I don’t think they would cope, because going to school changed forever when the trendies spouting their liberalism and political correctness started interfering with education. I came across this charming little photo of some school children from 1953 enjoying their daily bottle of milk which was provided free of charge to all school children when the Free Milk Scheme was part of our lives. It’s not any more of course, like most of the benefits that education offered in the ‘old days’.
These days parents must pay if their kids want to have a drink of school-provided milk at break time, and chances are that a good number of them will have some sort of modern-day allergy that rules them out of being allowed to have it anyway. I was looking at a couple of articles which reported one in seven British children aged six, after one year of school, cannot yet write properly, cannot understand capitol letters and cannot grasp the basics of punctuation or grammar. I recently spent an extended period working in a local school with P1′s and, although those kids appeared to be coming along well in their Three R’s, I can still understand that this problem exists. When I was at school in the 70′ one kid in my class had trouble reading, the teacher sat with her for a period during each lesson, nowadays so many kids have trouble with their reading and are so behind the others that we have special needs support workers in every primary school. Why are kids not learning like they used to…? On the other hand, also speaking from first hand experience, school kids are cosseted in class and in the playground like we never were. Dietary requirements are noted, observed and entrenched in school policy so that those with allergies can eat school dinners safely; those who are fussy eaters can pick at their food, and even criticise the menu to the Dinner Lady because ‘their opinion matters’ and if they don’t like what’s on offer they can leave it and opt for the pudding instead (while Mum and dad shell out £2.20 a day regardless…) – making them eat what’s in front of them can be traumatic for them you see…
Then there’s the playground and all it entails. My P1′s were not allowed to run around – seriously! we were on the Principals strict orders not to permit any running in case they tripped over. They walked and tripped over anyway, they skipped, they ran…how can you stop 56 energetic five year olds from running around – and from tripping over…? no play equipment was allowed either; no balls, skip ropes, hoops, nothing. So the kids chased each other for fun, they got into tussles, and they still tripped over from time to time. Nothing achieved at all, just a lot of bored kids trying to let off steam in their lunch break. Now when a kid falls over, that’s a whole new ball game because you are not supposed to touch them ‘unnecessarily’ so if you have to pick a kid up from the ground the incident has to be written up in a book, every single time. Just to cover yourself. Toileting accidents are a nightmare as the child, usually upset, has to change themselves because the ‘unnecessary touching’ rule hovers over your head like a thunder cloud – when I was a kid the teacher took you off to the toilets, cleaned you up (if it was one of those accidents), changed you and even gave you a little warning about not doing it again. I am sure that such action would warrant instant severe disciplinary measures and possibly dismissal these days. Many kids don’t walk to school any more either; mothers in armoured-tank-style 4X4′s attempt to park on the school doorstep each morning so their kids don’t have to stretch their legs in walking too far and to avoid a high speed passing train running them down – and that’s if the local paedophiles are not out in force as well trying to grab each child who has been recklessly allowed to walk several yards to school.
Discipline – say that again…? When I went to school and a kid bullied you, you gave them a thumping back – they then left you alone and you earned a little respect from the other kids – these days you’d get detention because school child protection policies protect the rights of bullies and keep them safe from getting a taste of their own medicine. They are good at punishing the victim who had a go at defending themselves though…today bullies enjoy full protection at school and the bullied just endure misery. Sports days consist of ‘safe’ games and activities so no-one gets hurt and no psyches are irreparably damaged by their team losing a game of football, or coming fourth in the swimming carnival’s 50 metre freestyle. School today is all about safety, molly-coddling and namby-pamby policies which serve only to protect teachers and helpers from prosecution. We are producing a generation of kids who cannot fall down without being picked up and interviewed about it – I didn’t always like going to school, at least my generation learned to read, spell, count and stand up to bullies.
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