Re: the requirement that the state *provide* an education

On Jul 24, 4:11=A0am, "Tai" <tainuitiDEL...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> This might interest you, Cailleach!

I come from a family of opinionated teachers (my mother was a remedial
teacher and she taught kids in care who'd also been excluded from
school, and one of my aunts teaches excluded kids at home) so I'm
always interested in this stuff. I even watch Teachers TV for fun :-)

> My son's Year 2 class has a new teacher who has been working in England,
=
in
> an inner city school, and after a whole week ;) of teaching back in Oz
sh=
e
> had this to say about the differences.

Your son's teacher seems to have met most of the besetting problems in
English education!

> She mentioned a greater reliance of work sheets and rote learning and
dri=
lling there,

English and Scottish education are somewhat different - I think
English state education is more rigid and much more driven by the
state testing regime. I have no complaints about my son's school, but
my nephews in different parts of England have all had problems with
not being given work that's challenging enough, especially in upper
primary school.

> the children have much better grounds to play in.

Yes, this a problem all over the UK. Britain is a tiny country with a
big population and all land is very expensive. The old Victorian city
schools have little outdoor space. My son's primary school has no
playing field and the tiny playground shared by 600 kids has four
"tem****ary" classrooms in it! It's surrounded by houses so there's no
room to spread out. They've used the remaining space as creatively as
possible - fenced off ballgames area, quiet area with seats, trimtrak,
flower border - but there's only so much you can do.

The secondary school lets the kids off premises at lunchtime because
there simply isn't space for them to play out. (Both schools are
excellent otherwise btw!) The school-age population in our area is
large and increasing but although there is always talk of re-siting
the schools there is simply no local land the council can afford.

Local governments are short of money and in suburban areas where
modern schools were built with much more land, many have even been
quietly selling off school playing fields for housing - while publicly
making a fuss about childhood obesity and lack of exercise. :-(

> The last was that instead of the multicultural environment being a
blessi=
ng
> she'd been disappointed to find racism being exhibited by really very
you=
ng
> children

This is also a problem in some schools, not all. (Where I live the
population is much more homogeneous anyway.) My brother's family live
in (outer) London in a very mixed area. They decided against one
school because they felt that the different racial groups didn't mix -
the parents, never mind the kids! They chose a nearby school with a
more relaxed atmosphere.

Interesting stuff, anyway!

Cailleach