Pubs V Schools

[Witchcraftandhokum]

I absolutely understand the importance of keeping schools open, but...

I live in an area which is likely to go into Tier 3 tomorrow, I personally know 7 people who have tested positive for Covid. One of which is most likely to have caught it in the care home she works in and 6 of which are most likely cases transmitted in school. I don't know anyone who thinks they may have caught it from a pub or restaurant. AIBU to think that the hospitality sector is being abandoned by the government?

Right? So few of our kids have their own sanitiser. Schools are paying an additional 20k a month in many places to source sanitiser for kids and antibacterial wipes but the majority of parents won't even buy them their own bottle of hand sanitiser.

Not only would it save us money it would mean less getting up and out of your seat to come and get sanitiser repeatedly ergo less disruption of their education and less close contact with everyone.

[quote letsghostdance]@dbml that's so true. The majority of people aren't parents with primary kids so...?

Also, as a primary school teacher, I have so deeply had enough of people saying that schools need to stay open at all costs because children have suffered enough, I just can't tolerate that argument. Everyone from every age group has suffered, children aren't more important than the elderly being isolated, young adults unable to get jobs and go to university, people my age having their first children and their parents unable to meet their grandkids. Children do not matter more than everyone else in society and I am done with pretending they do.[/quote]
Exactly, it’s all gone to shit since we reopened the schools. Kids are adaptable, they can learn from home. I’d rather that than encountering my local pub landlady crying to me in the street how she doesn’t know how she’s going to get through this.

[quote Marzipan12]@Enoughnowstop well said. Teachers are doing an amazing job at the moment. My son takes his own sanitizer, It's around 80p from asda, it's a sad state of affairs when parents expect the teachers to pay for it.[/quote]
Fortunately, people who believe that teachers should be funding resources and cleaning products are few and far between in real life. It's only on here that I hear ridiculous comments like that.

I bring in some sanitizer for myself, could use the school stuff but I think using your own bottle is safer. I don't think posters are thinking seriously about just how much sanitiser a class of 30 go through, twice a lesson, and then on to their next class and the same again.

[quote Ecosse]@noblegiraffe

Where do you expect the government to get the money for hundreds of litres of hand sanitiser for evert school in the country at a time when it is facing huge demands and reduced tax take (which will be even worse when furlough ends)?

The government simply does not have the money to fund cleaning supplies and hand sanitiser for every school at the moment. It is up to teachers and school staff to do their bit.[/quote]
It’s attitudes like this that make me so glad I didn’t go into teaching. Teachers you have my respect.
OP They do their bit teaching your child. And doing so during a pandemic. Maybe you should do your bit and get your child a small bottle of suitable hand gel. Superdrug has one at 75 pence. Take some fucking responsibility rather than dodging it while hypocritically whining that a teacher should stump up for your offspring.

My mistake. Not addressing OP but Ecosse

Indeed. Not difficult to see where some kids get their massive sense of entitlement and total lack of accountability from.

People always assume teaching in 'rough' (eg working class) schools is worse than naice (middle class) ones. There are pros and cons in both obviously but you tend to have (ime) far better and up to date and committed teachers in the former and far less entitled kids who think you should be able to magically stuff knowledge in their heads without any effort from them in the latter.

I despair that parents are seemingly proud to announce that they don't have the ability to motivate and engage their 7 year old children and that their children's mental health is solely dependent on their teachers and going to school.

Do people not feel embarrassed or stimulated to improve their parenting when they acknowledge these things?

And the very same people going on about the importance of education and how badly their children suffer if not at school are often the ones most disparaging about teachers and least likely to agree that the government needs to stump up some cash for schools to get through this.

It's utterly bizarre. I learn more about cognitive dissonance and the crazy lengths people will go to to avoid having to face it and/or change their views or self perception every day.

more entitled kids. Apologies.

