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

Good idea Jalima - could be about trends in primary education, or influence of children's watching habits on their education, and general development.

this is an essential debate.
I agree, so perhaps another thread would be appropriate instead of continuing this one?

I thought the point of the thread was to reassure an anxious grandma that she wasn't doing the wrong thing in letting a poorly 2 year old watch more tv than usual.
The whole point of the thread seemed to change though, so sorry if I said anything to upset you when I was in fact trying to reassure Katek who I notice has very sensibly left the thread.

And should mine be 'Adolf'? Hardly!!

Teacher11 I do think it would be a shame if you left especially as Luckygirl says, this is an essential debate. I absolutely agree with her comments earlier that children are being rushed through their education. INVHO, those that are not keeping up are being left on the side. My DGS, has really struggled with everything. Initially, it was reading, but last year, his SENCO, his Y2 teacher and DD and myself really pulled him forward and everyone at the end of the last school year felt that he had turned a corner and was making loads of progress.

New school year, new teacher. She is a very efficient teacher, but she expects a certain maturity of her Y3 that DGS simply has not reached yet. Consequently every meeting is very negative and highly depressing. His mum and I say he is reading at level 7 at home, about 3 levels higher than school, she says that he may read it but he doesn't understand it, (he does, we question him and make him write a sentence about what he has just read). She says he doesn't ask for help, but she makes it clear she doesn't expect the class to ask for her help until the very last point (ie first think about it, then look at book for help, then ask another child before going to her), so of course DGS avoids asking her. He tells us he will ask the TAs for help just not her. She has never actually sat down and chatted to him, never listened to him read (he reads to the SENCO TA who is pleased with his progress), she has never discussed his IEP with him although the form says she is supposed to. Everything is just so negative, no wonder DGS is biting his nails and counting the days until his next holiday and we can't wait for this school year to be over.

Sorry to rant, needed to get that out of my system, but basically I feel teachers can't always do the best for every child, and it's not always their fault, the curriculum just seems far too rigid.

Don't leave Teacher11 - I've just read this thread for the first time and I'm embarrassed to admit that my views on this are probably more extreme than yours. Not blaming Katek for what she did, I would probably do the same nowadays with a poorly child.
When our children were young we didn't have a TV . They used to Listen with Mother, radio, that's all.We did get one eventually, but as they got older got rid of it again. Husband was a TV engineer and was horrified at people's reaction when their tv wasn't working. So ours were outside finding out about the world.
Both sons have children and are fairly strict on watching hours etc. Daughters not so strict.
We had a neighbour with 2 very young children and they seemed to be continuously fixated on tv, even in the car they had some gadget playing cartoons fixed to the seat in front of them. Easy transition from that to ipads iphones etc.
This is a subject for parents to make their own decisions about how to bring up their children, but I think the dangers of over-exposure to visual images are under-estimated.

That would be a shame Teacher11 - I am not getting at you; it is just an interesting debate about education and what it means,how it is practised by different teachers, the influence of government policy on all this, and on teacher job satisfaction. I find it all interesting, particularly as it is so fundamental to the future that we send children out into the world who are confident and have had a well-rounded education. - people will have different views - that's fine - that's life. It's not personal.

Hi Teacher. As one that has left because of bad vibes from some Gners, then when, I had so many messages of support that I felt a right idiot for leaving, I returned.
If you are in least bit controversial etc, you will get criticised, but the critics are always the loudest voices, those that support your views are often unheard.
Some think that I should behave in a restrained way as this is an online forum. Personally I behave in the same way as RL, what you get is what I really am, love or loath it. So long as you are honest and don't get personal (as in RL), just be yourself. I never deliberately go out to upset people, but surly will from time to time as in RL.

So Stick with us Teacher and pop into Soops Kitchen for a friendly chat.

Actually, CBA.

I have actually agreed with you on this thread. You ignored me. I will now throw a strop. ok?

And don't change your name.

Oh don't be daft Teacher. And don't leave either. It's a right pain in the bum once you have left because you can't choose which way up you want to read the threads. And you can't click on profiles. etc. etc.

Go for something soft and fluffy perhaps ..... A telly tubby?

How do you change your name? (And should mine be 'Adolf'?

Teacher11 .... that would be a shame. Can you not just change your name? We get upset because we care.

To Luckygirl.

My first and foremost priority for my own children and those I taught was that they should be happy, secure and comfortable as children don't learn unless they are. Once they were at ease my next priority was to get the children I taught the best results of which they were capable.

As the social worker above posted, those who work with the public are often 'damned if they do, damned if they don't.' You can't please everyone but if there is one subject about which everyone is an expert it is education as everyone went to school and everyone had contact with teachers.

To other posters,

I seem to have attracted extreme opprobrium for the views which I expressed and for some I didn't!

I am bowing out now. I have tried (twice) to resign from Gransnet in the past hour and am not having much success. Hopefully, they will delete my account soon.

