boys-aged-three-must-work-more

[mrz]

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/boys-aged-three-must-work-more-1852087.html

its not silly when you realise that kids who can't write may start school at no particular disadvantage (compared with , say, kids who are just clumsy, or socially awkward..), but as the teaching style gets increasingly sedentary and un-playful they just get increasingly left behind.

writing in itself is pretty dull - though not being good at it is a barrier to many other things going well.

imagine having to do endless repetitions of t - 't' - t at the age of eight - yawnfest....that sort of thing can be made quite entertaing for littlies though.

EdgarAleNPie don't you find spending £Ks to produce leaflets telling early years practitioners that they should be doing exactly what they do already a pretty pointless waste of money in a recession?

One thing I don't get is why it is often seen as a choice between sedentary formal learning and unstructured touchy feely wandering around the classroom, as if those were the only two alternatives.

Surely, there would be other ways of engaging the attention of young boys (and girls), such as outdoor play, exploring the neighbourhood, crafts, cooking, more physical play, helping to prepare lunch etc.

Def a fan of northern European idea of letting kids start school much much later.

Also was intereted that DS who's always been into words (4.5) had a new (school) nursery teacher in Sept who said at parents evening that she finds boys not interstedin tracing letters using tracing paper and sitting quietly that's much more for girls. She said her experience was that they really enjoy learning letters by doing it with sand outside etc. Sure enough DS who always liked chalking on pavements etc, now makes his name with anything he can get hsi hands on.

God sign imo.

In v v general terms Also think schools a very girl centric. Lots of sitting quietly, concentrating etc and role play. Boys are quite different to girls, a la steve biddulph and I approve of anything that means schools take boys and more active kids, into account.

Don't get me started on playing guns in schools ...

,,, because I approve, in given context, and I don't think anyone will like it!