That'll teach them

Marcheline

If there was a true decent standard of education going on in schools, IMO there would be no time to teach either citizenship or the (marginally more worthwhile) finance, as every moment would be spent on proper subjects. Over the years teachers have spent more and more time on 'crowd control' and so the education sysem has been dumbed down! I don't have anything against SATs tests myself but they should raise the bar standards-wise on the whole.

lostinrates

fc123 wrote: »

We had our kids young (I was just 24 when the first appeared) and we adjusted adult life around him, rather than the other way around.....it's hard to explain....in that, we had to get out of 'Nil by Mouth' flat, establish an income (own business) and fitted it around a baby in the household.

Older (or just wealthier) parents often have the logistics all set up before baby comes along..home, good career, a sofa etc etc. The disruption is felt more I think.

When I lived in Nil By Mouth flat, I wrote myself a note (it is in the loft in a baby box somewhere) reminding myself not to waste all that spare time (the spare time I never knew I had) when it came back.

It took 21 years...and I feel it came sort of back last Autumn....I actually had moments of 'What shall I do now?''.

I am not wasting it either.....apart from when I am pottering around on here....it's so prescious.

DH and I both had older parents....my sister is old enough to be my mother and raise no eyebrows whatsoever. We both feel in our specific cases we would not want to be older parents. We've sort of given it a cut off date of two years time then we'll take the doubt out of the situation (there are other reasons of course, I'm not prime genetic material:D ). Young in theory is 100% what we would have wanted.....exactly for the reasons you say, thats kind of how it worked with getting married relatively young too

fc123

Don't want to get into another schools debate......but 3 and half terms to go to end Gcse's and then a bit of further Ed.......yipeee...I can't wait, I really can't.

Cleaver

Marcheline wrote: »

It's basically a committee of pupils that are elected by their peers to represent the views of the other pupils in an attempt to improve the school. In some schools they will be given a small budget to spend. I just don't see how explaining the pros and cons of one is worthwhile...and as for being TAUGHT how to answer a question like that, it's laughable!

"We, like, want a graffitti wall man, innit? Like wit' spray cans and all that, brap. And a skate ramp man, yeah, keep it on d-low bro'. Respec' to your sister, word."

Once you get to certain age it appears that all children are speaking in this language, even if it's actually the Queen's English. I may as well be about 80 as everyone under 14 is just a complete and utter mystery to me: a blur of really bad earings, MacKenzie T-shirts, socks tucked in to reeboks and asymmetric haircuts. And I'm not even 30 yet.

(By the way, if you're reading it out loud, for full effect can I suggest putting on an Ali G type accent, putting on a very slight lisp and merging some of the words: "sthpraycansthandallthatbrapsth".)

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

DH and I both had older parents....my sister is old enough to be my mother and raise no eyebrows whatsoever. We both feel in our specific cases we would not want to be older parents. We've sort of given it a cut off date of two years time then we'll take the doubt out of the situation (there are other reasons of course, I'm not prime genetic material:D ). Young in theory is 100% what we would have wanted.....exactly for the reasons you say, thats kind of how it worked with getting married relatively young too

There are advantages to older or younger...there's no definitive 'best age to' guide.

The advantage of birth @ 24 was I was back in jeans 7 days later and was hauling him around in a sling from a few days old, out and about working. He didn't have childcare until 9 months old (and then, only 3 days per wk). The birth wasn't great either.
Daughter was born at home when I was 31 (I was going through an alternative lifestyle type thing at the time...alll wafty cheescloth and crop vests) and it took 4 days before I could walk to do school run (OH working)...took a little longer to get rid of the baby belly ...8 weeks I think.

I definately had less energy...but that could have been because there were 2 to look after.

Davesnave

mewbie wrote: »

I suspect a school could teach financial stuff AND citizenship. Maybe spend less time on SATs tests.

We always used to. Every time there was an election, we'd have one. If the politicos were doing the rounds, we'd get 'em in to read to the kids as well. Chris Patten was pretty good; perhaps not as good as Brian Patten though.

