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February 15th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
By
Alex Evans
Last updated at 12:14 AM on 15th February 2012
Research has revealed that more and more parents are failing to teach children the most basic life skills. Here, one teacher – the Mail knows her identity but has given her a nom de plume – describes a day in the life of an affluent primary school. What she says will shock you…
Glancing at the clock, I realise it’s time for me to change Lily’s nappy. Past experience tells me she will make a fuss, so I doubt it will be a smooth operation. Of course, most babies dislike having their nappies changed, but that’s the problem: Lily isn’t a baby, she is five years old.
What’s more, I’m not her mother, I am her primary school teacher. And Lily isn’t the only child in my class who still wears nappies.
Problems: A schoolboy tries to solve a problem. A teacher’s report reveals children aged five are not potty trained – and are left with rotten teeth (posed by models)
It’s not as if I am a teacher in a sink school, either. I work in an affluent town in the South of England, yet every day at my school we are dealing with the fallout of what can, at best, be described as parental irresponsibility, at worst, downright negligence.
I teach children aged four and five, and, of course, accidents do happen when it comes to young children using the loo. But almost every day I have to clear up after a child who has soiled themselves.
These children don’t have a medical condition. What they have are parents who think children will learn to use the lavatory by themselves, or that it is a school’s responsibility to teach them.
So the news last week that most teachers have witnessed an increase in the number of children soiling themselves came as no surprise to me.
A survey carried out by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, along with the charity Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence, also found that teachers believe primary schoolchildren are less independent than they were a decade ago. That, too, strikes a chord with me.
There is a child in my class who has serious dental problems because of her consumption of fizzy, sugary drinks. That’s bad in itself, but the most worrying thing is that, at age five, she isn’t independent enough to drink from a cup. She drinks these fizzy drinks from a baby’s bottle.
Lucy doesn’t bring the bottle into
school, but she told me without a hint of self-consciousness that she
still drinks ‘fizzy’ from her ‘baby bottle’.
And her terrible tooth decay is testament to that. Her front teeth are like little black pegs.
The poor child also has real problems
with speech. She can’t pronounce many of the sounds because one needs a
full set of teeth to do so.
I rang her home umpteen times to ask
her mother to make a dental appointment. Eventually, under tremendous
pressure from the school and the welfare department, whom I alerted, she
did — and I assume the matter is being dealt with.
I have been a primary school teacher
for eight years, and over the past few years I’ve witnessed a shocking
decline in children’s basic skills.
Head in a book: A child reading in the library at a primary school. The teacher writing for the Mail reveals today some children don’t even know how to open a book (posed by models)
The school makes it clear that we expect children to be able to use a lavatory, button their coats and eat with a knife and fork by the time they begin full-time education, but far too many of them just can’t. They’ve never been taught how.
These parents seem to believe that giving their children fundamental life skills isn’t their responsibility. They think that it’s the job of teachers.
Some parents see no problem at all with sending their little ones to school incontinent and unable to grasp even the most basic concepts of learning, with no ability to sit still even for a couple of minutes and a propensity to thump other children.
Every summer, I visit the homes of the
30 children who will join my class in the new school year. In about
two-thirds of those homes, I see all the latest gadgets on display,
including plasma television sets, games consoles and state-of-the-art
computer equipment. What I don’t see are any toys or books.
I make these visits both to introduce
myself and to allay any fears that the children or their parents may
have about the big step of starting school.
Sadly, in many cases, I really
needn’t bother. The parents don’t even show me the courtesy of turning
off the television during my visit. Asking what they hope for from
school and what their worries are, I’m met with blank stares.
When youngsters have absolutely no
concept of numbers, it’s simply impossible for teachers to focus on
teaching what’s called the Early Years Foundation Curriculum, which sets
out very basic attainment targets — for example, being able to count
from one to ten.
