Naughty Nanna.......but doing the best I can!

Well Alea, maybe you are right in saying it wasn't the actual 'teacher' thing, but I simply write from my own experience. I got some very unkind 'teacher' comments about an early post that I made with genuinely good intentions - ironically about posting with sensitivity - there seemed to be a definite element of Let's have a go at the teacher ' from some who responded.

I felt T's post was a bit put of place as a response to the OP here and evidently stated very much from a professional angle which clearly annoyed some, but even so, I don't think it warranted the sharpness in some of the responses.

Trying to move on, rather than simply opening another can of worms ...perhaps the difficulty - and certainly what prompted my post this a.m. lies here: when someone is criticised and that criticism is repeated / echoed by several subsequent posters, there can be a cumulative strength - and hurtfulness- for the one on the receiving end. Putting the best possible shine on it, perhaps this is simply an accident of the way these forums work, but at times it is wince-making.

Oh Imperfect, I have barely got beyond your first sentence. So not true!!
There are so many teachers/ex-teachers/heads of department/head teachers/advisory teachers/even, for all I know OFSTED inspectors on GN it can be like the Staffroom at coffee time break!!
I hope Teacher11 recognises that "teacher-bashing" is really not an issue

Teacher, I just wanted to show some solidarity and say that as a fellow teacher, I have winced for you as several people have reacted very strongly to your first post on this thread. There is an element on GN that do seem to enjoy having a go at a teacher!

I agree with others that perhaps you interpreted the OP in a certain way, but I know you wouldn't have meant to 'lecture' and in professional terms, I agree with everything you say about language acquisition. I share your passion about children gaining good literacy skills. Sadly, within the profession, we see children that lack them daily and we realise how limiting this is for them.

I'm sorry you have taken such a battering. I think there is a cumulative and collective 'ouch' factor when several people post the same type of criticism - it can feel like being ganged up on even though I am sure there is no intention for that to be the case.

I hope you will keep posting,
Imp. x

It reminds me of the time I was asked to look after a new neighbour's child in an emergency one evening - he was about 9. I didn't know him, didn't know how long the parents would be (hours in fact) and asked him if he'd like to play some games or watch tv. He asked if he could watch 'Full Metal Jacket' because it was on that night.
'OK' said I, 'is that a nice film'? 'We could watch it together'.
Luckily grownup DS was home, snorted in derision and said 'he's trying it on, Mum, it's really violent'.
[whatdidIknow]

I too fumed at the reference to 'handing parents that do a massive advantage'. Who's racing? You?
Education is as broad as it's long, [Teacher] - you should know that.

puts on Quentin Tarantino DVD for DGD aged two

I don't think feathers are ruffled either Teacher11

I just think that perhaps you didn't read the OP properly (I am guilty of that too sometimes)

then we sit down and play until lunchtime. He's quite grizzly
There are times and there are times, and I don't think now is the right time to be firm with an unwell, grumpy, missing his mum, tired 2 year old

I don't suppose for one minute she allowed him to watch a Quentin Tarantino film.
You're doing just fine katek

Totally agree luckygirl and * lillie* and everyone else with a balanced view. While I'm glad mine went on to have good careers, with some taking the more "scenic " route to get there I'm actually much prouder that they have grown up to be responsible, compassionate and well rounded adults who are much more confident than I ever was. We didn't have huge amounts of money but they had plenty of fun, including tv!

Spot on Lillie!

Teacher - I do not think that feathers are ruffled - it is simply that some posters hold very different views from you.

Your final paragraph is a case in point. The concept of a literacy window is contentious. Children in many European countries and in other education systems do not start formal learning till they are 6 and they are well-educated people when they emerge from the system - and they are particularly better at modern languages than their British counterparts.

Small children absorb language from the adults around them - either in the flesh or on a reasonable TV programme.

And as for "handing the children of parents who do a massive advantage" - this statement to me encapsulates all that is wrong with our current education system and highlights where my views strongly part company from yours. It is not a race or a competition with children jostling for advantage. I was never interested in whether my children were doing better than others - I simply wanted to know that they were being helped to learn (at an appropriate age) at their own rate. Other children or their parents were (and are) an irrelevance.

The recent awareness of mental health problems in children is not unrelated, in my view, to a system that is putting schoolchildren and their teachers under stress.

Parents who do what?

willsmadnan, my children never watched 'Sesame Street' either unless they saw it at a childminders or my mother's house. I was answering a point someone else was making assuming I had disapproved of it - which I don't. As for 'Thomas the Tank Engine' my husband is a train enthusiast, read them both the stories and took them to see 'Stepney' at the Bluebell Line in Sussex so the kids adored 'Thomas'.