As for real-world finances, in our geography project, I had a game where the kids had to be Bangladeshi farmers for a fortnight and attempt to grow me a crop of cress. They had to make decisions about seed quality, insurance, fertilizer & so on and there'd be a random element like a cyclone thrown in. Anyway, the successful farmers were paid with goodie bags and, if they had any gumption, they'd form a cooperative to bargain up the price. The unsuccessful farmers received nothing, though the others had the option of donating some of their spoils to 'poor relief.' I'm ashamed to say, they never did.

Anyway, then came the National Curriculum, closely followed by SATS. The rest is like those lessons; history.

Cleaver

Davesnave wrote: »

We always used to. Every time there was an election, we'd have one. If the politicos were doing the rounds, we'd get 'em in to read to the kids as well. Chris Patten was pretty good; perhaps not as good as Brian Patten though.

As for real-world finances, in our geography project, I had a game where the kids had to be Bangladeshi farmers for a fortnight and attempt to grow me a crop of cress. They had to make decisions about seed quality, insurance, fertilizer & so on and there'd be a random element like a cyclone thrown in. Anyway, the successful farmers were paid with goodie bags and, if they had any gumption, they'd form a cooperative to bargain up the price. The unsuccessful farmers received nothing, though the others had the option of donating some of their spoils to 'poor relief.' I'm ashamed to say, they never did.

Anyway, then came the National Curriculum, closely followed by SATS. The rest is like those lessons; history.

I'd like to be in Mr Davesnave's class.

fc123

Davesnave wrote: »

As for real-world finances, in our geography project, I had a game where the kids had to be Bangladeshi farmers for a fortnight and attempt to grow me a crop of cress. They had to make decisions about seed quality, insurance, fertilizer & so on and there'd be a random element like a cyclone thrown in. Anyway, the successful farmers were paid with goodie bags and, if they had any gumption, they'd form a cooperative to bargain up the price. The unsuccessful farmers received nothing, though the others had the option of donating some of their spoils to 'poor relief.' I'm ashamed to say, they never did.

Anyway, then came the National Curriculum, closely followed by SATS. The rest is like those lessons; history.

How did you do the cyclone? After hours with a cool hairdryer?

chunky79

fc123 wrote: »

We had our kids young (I was just 24 when the first appeared) and we adjusted adult life around him, rather than the other way around.....it's hard to explain....in that, we had to get out of 'Nil by Mouth' flat, establish an income (own business) and fitted it around a baby in the household.

Older (or just wealthier) parents often have the logistics all set up before baby comes along..home, good career, a sofa etc etc. The disruption is felt more I think.

When I lived in Nil By Mouth flat, I wrote myself a note (it is in the loft in a baby box somewhere) reminding myself not to waste all that spare time (the spare time I never knew I had) when it came back.

It took 21 years...and I feel it came sort of back last Autumn....I actually had moments of 'What shall I do now?''.

I am not wasting it either.....apart from when I am pottering around on here....it's so prescious.

I hear you,:rotfl: i was 18 almost 19 (it makes a difference that few months you know) with my first child and 15 months later 2nd child arrived...This i would not advise.:eek:

By the age of 27 i had 4 children. I love it, i have no idea what to do with my spare time. As i said in previous post, i work, help OH run business, he works away and i run the house, finances, cleaning well everything really:rotfl: . When i do get a spare hour i nip on here and clean, very rarely do i have time out as i don't know what to do with it.

Whereas i would say older parents have learnt how to have quality time for themselves. I also agree about them feeling the disruption more, many do seem to think life will go on as before.

BUT i don't think i am a sit about having time to myself kind of person anyway, at the age of 18 and pregnant i had 3 jobs after giving birth i kept 1 job and went back to college. I have always worked. I get bored very easily and need to be doing something. I would like to get more time doing the garden though.:o

fc123

Davesnave wrote: »

Anyway, then came the National Curriculum, closely followed by SATS. The rest is like those lessons; history.

I remember when SATS first came in. Sons school boycotted them.

He left anyway (aged 8) and after only a year, parents were then judging all the schools by the SATS scores.