To think the school have got this very wrong?

[anerki101]

Had an email from my child's school this week regarding the World Cup. The council have decided that they want to celebrate the World Cup so will be allowing the first game to be shown in school for every one to watch. They added that because of the human rights concerns with the host nation they would ask the kids to wear their football kits or team colours and bring in a donation for amnesty International.

AIBU to think this is wrong? If they are concerned about the human rights issues then surely boycotting the World Cup and NOT showing the game is the the best thing to do? Very happy to donate to amnesty but I still think allowing the game to be shown is a mistake.

I say this as a football fan who looks forward and watches the world Cup but won't be this time.

That comment isn't sexist IMO, of course women like football, but statistically it is more common for men to like (i.e. follow) football than women. It would be sexist to say no women like football, or that women shouldn't like football, or that women can't understand football.

You are assuming that everyone is in favour of stopping education for other events. Why? Watching a football match on tv adds NOTHING to skills or knowledge. There is no such thing as a "significant" football match. People may like football. They may love football. It is neither significant nor education.

That's not sexism whatsoever - just fact!!!

Thank you!

Why though? Not just because of the human rights issues, but can't kids just go to school and be told of the score after? I know it's kind of a big deal to some people, but when you think about it, why should football be the reason why class come to a halt, or is interrupted? So far, my son's school have interrupted/stopped sessions for the pandemic, death/funeral of a monarch, to explain to the kiddies that Boris Johnson had quit.... and we're now supposed to accept a group level world cup match in that league? Eh?

One of the local schools my friends DC are at is allowing the kids to just go out and play football if they don't want to watch it

and what about all the kids who have zero interest in football (either playing or watching)?

For me it's not about the human rights issue. Children go to school to be educated, not to watch football. Different perhaps if it was the final. It's teaching them the wrong priority - that education/work can take second place to doing what you want. I doubt doctors, nurses, shop workers will be downing tools on Monday afternoon.

I’d be really annoyed if our school prioritised bloody football over teaching. Add in the Human Rights angle and it’s a no brainer surely?

Thankfully, soccer isn’t particularly popular here, so it’s very unlikely they’d ever do this.

Maybe everyone could stop blaming schools for everything in life?

Here are the days and kick-off times for England matches in Russia:

Tunisia: 6pm Monday
Panama: 12pm Sunday
Belgium: 5pm Thursday
Colombia: 6pm Tuesday
Sweden: 2pm Saturday
Croatia: 6pm Wednesday
Belgium 2.0: 2pm Saturday

As you can see, none clashed with the school day.

Better that school goes on as normal and kids whose parents let them stay at home are registered with an unauthorised absence.

so no consequences to the kids who skived, and the ones who missed it think well next time I'll just skive too.

What consequences do you think should be given? The decision to let a child skip school is the parent's. You can't actually stop a parent from keeping their child off school. You can just follow it up. The answer to parents keeping their dc off school for frivolous reasons is not to make all students miss lessons to watch something that isn't educationally valid and which many of them won't br interested in.

@cansu

This is literally a schools choice?

There is no such thing as a "significant" football match. People may like football. They may love football. It is neither significant nor education

Very well said, Quveas
Nothing at all wrong with enjoying the game - each to their own and all that - but the expectation that it'll disrupt so much else "because it matters" gets a bit much

They can go write an essay on Kant's mercurial writings instead.😂

Remember when the Olympics were in Brazil? A country chopping down the rainforests and wiping out indigenous people who live there? Don’t remember people complaining about that

Lots of people can’t be bothered with football or actively dislike it and the “culture” that goes along with it.

there is no reason why a game of football should supplant education.

it’s stilly to suggest an ultra academic essay as an alternative for schoolchildren who think football is as boring . Funny how you don’t suggest those who chose watch a game during school time should be given this as compulsory homework.

Totally aside from anything else am surprised at the schools letting them watch , is this because the games are on at different times to normal or something ?

I don't think lessons should be cancelled to 3nable students to watch. I don't think schools should be expected to make the moral decision that it shouldn't be discussed or watched at lunchtime or whenever. If it is happening and will be screened on TV, why should people expect something particulat from schools? If they feel the staging in Qatar is immoral and unethical they need to lobby the government, FIFA and the UK sports authorities.

My post is ridiculous. Similar in content to the op's original post.
Group A: Qatar vs Ecuador (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 4pm)

Assuming the poster is resident in England, are children now being asked to go to school on Sunday?

@RedAppleGirl I assume it's the first England game which the OP is talking about.

I hadn't even realised it was starting until I got something of an interrogation from school when I made an absence request for Monday afternoon as DS has a medical appointment. Neither he nor I are remotely interested in football so it didn't occur to me that it might arouse suspicion. It might account for why we could actually get an appointment on Monday though when normally we'd be waiting weeks!
I would be annoyed if our school were wasting time on this. If it were the final, maybe, but it's ridiculous to stop lessons for the first match. Discussing the ethical issues is age dependent I'd think. It's definitely a good opportunity to get older children thinking about this kind of thing, but I would think it's a bit too complex for younger ones. I do see where you are coming from though OP - stopping lessons to "celebrate" and then making a point about human rights is rather sending mixed messages.

The ideology behind the match isn't something that most children would ever think about. Some will be interested in the football, others not. It's not 'sending a message' to them, it's just a game of football. They may have seen it discussed on TV but I doubt any child would be too concerned. It's an adult perspective.

I'm talking about primary age, not secondary.

It's because England's first game is on in the afternoon on a school day. It is rare that World Cup/Euros games clash with school times as they're usually early summer, and even if it is during the school term the games are usually outside school hours. Due to the WC being played now in Qatar and the game times, there is one England game that happens during school hours, on Monday afternoon.

I remember going into primary school early to sit in the chilly sports hall to watch an England game on a massive projector in 1998 and again in secondary school in 2002 one game was played during the school day but even the ones that were played at 4pm, the school set up the projector and let kids stay to watch as an after school activity. They even invited parents to come and watch as our school day finished at 4pm and some kids lived a distance from school so would have missed some of the game or had parents trying to collect them early so the school made the decision to show it so that kids didn't miss classes or the games.

It's not a new phenomenon, it just happens so rarely that England games have clashed with school hours that every time it does and schools try to do their best to accommodate them people get up on arms about it.

A lot of schools will then use the World Cup interest to spark other work - looking at the different countries in Geography, finding them on maps and learning about the topography of the different countries; Maths using WC data - working out distances of stadiums/countries, "If an England fan travels to X, Y and Z to watch England group games, how far will they travel/how long will it take?" Etc, addition/subtraction/multiplication/division using game data, working out angles of passes etc); English - writing a match report, writing an article about a team in the WC using persuasive language to encourage people to support them, creating a poster to advertise a country in the competition; Art - creating new logos/mascots/kits for the teams, creating posters or drawing the flags of the different countries; RE- looking at the fact Qatar is a Muslim country and how that is different to England as a Christian country; PSHE for older kids, discussing the human rights issues in Qatar; Music - learning football songs/creating their own and adding the music etc ... There are so many ways to incorporate the WC into the classroom to keep kids interested and also tie in to what is going on in the wider world.

I worked in Spain during their reign of back to back Euro/WC/Euro wins in 08/10/12 and even though they were in the summer holidays (schools finish at the end of June), I worked for a teen summer language program and in Euro/WC years we always made sure to make arrangements for the kids to watch their teams games during the tournament because we knew that if we didn't then they would just try and sneak off to watch games on their phones/hide in a room with a TV etc and it was a much bigger risk than just suspending regular programming for 90 mins.