formal learning. By the time one entered ones second year of primary education the scene was set for formal learning all day everyday. And so it went on until one reached secondary school age (back then that was 9 years old with 9 to 13 being junior school and 13 to 16 senior school) at which time at term end the children sat a test. This test determined what level the child started at at junior school. Once at junior school formal schooling continued until aged 12 or 13 the children sat another test which like the previous end of primary school test determined what level the child started senior school. The only important tests the children sat in those days were the A, O and GCE tests at the end of senior school years. Of course throughout a child's time at junior and senior school in those times peripheral tests were sat but these tests were more to determine what level the child would start at at the beginning of the following term.

The whole system worked fine and gave us some of the best brains this country has ever had.

This was from 1964 to 1976. Shortly after this the governments educational guru's started changing things for the sake of changing them. During the 1990's the government then blamed teachers for failing to deliver on changes the government themselves changed during the 1980's which the teachers did not agree with in the first place. Games playing was out. Creativity was out. It was a mess. And right in the middle of this mess was our children. Creative learning was out. The cane was out as was chastising unruly children. Is it any wonder we are now turning out more and more children that cannot read and write? Children that have no grasp of basic English? Nor mathematics? And children that have no grasp on general decorum?

Where are the English?

Where are the rules/laws to protect English views?

Over the last 20-30 years England has been eroded by Laws, both local and national, that go against the indigenous population which in England is the English.

Over the centuries, up to the 1970's, England has become a mix of just about every nation on this fragile planet. Sure, there was rampant blatant discrimination against other nationals, notably our West Indian friends and something needed to be done to stem it, but what has happened totally turned the tide against those few who caused the discrimination.

During the late 1970's through the 1980's and into the 1990's the government and overly liberal local councils brought in rule after rule after rule in an effort to stem the discriminatory tide. The net affect of these rules was that if one was white and English one would automatically find oneself discriminated against in every walk of life. Another net affect of these rules is that the English people lost all sense of national pride as wave after wave of discrimination against them pushed them further and further into the background and brought into the foreground every conceivable minority.

This state of affairs was slowly but surely heading for problems. In the last year or so there has been a growing government call for "A sense of Englishness". Whatever that terms means...

Something has however got to give. We the English have to find a way to undo, without returning back to the discriminatory pre 2000's, all the anti-English rules and laws that were brought in by overly liberal governments and local councils. We must instill into our children a real sense of national pride but without alienating those who joined as immigrants. In fact we should embrace these immigrants and allow them to grow a real sense of national pride towards the country that adopted them. England.

Due in part to the human pack like behavior there will never be a truly none discriminatory world. But, being forced to stop this discrimination and becoming anti-English, by accident or design is, as we are finding out today, simply the wrong way to go about it.

The backlash against all the anti-English rules is beginning. And not before time.

Easy targets.

Parents. Parents are easy targets. Anyone and everyone who should be controlling children blame outside of the home blame the parents. Schools blame parents. the police, blame parents. The establishment, blame parents. They are easy targets.

Don't get me wrong. Parents have a role to play, a huge role to play, in their children lives by being good model citizens themselves and by showing their children right from wrong.

But, it is those outside the home who should shoulder their own responsibilities. Especially the police.

In recent times the police through various rules setup in parliament, that are now backfiring (more on that further down), are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. They cannot touch children, they have to simply say "stop it" and hope they do so. Rarely do they however.

Teachers are weak now compared to those from 10, 15 years ago and certainly weak compared to the teachers from my childhood (1965-1976). The reason for this is they themselves decided to ban the cane, then the slipper, then any form of chastisement.

Now, those two establishments should both have a role to play in the formative years of our children but they abdicated that role themselves several years ago and now it is all coming home to roost.

Who do they blame? The parents! How can the parents be to blame when those two cannot and will not do the roles they had 30 or 40 years ago? They are to blame. Not parents.

There are, of course, some parents who should not be allowed children but the overall reason for todays problems with kids are young as 5 years old roaming the streets are those idiotic people from the late 70's and throughout the 80's who said NO_ONE should touch children. Amongst those where the teachers and the police.

Think about it.

Modern Perceptions?

Or Political Correctness ("PC") gone mad?

I am writing this commentary with the help of one my childhood friends who just happens to be of African origin. We became friends at primary school some 41 years ago, a time when England was English and the PC brigade did not exist so everyone got along just fine. Sure there was racial tension back then but apart from pockets here and there the majority of people from all areas of the world got along, mostly, just fine without the constant interference from busybodies such as the PC brigade.

I have 5 children (2 from my first marriage and 3 from my second), he has 6 children. He married a white girl and so if ideally placed to comment on such an emotive subject as racism.

In some areas of the UK they are reporting an increase in playground racism. My own 8 year old son was reported to the local authority for exactly that a while ago. His crime? He said "Black people suck". Now while the comment he made itself could be deemed wrong or even racist I am sure he said it in the same way a child of that age would say "Four eyes" to people who wear glasses or "Ginger haired people suck" or "Blonde hair people suck". You get the idea. Basically it was not a racist comment any more than the many 100's of comments chidren make, and will continue to make, daily.

I feel sure that in this modern climate of PC such comments, while the comments themselves are totally harmless, are what is being classed as playground racism and it is wrong.

Children will make such innocent comments without knowing the underlaying meaning. As they grow into adults they will learn that such comments, while not being wrong, are not to be said in public. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the perceptions of the PC brigade one thing that is often overlooked is that by tgging young children with the racism tag at such an early stage in the development cycle can do much more harm to that child than the person or child the comment was directed at.

Then we have the people of ethnic persuasion who's parents instill in their children that if the comment made is in any way a racist one then their child must report it. PC abuse is rife in this country.

The PC brigade have made things much much worse than they ever was before their existence.

Change.

On an almost daily basis we are barraged with changes to some legislation or other, Doesn't it feel like we are going through changes for changes sake?

Sure some changes are minute and will take years if not generations to filter through but look at the changes to our education system!

Very simply put.

The very system under which todays a future generations will be provided with a grounding for life and at its end, hopefully, a bunch of certificates which, again hopefully, will ensure a position with an employer. The system of the 3 R's (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, no, I do not get it either!), the very base level of our children's education has remained unchanged for years, centuries even. This culminated in a set of exams which if done at a sufficient levl gained status and credibility with employers.

Over time this system, which worked fine, was slowly changed until the mid 70's which thing settled down once more and both children and employers knew were they stood. Now, over the last 10 years or so of the current incumbent Labour government this status quo has slowly but surely been eroded with slight change after slight change. Until we reached a state where seemingly the basic premise of the 3R's are no longer relevant and the end certificates/qualifications are meaningless as to the child's skills.

I feel certain these changes are made, not for the benefit of our children's education but are changes for changes sake. I.E. They make the changes because they can.