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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To want to send my son to school in the 1970's???

34 replies

HonoriaGlossop · 01/02/2008 21:19

I am fed up with lots about my poor 5 yr old ds' school. Unofrtunately for him he is both the youngest in his year and also has hypermobility particularly in his arms and hands which makes writing and drawing and ALL gross and fine motor skills difficult for him.

He is at what is seen as an excellent school and his teacher is lovely....

but I just can't help comparing his experience to mine in the 70's, yes I am that old. We went in scuzzy old clothes, no uniform, we took NOTHING with us, no book bags, we had NO homework AT ALL, EVER! I remember lots of glue-ing and sticking and glitter...

ds has spelling homework every week and a TEST each friday, he is FIVE. Because he can't read fluently yet (at 5!) his literacy has been described as delayed which on further questioning is on comparing him to the class inc some girls of a full year older than him rather than to what is 'normal' for a 5 yr old boy.

He already tells me school is boring and he hates literacy and he is the most imaginative, enthusiastic child, so it's awful to hear that from him at 5!

i know what we need is an 'alternative' school but we can't bloomin afford private fees.

I think it all comes from successive governments' distrust of teachers (too left wing to be allowed autonomy).

Just wanted to moan

OP posts:

mumeeee · 01/02/2008 22:34

The school is expecting to much of him. I know the schools round here don't give 5 year ols spelling homework every week and they still do a lot of painting and sticking.

harpsichordcarrier · 01/02/2008 22:36

oh honoria I really really feel for you
if I could afford it, I would home ed
but I can't

K20 · 01/02/2008 22:36

if he's the youngest, ask to keep him down a year NOW (he'll soon forget) and then he'll be the eldest in the new year he joins and will cope much better + will have a year of reinforced learning of basics to help his reading

Kbear · 01/02/2008 22:37

I agree, I hate the homework, I hate the endless pushing, the standards, the tests, grades.

But when I was 9 in the 1970's, I was off school in hospital for three weeks and no one noticed, so in some respects I'm glad things have changed a bit!

SenoraPancake · 01/02/2008 22:40

honoria, you ARE being unreasonable to expect what you had (and there'll be things about schools in the 70s you're forgetting, like teachers ignoring bullying, fewer teaching assistants, time serving teachers - we had one who called all the children by numbers and barked pointless orders all day, and more things).

But it sounds like your son's school is pushing him too hard. dd has spelling tests, but they're informal and she doesn't bring the words home. she is also not fluent in reading (at nearly 6), but no-one has said she has delayed literacy. have you spoken to the teacher? you don't need an "alternative" school. just a better one (and those are usually about half way down the league tables if it helps ).

beeper · 01/02/2008 22:43

Homeschool him. Its easier than you think.

larahusky · 01/02/2008 22:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Reallytired · 02/02/2008 00:02

I think that my son's school is better than the infant school I went to. My son loved reception, but year 1 has been a real culture shock for him.

It might be horrible been told that your child is struggling, but its better he gets help now than is left behind. My son has an IEP and the extra help has really done wonders. Sticking your head in the sand does not help your child.

My infant school had the cane and you had to go outside to go to toilet.

I think you need a different school rather than an alternative private school. My son doesn't have spellings and only has really simple homework once week.

This week end he had to line up five household object in order of weight and then in order of size. Other homeworks he had involved going to the library and discussing the differences between a fiction book and a non fiction book.

I think some schools take league tables too seriously.

rolledhedgehog · 02/02/2008 14:54

I can relate to some of what you say about schools in the 70's - we had no homework, no uniform and no pressure really. I did not read at all until I was the in Juniors and I certainly was not labelled in any way.

On the other hand we did not learn our times tables which still blights me! Our headmaster was also a bit of a psycho who was not adverse to hitting boys (which no one questioned) including a boy with special needs. So things have improved in many ways!

robinpud · 02/02/2008 15:26

Is your ds in year 1 or foundation stage? IUf he's in year 1 I can just about understand the teacher's approach; if he's in FS2 then he certainly shouldn't be following a formal curriculum like this.
Why is it an excellent school?

Blandmum · 02/02/2008 15:32

IMHO the satndard to teaching that kids get nowerdays is massivly better than It was when I was in school.