It might seem hard to believe, but
many parents barely speak to their children, far less bother to educate
them. A colleague told me that children in her class of five-year-olds
are unable to speak in proper sentences. ‘Give pencil,’ a child will
say.
I put it down to parents dumping their
children in front of the TV rather than interacting with them. I’ve
even had to give up on activities such as painting because many of the
children in my classroom can’t hold a paintbrush.
They’ve never done it at home, and
they have such short concentration spans that after the first hesitant
stroke of brush on paper, they are off, running up and down the
classroom.
We are trained to teach the four and
five-year-olds through play, but the sad truth is that many of our
children just don’t know how to play. They have never been exposed to
imaginary games or make- believe at home.
Early learning: A teacher lifts the lid on the growth of sloppy parenting in the last decade which has piled pressure on teachers (picture posed by models)
They have never had to concentrate on building a tower out of Lego, never set up a toy railway track and pushed trains around it.
Tommy, a five-year-old in my class, was a whizz on the computer. He could manipulate a mouse with ease and was adept at opening programmes, but he had no idea how to even open a book.
When I sat down with this little boy
and tried to read with him, he tried to pull it open from its spine. He
had no idea how to hold a pencil, and when I asked him what letter the
word ‘red’ started with, it became apparent that he wasn’t even sure
what the colour red looked like. He didn’t know his colours.
Sadly, Tommy isn’t alone. Many of the
little ones I teach have trouble grasping the most basic of concepts. I
tried to do a project on the seasons, but most of the class couldn’t
name them. When I mentioned that a daffodil was growing, several
children looked puzzled and asked me what the word ‘growing’ meant.
Of course, many parents do a wonderful
job and try hard to expose their children to books, toys and time
outdoors — but some parents don’t.
As for bedtime, many of the children I
teach simply don’t have one. Some of my pupils arrive at school so
exhausted from playing on their computers until the early hours of the
morning that I regularly have to put them down for a nap in
the afternoon.
They fall asleep instantly and miss
out on whatever activity the rest of the class is engaged in. I think
the school I work in is probably a microcosm of Britain as a whole.
Some pupils’ parents are stockbrokers
and bankers who commute to work in the City of London, but our catchment
area also includes a deprived council estate where mainly white
working-class families live. Some of the children I teach are
immigrants.
What happens in my classroom is in no
way extraordinary. Speaking to colleagues in other schools, my
experience is representative of classrooms across the country.
It just seems to me that many mums and
dads have no understanding of their own responsibilities. And, working
in this school, I sometimes feel that my heart will break because these
children are so defenceless against the incompetence of their parents.
I love the little ones in my class,
and it makes me sad and angry that some of them come to school in the
winter without socks on. And let me be clear here: this is not down to
poverty. Parents are simply failing to attend to such details. Instead, I
keep a few pairs in my handbag, together with clean underwear.
Hard workers: While these children from a Welsh primary engage, Alex Evans – given a nom de plume by the Mail – reveals many parents don’t see it as their responsibility to give their youngsters life skills
No child should have cold feet, and no child should sit in soiled underclothes, but their parents don’t seem to agree with those basic requirements.
It is very difficult to work with children when their parents seem to work against you. Teachers who try to instil boundaries and a sense of right and wrong often end up castigated by enraged parents — and, sadly, the senior management can’t always be relied upon to stand up for their staff.
There was one boy, Jamie, in my class, who was quite a handful and was constantly spitting at other children. He seemed to especially dislike another little boy, Darren, calling him horrible names, hitting him and spitting at him.
Taking Jamie’s mum aside one afternoon when she came to pick him up, I asked if we could have a quiet word. ‘Would you mind backing me up on what I’ve told Jamie, that he can’t spit at other children?’ I asked her, smiling.
Her response left me flabbergasted. ‘You’re picking on my son. How dare you tell me how to bring him up!’ she fumed.
She then made a formal complaint against me to the headmaster, and to my amazement, he advised that I apologise.