@TheHoneyBadger. No embarrassment here. Did u even have to home educate? I did,;4 very long months. My son is a very bright, intelligent and able year 8 but it was extremely hard going. He didn't get as much out of learning online as he does having his amazing qualified subject teachers in front the of him. I'm a parent not a high school teacher with experience in multiple subjects. I'm angry that you have questioned parenting, it was a very rough 4 months up untill tne summer holiday and even tne brightest and most well behaved kids played up and got slightly feral due to lockdown, not much teacher input and trying to adjust to a situation which was frankly far from normal. Nobody is proudly announcing they carnt engage their kids and nobody is claiming kids mental health relies solely on teachers, what a ridiculous thing to suggest. Parents are saying it was hard, and yes often it was hard to engage kids because we are their parents not qualified teachers. Honestly I have nothing but admiration for all tne parents who got through this as best as they could and also for all tne teachers who supported as best they could during a pandemic and who are doing an amazing job back in school. I ask again @TheHoneyBadger did u actually home educate during lockdown because if you didn't you really have no idea.

Yes I'm a parent too and as already explained had to home educate a lazy disengaged 13yo. Did you not read my post?

I explained also that I didn't even expect him to be able to engage independently and sat with him dragging him through it. Did anyone think that they were just supposed to sit their child in front of a computer and not have to give any input? There are a few such saintly self motivated teens but ime they're very much in the minority.

Must have missed that one. Well if that's true are you not embarrassed to be judging g parents? Or are you perfect?

'if that's true'? are you implying I'm lying?

No certainly not perfect that was rather the point of my post if you'd read it. I explained that ds and I nearly came to blows over maths sometimes. But I got my imperfect arse in there and battled it out.

Where did anyone get the idea that raising children, let alone teenagers, was going to be some easy ride in the park?

Yes I also sat with my year 8 but like I said I'm not a teacher qualified in multiple subjects. It was tough going even tho he is extremely intelligent . I could have put him through the misery of completing every task but that would have been horrendous for his mental health now back at school, all top sets and not behind at all. Sometimes not going in heavy handed, not enforcing and allowing space is the right thing to do. If I had done what you did and dragged him through it I would have destroyed his natural love of learning, that's not something I want for my son bit if u are happy doing that to yours then, poor kid.

Not once have I said raising teens is easy 😂

I'm not a maths teacher so we wrangled with the whole it's too hard I can't do it from him and the wtf is this from me and watched videos and ordered workbooks and took advantage of the amazing times we live in where information from idiot level to PhD is freely available at our fingertips. I didn't go oh well my child refuses to engage with the work, this lockdown will ruin him and his education.

I got stuck in, we fought and sometimes shouted then laughed and felt proud of ourselves when we finally worked what the fuck Dr Frost was on about and understood how to do the damned maths work. I later found out that the teacher had set it to auto generate so the better we did the harder the bloody work got! There was swearing and meltdowns but we got there.

He's not a poor kid. He's one with an exceptionally close relationship to his mother according to all sources and we are closer for the rollercoaster we went through with lockdown maths. You'd also see if you'd read my posts rather than come straight in on the attack that we didn't do all the work either. I said I prioritised which subjects were most important and chose my battles.

I choose roll your sleeves up, actively involved parenting even when it isn't easy and even includes difficult emotions like anger and frustration. If 'u' don't that's up to you. I won't say 'poor kid' about your child though because I'm not a passive aggressive twunt.

Actually your posts have been very passive aggressive to other posters. I'm a very involved parent I also have an extremely close bond with my son who has never been a minutes trouble in his life and is excelling in school so I must be doing something right. What angered me was your assumption that parents where proud of not being able to motivate their kids, you implied they thought their kids mental health was the sole responsibility of teachers and that they should be embarrassed and improve their parenting . That is being passive aggressive, that is taking what other parents have shared and struggled with over lockdiwn and twisted it to make them look incompetent as parents which is not even remotely true. Rant over

I've talked generally about parents who post very passively about the effects of lockdown on their children as if they had no influence or ability to mitigate them. If you're not one of those parents you have no need to be so angry and attacking as you were in your first post or to suggest i have a 'poor child' because I made him do maths during lockdown.

You also seem to have misunderstood what passive aggression is - outright saying that some parents talk as if their children's mental health and engagement with learning was nothing to do with them is hardly passive.