I agree,*Luckygirl*, I think the national curriculum is far too prescriptive for the teacher and too limiting for the pupil. We should be allowed to take the good bits from it and ignore the rest. No one practises for SATs in my school but we achieve higher results than the school close by which spends months rehearsing the papers. This is in addition to Art, Music, Drama ..... even Jazz Dance, horse riding and other activities we enjoy. There is a way to incorporate it all and I am certainly not a fan of measuring everything by academic achievement.
Some teachers, usually the under confident or, dare I say lazy ones, just blindly toe the line and tick the boxes and others must get stressed out having to teach from a specification they don't really agree with ............ surely then it becomes just a job, not a vocation.

It is interesting to think about what education is for - I think that it is easy to lose sight of this. Lillie quite rightly says "we're all aiming for the best results possible" but I guess it depends what you mean by best results - it seems to have come to mean passing SATs and making the prescribed progress at each level to make the data look good for the school. There is also an element of rushing the children through - the concept that early and speedy progress is good and anything else is bad - thereby rushing children through their childhoods.

I am not blaming teachers for this - not all teachers buy into the edicts from above from politicians. But some do, and even those who don't are put under pressure to abandon their ideas of what true education means and to toe the line.

I find all this very disturbing and see some of the effects on our children.

From my point of view our poster Teacher11 gives the impression of buying into it and that is what I have been taking issue with. I would be interested to hear your comments about this.

I just think that people who are trying to support an OP resent being lectured and spoken to as if they are children who know nothing.
That is probably what has annoyed other posters.

I think almost everyone on GN is simply trying to do the best they can, be they on this thread a teacher or a gran.
I have always taught in the private sector and feel lucky to be able to just be ME in the classroom and beyond. Of course I still have to strive to make the pupils achieve their potential, and of course there is the occasional politics in the staffroom, and of course the parents are an issue. However, it seems to me we're all aiming for the best results possible - just taking different paths to reach them - and if it works for you, do it!

Well, I have been accused of being aggressive, defensive, too pedantic, of hot housing too early, of being smug, of using the wrong Gransnet name, of being a bad teacher, of rising to the bait too easily and of of employing jargon. Phew!

Judthepud the children I most enjoy working with come from socially deprived backgrounds ... I was the child from the council estate with an alcoholic father, a manic depressive mother who was often absent through ill health (Dad used to take me to the pub to keep an eye on me!) and although I went to a grammar school, in the days where you really were made to 'know your place' I was ever aware of my background - I wasn't given the lead part in a school play in sixth form because ' You don't speak properly'. I HATED secondary school and dropped out during A-level years. I went back to college in my late 20s and went on from there.
I am now passionate about education because I see the value of it, most especially for disadvantaged children for whom it is a route to a better life. And I hope I can show some of the sensitivity and pastoral support that was so lacking in my own educational years.

Surely consigning teachers to room 101 is a bit harsh! Most primary teachers now are IMO absolutely wonderful doing stirling work often with difficult children.In our day maybe not so much, but we have all learnt things important to us in our school days. I could still name several teachers who have had a major impact enthusing me for a range of learning opportunities.

BTW I was a teacher too, but of adult learners coming back to make up for missed opportunities. They were a joy to teach.

Ok.. so most of us on this thread seem to have arrived at the consensus that, like dieting a mixed diet in small doses is probably the best. 'All things in moderation ' really applies with children's development, and no-one, surely, dumps babies and toddlers in front of the tv all day.

I well remember in the 70s loading the kids into the car and setting off for 3 or 4 weeks annual holiday which involved several days driving through France to S.Spain armed with endless cassettes of The Tales of Beatrix Potter, TTTE, etc . No earphones, so we all had to listen until after endless repeats of the Flopsy Bunnies, DH would be pleading for a bit of Nana Mouskouri, or, at a push, James Last. When all else failed there was always the default position....I Spy... aargh!

Nowadays it seems as if no journey with children can be undertaken without each one having an iPad, or a personal DVD player attached to the back of the passenger seat . The audio cassettes may have driven us adults bonkers, but at least we were slightly connected to our children, now they do seem to be oblivious of their surroundings, scenery or mum and dad. Don't get me wrong... I'm far from being a Luddite , I've enthusiastically embraced Kindled, iPhones etc, but this 'advance ' in modern technology seems a bit sad.

Apologies for wandering off-thread

I disagree with teacher11....some of the children's programmes are brilliant and educational. I was a teacher for 36 years and I see nothing wrong with little ones watching selected programmes. I have been amazed at how my 2 year old granddaughter has taken in so much. It comes out in her role play and in her talk. We spend hours reading to her and I would venture to say quite strongly don't just stick to picture books. She loves stories and non fiction too. Her vocabulary is amazing and she uses words like 'ingredients' which she has picked up from a CBeebies cookery programme. Anyway, they are so little and fir some watching a to programme is a bit of downtime. As long as they are having lots of different play experiences, both inside and outside, they are talked with, played with etc they will thrive. Rant over!.

It does seem rather odd to use ones former profession as a username, it sounds smug and that's possibly why some people's responses have been a bit snippy. We have doctors, dentists and social workers on GN among many other occupations but they don't bring it to our attention with every post!