Children forgetting how to use knife and fork

Aranyani

Lots of prodigies and their parents on the forum tonight. 

strawb_shortcake

onomatopoeia99 said:

Aranyani said:

MovingForwards said:

I was having a good chat with my internet repair guy a few weeks ago, at a guess he was 10 years younger than me; I'm fast approaching mid-40's.

One of the very long topics we discussed was the 'youth of today' and how we we taught to read / write before even going to primary school. He was a former teacher and couldn't understand how the kids were being sent off to school without the basics of being able to read, write, get dressed, do their own shoes and some didn't even know how to feed themselves.

I wish I could sit here and say I'm surprised, sadly I'm not.

Life begins at home, the educational system builds on that foundation (teaching / learning) and then the young adults keep it up throughout the rest of their life. It's not going to happen in an unstable home.

There's absolutely no need to teach children to read or write before school age.  They start at 4! 

I wanted to learn, I made my parents tell me what the letters were.  When they started teaching us letters in the year after reception, I already knew them all and my reading age was three years ahead.

All through infants and primary I was as bored as anything and a disruptive influence in class as I wasn't being taught, I was being held back to the average pace.  Can you understand how frustrating that is?  Grammar school was like a release from prison and rescued my education, and saved me from going off the rails.

My Mum was the same, she was taught to knit whilst others in the class learnt to read

maman

I'm no luddite but I really don't understand why not having suitable  technology is a reason for copping out of supporting children's learning particularly at Primary level where the majority live locally. Of course there will be geographical issues in some areas but the local schools I'm familiar with offered hard copies of work, packs that could be collected (or even delivered) to families that wanted to help.  State schools are never going to be able to match independents in provision because they just don't have the resources. 

On the wider point, I can see why schools dissuade parents from attempting certain types of 'teaching' pre school. Teaching writing in capital letters is one that comes to mind as is an attempt at phonics where the sounds are wrongly pronounced. That just means that children then have to 'unlearn' bad habits. No school is going to dissuade parents from talking to their children, engaging them in conversation, widening vocabulary, speaking in sentences, sharing discussion of a picture book and that's just on the language side of learning.  I like the quote 'There is no app to replace your lap'.😉

ThumbRemote

maman said:

I'm no luddite but I really don't understand why not having suitable  technology is a reason for copping out of supporting children's learning particularly at Primary level where the majority live locally. Of course there will be geographical issues in some areas but the local schools I'm familiar with offered hard copies of work, packs that could be collected (or even delivered) to families that wanted to help.  State schools are never going to be able to match independents in provision because they just don't have the resources. 

Worksheets are fine for some work, but they are absolutely terrible for teaching anything new. That requires explanation and the opportunity to ask questions. Even at primary school the work set is likely to be different to or beyond what most parents themselves learned. 

If that is coupled with parents who are trying to work from home you can certainly see why at best childrens education stood still during lockdown. 

maman

I agree about new learning but I was trying to illustrate that children didn't need to regress. I think many teachers would have been very happy if children had been able to hit the ground running after lockdown. On an allied theme parents could be helping now as there's going to be precious little time to consolidate learning in class. 

Madmel

I work in a secondary school and a primary school.  Most secondary students engaged with the work, but a few did not and one in my tutor group could not because he comes from a "screen-free household".  I could not teach regularly over Zoom/Teams because I live in a rural area with a dire broadband connection.  But I set work and provided written feedback for everything that was submitted.  I contacted all my tutor group weekly and ensured that they were coping.
In the primary school, they delivered printed worksheets to those kids who had no access to technology.  Lots of parents were amazing and some fab work was done.  One parent with whom I work elsewhere threw a complete hissy and her kids did hardly anything.  There is a lot of catching up needed there.  However, her kids have done more creative things which they may never have experienced, so it's not like they were attached to the PlayStation 24/7.
In terms of reading before starting school, my current primary school does not encourage it.  But when my 21yo DD was almost 2, she was fascinated by letters.  We used to watch Countdown after school/nursery and she knew all the letters then.  She was the one begging to read, so we read with her.  She's a late July child, but back in 2004 started school in January.  I had a quiet word with her teacher and said that she could read but was very shy.  The teacher tested her out on day one and pronounced her "a wonderful reader".  She finished the school reading scheme before the end of year 1 and has been a prolific reader ever since.
This year has been incredibly tough for everyone.  Some children have inevitably regressed, due to parental stress, the lack of suitable resources at home, or (dare I say it) poor parenting.  Lots have regressed due to their own fragile mental health and at my secondary school, that is a big issue.  This has been without doubt the hardest I have worked in over 25 years of teaching and I do not even work full-time.   

SootySweep1

Hi
It's very easy to judge but I had colleague's trying to home school 1 or 2 primary age children whilst also trying to hold down a full time job working from home. Personally I was very grateful that my children are older and I didn't face the same challenges !
At the start of the pandemic we all brought our IT kit home & we worked from home and used zoom etc for meetings. I've had many conversations with seriously stressed out parents who were really struggling. Their children didn't want to home school and they were not cooperating ! A parent's role is to support learning but we aren't trained to teach and what if you're not good at the subject !
OK I accept their will be lazy parents out there and no excuses for them but lockdown, trying to work from home & home school a child has got to close to the top of my list for nightmare scenarios !
Jen

unforeseen

I can understand children not wanting to do school work BUT regressing back to nappies and forgetting how to use a knife & fork (their examples) seriously? 
That is normal day to day care of children, Covid & lockdown don't come into it. If parents are failing at such a basic level then it surely brings into question their suitability to ever have become a parent in the first place. 

Aranyani

SootySweep1 said:

Hi
It's very easy to judge but I had colleague's trying to home school 1 or 2 primary age children whilst also trying to hold down a full time job working from home. Personally I was very grateful that my children are older and I didn't face the same challenges !
At the start of the pandemic we all brought our IT kit home & we worked from home and used zoom etc for meetings. I've had many conversations with seriously stressed out parents who were really struggling. Their children didn't want to home school and they were not cooperating ! A parent's role is to support learning but we aren't trained to teach and what if you're not good at the subject !
OK I accept their will be lazy parents out there and no excuses for them but lockdown, trying to work from home & home school a child has got to close to the top of my list for nightmare scenarios !
Jen

And key workers couldn’t even do what the wfh parents were able to.  A lot of schools were essentially just babysitting the key worker children, not educating them (for very understandable reasons often) so they got very little.

Silvertabby

unforeseen said:

I can understand children not wanting to do school work BUT regressing back to nappies and forgetting how to use a knife & fork (their examples) seriously? 
That is normal day to day care of children, Covid & lockdown don't come into it. If parents are failing at such a basic level then it surely brings into question their suitability to ever have become a parent in the first place. 

My primary school teacher friend tells me that, even before covid, it wasn't unknown for mum to drop off a child with an already 'fully loaded' nappy.  When my friend asked mum to change the child, the response would be along the lines of ' no - that's your job now'.

Because children were arriving at school hungry, not having had breakfast, the school started a free breakfast club.  Children still arrived in class hungry, because 'mum hadn't got up in time to bring them in'.

Then there was the little girl who turned up in the same, unwashed, pair of knickers all week, until the school bought her some new ones.  Mum drives a nearly new car and smokes like a chimney......