We would just copy out of books for hours on end. That just dosn't happen in the school i work in . the kids get access to the internet, interactive media, have all sorts of things that we could never think about! Even the books they use are colourful, and full of pictures....never happened in my day!

Saggarmakersbottomknocker · 02/02/2008 15:41

I left secondary in 1980 so did pretty much all my schooling in the 70's.

I hated not having uniform for a start - especially in high school. Blimmin nightmare.

Some of the teaching was fab; my English and Maths teachers in particular. History was just like you describe MB - pages of copying from textbooks. Felt braindead after double History.

I think primary was better though - never, ever felt pressured and don't remember being tested except for the odd spelling test or tables. And no homework until after middle school. Teachers definitely had more freedom to 'teach'.

Lucycat · 02/02/2008 15:54

I agree that my primary teaching was great! maybe helped by the fact that most of my teachers had trained in the 1950s - stood no nonsense and knew what children needed and wanted to learn about. I was in primary education from 1975 - 1981 and loved it.

there was no homework, apart from the dreaded times tables, no uniform, except for Choir Concerts when we wore a blue and white stripey tie and we ran around a lot.

oh and the sun always shone

Secondary was dire though - apart from my fabulously inspirational geography teacher - hence my career choice.

Blandmum · 02/02/2008 15:55

Lucy, I had two excellent teachers, one for English and one for Biology, which explains my career as well! The rest were dire.

But we all behaved, or life got grim bloody quickly!

Lucycat · 02/02/2008 15:58

Absolutely! there were some vindictive bastards around - and I went to an all girls school at secondary - I sometimes felt that we were an inconvenience interrupting the smoking in the staffroom and the lunches in the pub!

although the fact that oliveoil and I went to the same school (same year too natch!) shows that some good came out of it all despite the teaching!

Blandmum · 02/02/2008 16:00

Large numbers of us went on to university (thank god for the old grant system!), so they taught us to work hard, if nothing else!

LadyMuck · 02/02/2008 16:14

Still can taste the Butterscotch Angel Delight.

Lucycat · 02/02/2008 16:16

ahhh

Ubergeekian · 02/02/2008 16:22

As another 70's-schooled child (I actually started in 1969 - eek) I'm with you. It's not so much the teaching quality - I had some truly crap teachers and some truly wonderful ones, and I am sure the mix is much the same today. It's the obscene pressure of test and measurement and the way quantification of children is used as a proxy for evaluation of schools.

Things are a bit better up here in Scotland, but having done quite a bit of work with English schools, teachers and pupils there is quite simply no way that I would even consider putting my son through the English state school system as it is at the moment.

Marchioness · 02/02/2008 16:24

Agree wholeheartedly with OP.
We are turning our children off learning with all the pressure of constant testing.
Give the classrooms back to the teachers, and let them get on with doing what they love - teaching!

twentypence · 02/02/2008 16:33

I had some crap teachers at Primary school but did love no uniform, no schoolbag (remember the excitement of secondary school because you got a bag), no tests, walking to school, everyone on your street going to the same school.

What I love about Primary Schools now (and this isn't very scientific because I'm in a new country and so it could always have been this way here) Starting on your 5th birthday, teacher's having the freedom to let the whole class out to run around the field at any time because they need to let off steam, playgrounds with several parks worth of play equipment rather than just tarmac with lines on.

Mercy · 02/02/2008 16:37

I started Primary school in the late 60s.

I had to wear uniform, had one or 2 reading books per week and started writing at the equivalent of Reception. I think I had spelling tests too.

But your ds' school certainly doesn't seem to be taking into account his particular needs. He should be enjoying school at his age

Original poster

HonoriaGlossop · 02/02/2008 17:06

aww thanks everyone, sorry didn't come back to this before, I am really suffering with a virus at the mo which isn't helping my mood

Interesting to read all the posts and actually, I agree of course there was plenty of bad stuff in the 70's. My school was in an inner city area but it was just an extra fab school I think. I know there were some schools then run by horrible heads with the slipper seen as a perfectly acceptable mode of discipline. I was lucky mine was a more hippy-ish kinda place!

thanks for all the thoughts, it's all interesting.

OP posts:

MinkVelvet · 02/02/2008 17:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bouncingturtle · 02/02/2008 17:10

I can't get over my dss getting homework - he's not even 7 FGS! I never got homework until I started secondary school!
And some of it seemed really complicated and badly explained so he gets really frustrated

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