If we have learned one thing over the last three years, it’s that schools are as critical a part of our national infrastructure as any blue-light service.
I have been a firm supporter of UsforThem during the mad Covid years and will continue to support them on similar policies.
However I am concerned that it is changing its mission and losing that rationale. I disagree with the campaign to force Govt to limit smartphones for children. I agree that smartphones can be very 'bad' for children, and adults, but this is a matter for parents. And certainly not for the Govt; I would have thought the last few years would have shown us all how the Govt cannot be trusted to look after our kids and giving them more power and weakening parental control is a VERY BAD idea.
And now with strikes etc. Clearly I don't want schools to close but the problem is not something for UsforThem to get involved in. One solution for this is to break up schooling so that schools don't all have the same salary, employer etc. If they had a local employer and the chance of national strikes was therefore massively reduced then there would be more chance for real local negotiation and pay that better reflects the job, the area and the school.
Keep focused UsforThem and don't just become a political campaigning organisation!
The very worst consequence of the past three years' lunacy has been the sacrifice of the young by the powers that be, to protect the lives of the very old, frail and sick.
Now we see the results in Broken Britain: young people with no prospects, children suffering multiple deprivation ,especially those in poorer families.
The education system seems to have fallen prey to 'woke' entryism, as parents are denied the right to question the insidious encroachment of transgender dogma and critical race theory in classrooms.
How can a society hope to function if its youngest are not encouraged to think for themselves, not taught STEM subjects properly, not introduced to debate, not allowed to read what they choose or not even able to attend a school worth the name.
Jan 24, 2023·edited Jan 24, 2023Liked by UsForThem
Voters no longer consider education a priority because it no longer means what it once did.
Shifting policies have made it more about implementing warped social ideologies such as transgenderism whilst the “everyone can go to University” agenda started by Blair has meant that a degree or masters it is no longer prized in the way it once was.
Many young people today know their best chance lies in their entrepreneurial skills which they have more chance learning themselves from YouTube than by getting 35k or whatever in debt. This is the route I will be encouraging my own son to take, certainly.
And “since the Victorians introduced compulsory schooling” suggests school is compulsory. Just to point out, it is not. Education is, but not school.
Everyone has the right to an education but everyone equally must have a right to withdraw their labour should they feel that necessary. Otherwise we are educating people to take whatever poor conditions are doled out to them.
If you look at the entire education system, much like the health system, it is incredibly top heavy. Digging through national, regional and local authority structures, government-funded ‘charities’ and other hangers on the public teat, it’s not hard to find additional funding for the service providers, without raising the ire of the taxpayer. The issue is that much of that sector is also protected by unions.
As to recruitment, it can’t help that education seems to attract only one political persuasion.
.And sadly the evidence was there right from the start. I am a retired Headteacher with 50 years experience in education. For two and a half years I have been writing about this---what we get is a shrug of the shoulders---"it just had to be "----NO ,it didn't -schools were not centres of transmission, children do not transmit, school closures had no effect on transmission AND immeasurable harms were done to our children---as I have been pointing out to our decision makers and will do so again this week when I meet a former Minister of Justice and current (MP ( called MLAs here) this Friday. I have also asked our CMO to confirm the above and that he will not advise school closures again. Do plz click on some of the links below for the evidence.
I have been a firm supporter of UsforThem during the mad Covid years and will continue to support them on similar policies.
However I am concerned that it is changing its mission and losing that rationale. I disagree with the campaign to force Govt to limit smartphones for children. I agree that smartphones can be very 'bad' for children, and adults, but this is a matter for parents. And certainly not for the Govt; I would have thought the last few years would have shown us all how the Govt cannot be trusted to look after our kids and giving them more power and weakening parental control is a VERY BAD idea.
And now with strikes etc. Clearly I don't want schools to close but the problem is not something for UsforThem to get involved in. One solution for this is to break up schooling so that schools don't all have the same salary, employer etc. If they had a local employer and the chance of national strikes was therefore massively reduced then there would be more chance for real local negotiation and pay that better reflects the job, the area and the school.
Keep focused UsforThem and don't just become a political campaigning organisation!
The very worst consequence of the past three years' lunacy has been the sacrifice of the young by the powers that be, to protect the lives of the very old, frail and sick.
Now we see the results in Broken Britain: young people with no prospects, children suffering multiple deprivation ,especially those in poorer families.
The education system seems to have fallen prey to 'woke' entryism, as parents are denied the right to question the insidious encroachment of transgender dogma and critical race theory in classrooms.
How can a society hope to function if its youngest are not encouraged to think for themselves, not taught STEM subjects properly, not introduced to debate, not allowed to read what they choose or not even able to attend a school worth the name.
So true, the children have suffered enough. It’s almost as if they want the next generation unable to think for themselves.....
Voters no longer consider education a priority because it no longer means what it once did.
Shifting policies have made it more about implementing warped social ideologies such as transgenderism whilst the “everyone can go to University” agenda started by Blair has meant that a degree or masters it is no longer prized in the way it once was.
Many young people today know their best chance lies in their entrepreneurial skills which they have more chance learning themselves from YouTube than by getting 35k or whatever in debt. This is the route I will be encouraging my own son to take, certainly.
And “since the Victorians introduced compulsory schooling” suggests school is compulsory. Just to point out, it is not. Education is, but not school.
Everyone has the right to an education but everyone equally must have a right to withdraw their labour should they feel that necessary. Otherwise we are educating people to take whatever poor conditions are doled out to them.
If you look at the entire education system, much like the health system, it is incredibly top heavy. Digging through national, regional and local authority structures, government-funded ‘charities’ and other hangers on the public teat, it’s not hard to find additional funding for the service providers, without raising the ire of the taxpayer. The issue is that much of that sector is also protected by unions.
As to recruitment, it can’t help that education seems to attract only one political persuasion.
.And sadly the evidence was there right from the start. I am a retired Headteacher with 50 years experience in education. For two and a half years I have been writing about this---what we get is a shrug of the shoulders---"it just had to be "----NO ,it didn't -schools were not centres of transmission, children do not transmit, school closures had no effect on transmission AND immeasurable harms were done to our children---as I have been pointing out to our decision makers and will do so again this week when I meet a former Minister of Justice and current (MP ( called MLAs here) this Friday. I have also asked our CMO to confirm the above and that he will not advise school closures again. Do plz click on some of the links below for the evidence.
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/what-are-we-doing-to-our-children-part-i
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/04/16/what-are-we-doing-to-our-children/.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/there-was-no-need-for-school-closures-and-they-knew-it-all-along/
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/05/19/we-know-the-damage-lockdowns-did-to-our-children-so-never-again/