As for 'keep your hair on', it wasn't meant to be 'patronising'. I was trying to deflect in a mild way some of the ire I was raising by my first set of suggestions as to how a child might be kept amused apart from watching 'Cash in the Attic'.

Katek, who started the thread, did not explain at first how she chose DVDs but just said she felt 'guilty' because, in her words, she "I ha[d] allowed dgs to watch more tv than he's normally permitted." It seemed to me that there are many ways of using TV, radio, DVDs and CDs to amuse a poorly child without having to feel guilty.

Someone sent me a private message warning me that it is very easy to ruffle feathers on 'Gransnet' and I have found out the hard way!

I am much more relaxed than I seem to have come across about all these matters but I stick to my point that if you ignore the 'literacy window' when children are absorbing language, grammar and vocabulary at a rate of knots then you are handing the children of parents who do a massive advantage.

I think too many of us, particularly teachers, tend to relate everything to academic achievement. Moderate TV viewing in the early years has little bearing either way, and personally I'd rather my child had a soul as well as a brain.

Lots of messages coming across from everyone on this thread. The main one I am getting is that TV for children is great if you choose and view selectively. A bit like TV for adults really, there's lots of things I won't watch. As a gran who has some care of the children every day whilst parents are at work I am grateful for the box in the corner. Particularly when we first get in from a mile walk home from school. I am filled with dread when my daughter has banned watching TV for misbehaviour. We got around that one by putting on a story CD!

Your house your rules Katek .
Sounds like you are doing a good job to me. When I look after little ones I stick the TV on when I am exhausted or need to make lunch ect .
If I am being helpful enough to babysit then I do what suits me , if I am up to it we do crafts , painting or some other fun thing but if not the TV goes on !

When my daughter was little we didn't have any qualms about letting her watch children's videos like Postman Pat and Fireman Sam and any suitable Children's TV. This was also useful as the worst punishment for being naughty or uncooperative was a video ban! It obviously didn't do her any harm as she has an Master of Studies from Oxford University now!!

keep your hair on? How patronising! So, Sesame Street is/was fine despite being an American import, with all the attendant language/cultural problems. Sorry teacher11 my children never watched Sesame Street for those very reasons. It was UK produced programmes or nothing. I guess Thomas the Tank Engine is considered non-PC by educationalists now, with it's references to a fat controller!

That's transatlantic Spanish for you, Nfk!

However, DGS and DGD1 are a bit quieter now that they always have their noses stuck in books

However, in the early stages of language acquisition when children's brains are 'programmed' as it were to absorb language and grammar it is crucial to talk to them,
I find it difficult to get a word in edgeways with DGD2

I did hope I would learn some Spanish with Dora the Explorer, but her accent is is terrible!

Hmmm, so we must talk to and listen to children.
Teacher, tread softly, you are teaching us to suck eggs IMHO!

Awww! She is clearly willing to explore possibilities. Lovely anecdote!

I asked DGD2 which language she would like to choose to watch her dvd - she said 'French please'.
However, after about five minutes she decided that English would be better.
She doesn't speak French yet (just English and Welsh)

Teacher11 I find your points on language skills interesting, I am assuming you also include other languages.
DGS has 3 languages at the moment and speaks Portuguese with his best friend, he just seemed to pick it up, no problem as DD speaks it.
This morning he watched Postman Pat and Thomas the tank engine while we had breakfast and got ready for Church, service in English but many languages spoken.
Now he is eating lunch and getting a treat of watching Scooby Doo in Dutch.
When he goes back upstairs it will be French spoken.
The school system is very different here, starting at 3 finish at 18.
Therefore TV tends to be a weekend, or unwell treat.
One of the French TV channels has excellent puzzle programmes which he likes to watch when he has a snack on retuning from School at 15.30.

Perhaps if British schools were more open to some of the continental systems you would not feel the need to lecture on here, bet that comment has opened a can of worms.

Oh, here we are!!

www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zcv51_peppa-pig-not-very-well-with-subtitles_tv

Keep your hair on people. Why? Some perfectly reasonable posts on here from very sensible-sounding grans who were advising another anxious gran that it is OK to let them watch tv if they feel unwell - or indeed if you want to keep them out of the kitchen when you're cooking them a nourishing meal.

I doubt that Katek had stuck on The Terminator for him
And I am sure all the grans on here spend plenty of time playing games, doing puzzles, play doh, out at the park, etc when they are well.

The most they can really absorb when feeling unwell (yes, it was chickenpox here too Nellie!) is Calpol and an antihistamine to stop the itching, or perhaps an episode of Topsy and Tim Get Chickenpox
Do pigs get chickenpox too?

Otherwise a bit of good daytime tv never did any child any harm as far as I can tell.