Apparently I am not boring. So lets start at the beginning of 2014.
My sons primary school decided to embrace ” the modern learning environment” According to the school management this is better.
What does the modern learning environment involve ? Knocking out walls and putting about 3 classes of kids together with 3 teachers. Using a computer to “learn” and having evenings where you invite parents down for coffee and try and show them that if they use the QR code on their phones they too are “modern” I am such a hipster !
Also showing them a YouTube video where a certain ” educationalist” ( yes that’s actually a thing ! ) talks with a toff accent and talks about how the old system doesn’t work and then tries to justify why schools are broken by using ADHD as justification for all the worlds problems. Nutter. Then he starts bleating about how ” the arts” are being sacrificed. I began to wish he had been sacrificed.
I don’t know about his school but at mine we actually did art and dancing and singing.
I was a bit disturbed by all this. Some of the things that were going through my mind were ………….
Myself and my siblings went through the ” broken” system. We can all spell, read , write and think for ourselves. We can also do maths and geography and tech drawing and speak another language. We are all in gainful employment and we also manage to keep up with all the changing technology and other stuff in the world.
How is one meant to concentrate when they have 70 ( yes 70) kids all talking at the same time. I visited the class with the ” modern ” learning environment and found it lacked structure and was like a scene from the film Sunday bloody Sunday. Chaotic. I could not hear myself think or anyone with a tiny little voice talk. I was waiting for a catholic priest to wave a white hanky ! it never came.
So the hubby who never gets upset about anything decides that its not cool to use a neuropsychiatric condition as an excuse for making kids learn from google. He marches down to the school and speaks to the principal.
That didn’t go well. The principal thinks its ok to show these videos and we are just upset as we have a family member with the condition. Um no its really just that the video was dreadful and not an accurate portrayal of how the condition is treated here in NZ.
These types of polarising videos are only going to make the stigma worse and feed the urban myths about the condition and the parents of these kids. Its also going to make people who choose to give their children medication for it feel very bad.
This white haired little man who calls himself a principal then says you can do whatever you like . Complain to the board , complain to the government. You cant touch us.
So then it starts …………….. Write To the board. Two weeks later a letter arrives saying they regret any offence caused. We say yes that’s fine we understand it wasn’t deliberate but do you think you might like to stop showing the video ?
No as it came from the education department. Call the education department. No we don’t supply these types of videos to schools. Why would a government department supply a video bagging adhd and drug companies when another government department (pharmac) buys the drugs to treat this condition and Doctors at DHB’s (also government funded) write prescriptions for these drugs. Yes that’s a bit confusing isn’t it.
Then the call comes from the ” head” of the board. The truth comes out. He feels that there are “pills” for everything and every problem now has a name. Luckily he owns a farm and is in perfect health and his family are perfect so he can make these statements without ever having walked even a metre in a less perfect persons shoes.
Moral of story ? Schools are self governing. The education department does what it can to minimalize landing in the paper and people who have never left the town they live in should not be in charge of a school board.
More later . Dinners ready