I did so because it didn’t seem worth the hassle or aggravation of refusing. I didn’t want her son, difficult as he was, to think he wasn’t welcome in my classroom.
I love my job, and I love seeing children grow, learn and flourish. What is so distressing is witnessing the way so many parents have simply abdicated responsibility over the past decade.
Some mums and dads seem to think that their job is to give their children whatever they want, and the dreary stuff — manners, discipline and boundaries — should be left to teachers like me.
But the joy of childhood isn’t about having free rein to do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t inconvenience their parents.
Surely, the joy of childhood is about the incredible journeys of discovery that children make. Surely, the wonder of being a child lies in the abundance of learning — from the colours in the rainbow to how to eat like a grown-up.
Tragically, many of the youngsters in my classroom are experiencing a horribly stunted childhood. They are painfully aware of adult concepts like binge-drinking, yet can’t recite a single nursery rhyme.
I shudder to think what the future holds for them.
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A shocking read.
A perfect illustration of a generation of children dragged up by Daycare centres with little parental input. I was speaking to a primary school teacher a while ago, and she said how she could always tell children that had been in full time daycare because of their lack of social skills. Children really need at least one of their parents undivided attention in those crucial early years.
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I am just amazed that you can get nappies to fit a five year old, they must be using small size incontenance pads.
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This is Labour’s fault. 12 years of a nanny state make children of everyone
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“The teacher did not accept any kid’s after 8:30 am. It was pure stress. I’m glad my son will finish elementary school in USA” hate to tell you this but school starts 7.45 – 8.00 here…
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“I would be interested to know how many of these developmentally stunted kids, prior to age 5, were living full time at home with parent(s), versus those who were sent to pre-school nurseries because parents were working. Is there any correlation?” What benefit would there be to know? So smug stay-at-home parents can gloat even more about those who have to work?
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I would be interested to know how many of these developmentally stunted kids, prior to age 5, were living full time at home with parent(s), versus those who were sent to pre-school nurseries because parents were working.
Is there any correlation? Either way, there is no excuse for lack of parenting.
And any parents who claim they do not have the time and resources, need to bring in the grand parents or retired volunteers in the community to get these kids back on track or face a hefty penalty levied by the local council to provided one to one coaching at school, and be compelled to attend parenting classes themselves. A pipe dream I know, but one lives in hope.
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Hah, I feel reassured I’m doing a good job as a parent now! God knows it’s hard work but I didn’t have kids to pass their upbringing on to a teacher! I pity those children – how are they going to fit into society? Their parents are letting them down and it doesn’t get much better at high school. I’m a high-school teacher and we are end up more as social workers than teachers. Time some parents accepted their responsibility for their own progeny…
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Horrifying to think that we have to send our carefully nurtured children to mix with these poor little things who have been dragged up with no idea of civilised behaviour! It must affect the whole class, especially as the teachers will have no time to teach the able children as they are too busy changing nappies, stopping fights and going over basics like colours. Sounds more like a zoo than a classroom!
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We need to get away from this idea that having children is a universal right. It’s not. Just because you have the physical ability to procreate does not mean you should be able to spit out children with no thought of the consequences and how you intend to care for these children in every facet of their lives. Just because they have a games console and you throw a six pack of nuggets at them once day it does not mean that they are cared for. If a child comes to school still wearing a nappy and drinking from a babies bottle, with no evidence of a medical condition – those parents should be reported to child protection. It is neglect and anyway you slice it – child abuse.
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Susan from Manchester – sounds like she has hit a raw nerve with you…… You sound like one of those NIMBY parents whose little darlings would do nothing wrong. This poor teacher is commenting on a growing trend – spoilt self righteous me me children with a huge sense of entitlement.
I am so sick of hering “what would you know? You are not a parent” True but I had parnts who taught me right from wrong, common sense and some manners. Children are the greatest gift you could get – start treating them with some respect and human dignity PARENTS – YES YOU!!!!!!
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