Did schools used to be like this?

[spiderslegs]

DS started school FT in January & ever since it's been a constant stream of missives, announcements, edicts & raised brow questioning from his teacher.

The first week he was there I had a constant battle with his teacher because I was sending him to school with a padded body warmer on, not a coat, every day she asked me if he 'has a coat, because we play out every day, even when it's drizzling' & yes, you do, but not WHEN IT'S PISSING DOWN. In which case his arms will get slightly damp, as will his legs & face, how would you like me to mitigate against that, full dry suit & mask?

It was warmish & sunny, biblical floods were not on the horizon .

Consequently, EVERY CHUFFING DAY it's been something, last week was battle of the drinks, they have a school issued water bottle (irritating in itself) which I sometimes put in, he has milk at break & a drink for lunch, I was taken aside twice for not giving him a drink - I had he just didn't arsing drink it, maybe they should have asked him to look in his bag again?

Would you like me to pop in a few times a day to ensure he has fulfilled his government recommended level of fluid intake - WOULD YOU?

On Friday the lovely mum that drops him off sheepishly told me teacher asked her to mention she did NOT LIKE HIS SHOES, they are difficult to do up apparently - I'm sorry, I'll get him some M&S footgloves shall I?

Today's final straw was the letter from the eco-co-ordinator that asked me to reduce waste in his lunch box & that they would be speaking to the children about waste in their lunches THEN COLLECTING & COMPARING THAT WASTE - so you'd like to make my son feel like a miscreant & social pariah because he has a Baby-bel rather than a dried up hunk of cheddar planed from a block would you???

So AIBU to want to run through the school screaming - 'I AM A FREE BORN HUMAN BEING - MY CHILDREN ARE FREE BORN HUMAN BEINGS - I WOULD LIKE YOU TO TEACH THEM MATHS, & READING & SPELLING BUT LEAVE THE REST OF IT TO ME PLEASE'

Am I ?

As a mother of DSs I think that it is highly unfair to think that boys don't want to focus on the whys-I can't say that I have noticed it with my DSs.

I have got into this argument purely because I think it is wrong to teach any DC the hows-they all need the whys.
The hows can get you the results and the bright DC will work out the whys for themselves. It isn't fair on the rest-they have a method, but unless they understand it they can't build. e.g. a DC may work with numbers like 345, but unless they fully understand what the 4 stands for they are going to have terrible problems with decimals -which in turn will make converting them to fractions a struggle.

I think she was probably more interested in finding the reason behind why some girls get less out of maths, rather than focing on "fairness". I think if it is indeed the case that girls tend to need more whys than boys, fairness doesn't really come into it, you'd give them all whys wouldn't you - because it's a better way to teach maths and that is what her book is about better ways to teach maths.

Fairness has everything to do with it.
Would the whys not be covered in a class of all boys? Because the assumption would be that boys only need hows.

You would give them all the whys. Boys may not want them but they jolly well need them!
Take my DS. He was in the bottom maths group (of 2 groups) all the way through junior school. In year 6 he came 2nd in the class in maths and they still felt he was better in the second group. A lot of parents would say 'what the hell is he doing there if he is 2nd in the class' but they assured me that he was covering the same ground but they felt he needed the security. He went off to secondary in the 3rd maths set, quickly went to second and then we hit the same point-he was doing a lot better than many in top set but they felt he was better where he was. In the end he was so far ahead of the second group they had to put him up. He got an A at A'level. He got himself the firm foundation-he didn't settle for 'how' and get himself in the top group.
My brother was similar -the infant teacher told my mother he was very slow, but once he had it it was there. He went to secondary modern-passed 12+ to grammar school and got an A in A'level maths.
They don't have to show brilliance early but they need those firm foundations early.
Girls out perform boys(broadly speaking coursework and continual assessment suits them) so if anything I think it is boys education that needs looking at-and they need the whys-even if they don't appear to.