I shall point out again that I too am a parent and have been very open about how hard it was to engage my son in learning. You may have a little saint but I definitely don't so likely my experience was more difficult than yours in some ways? I'm also a lone parent on a low part time income due mostly to health problems. Perhaps you too are a lone parent with disabilities - I don't know - but certainly I'm not some smug, claiming to be perfect or having a perfect child parent as you tried to make me out as whilst also accusing me of lying about having to educate my son.

Honestly just re-read and have the humility to go yeah I had no reason to be attacking you actually. That's what I try to get students to do when they've had a massively attacking and out of order outburst and I'm having a restorative meeting with them before teaching them again.

Another thing that really helps with those restoratives is if Mum is on side too. We then can work together and I can say come on, let's sort it out, I don't want to be another one contacting your Mum to complain about your behaviour and they know they're dealing with a united front who ultimately have their best interests at heart.

Reading posts on mumsnet where 'some' people are clearly totally antagonistic towards teachers gives a lot of insight into how the 'hard to bring round' or 'difficult to appeal to a sense of decency and basic manners' students get that way. Believe it or not we are on the same side.

Obviously the latter doesn't apply to you as you've already described that you son is a complete saint despite having trouble to get him to do the work during lockdown And yeah that was a bit passive aggressive if you've already been falsely accused you might as well go there.

Yes he is a good kid and never gives a minutes trouble, ;that dosent stop him becoming overwelmed by the sheer amount of online set work during lockdown. Tje difference is I know when he has had enough and when to stop and when he needs a nudge to carry on. It's called tuning into your child's needs. No he certainly didn't behave badly during lockdown, there's a world of difference between that and struggling with the amount of work.

During lockdown I was a teacher from 8am until 3pm, online live marking and uploading work or going into schools to look after keyworker children. Often I did both at the same time.

From 3pm until 7pm I was a media teacher; maths teacher; English teacher; DT teacher; Computer Science teacher; Physics, biology and chemistry teacher and graphics teacher to my 15 year old.

It was hard and time was difficult to manage, but I did it.

People seem to forget that teachers weren’t having a magical time off school and work...we were homeschooling too. We were googling stuff we don’t know and juggling kids and juggling chores and trying to work etc.

I know a fair bit now, about GCSE subjects I’ve never even studied myself.

Teachers weren’t living it up during lockdown. We were as busy as anyone else. If I have to do it again, I know my son will be fine, because I will make it so.

@TheHoneyBadger

Indeed. Not difficult to see where some kids get their massive sense of entitlement and total lack of accountability from.

People always assume teaching in 'rough' (eg working class) schools is worse than naice (middle class) ones. There are pros and cons in both obviously but you tend to have (ime) far better and up to date and committed teachers in the former and far less entitled kids who think you should be able to magically stuff knowledge in their heads without any effort from them in the latter.

I despair that parents are seemingly proud to announce that they don't have the ability to motivate and engage their 7 year old children and that their children's mental health is solely dependent on their teachers and going to school.

Do people not feel embarrassed or stimulated to improve their parenting when they acknowledge these things?

And the very same people going on about the importance of education and how badly their children suffer if not at school are often the ones most disparaging about teachers and least likely to agree that the government needs to stump up some cash for schools to get through this.

It's utterly bizarre. I learn more about cognitive dissonance and the crazy lengths people will go to to avoid having to face it and/or change their views or self perception every day.

Totally agree.

@DBML I appreciate everything teachers did over the lockdown absolutely. It's just that online learning isn't the right fit for every child. Teachers also need to remember that while they adjusted well to teaching their own kids during lockdown the majority of us areally not teachers so don't have the same skills,resources or time to devote fully to online learning.

Exactly DBML but apparently we just don't understand what it's like to be a parent

Marzipan even struggled with her halo wielding specimen of a child. Don't know about you but my teenager is very much human and required a LOT of my input like 99% of the 300+ kids I teach but I did it with him and do it with the hundreds of more challenging kids I have to wrestle into progress at work. And yes - that was on top of my 'work' yet sahm parents of saints struggled.

I don't think people 'hear' themselves.