Love to know what mum's think of the Scottish Baby Box poem

[toomuchpink]

Love to know what mum's - especially those in Scotland - think of this poem. It is going into the Scottish Government's new baby box of freebies for parents of newborns.

Tempted to ask for alternative suggestions which truly capture the experience of having a baby. But perhaps for some people this is what it is like?

Jackie Kay
Welcome Wee One

O ma darlin wee one
At last you are here in the wurld
And wi’ aa your wisdom
Your een bricht as the stars,
You've filled this hoose with licht,
Yer trusty wee haun, your globe o' a heid,
My cherished yin, my hert's ain!

O my darlin wee one
The hale wurld welcomes ye:
The mune glowes; the hearth wairms.
Let your life hae luck, health, charm,
Ye are my bonny blessed bairn,
My small miraculous gift.
I never kent luve like this.

Honestly, the negativity some Scots have over being Scots How true.

Your DCs love Scotland so much they are looking to leave? 🤔

Being negative about the SNP is not the same as being negative about Scotland.

With all due respect two what's disgusting is the reality of Scottish education under the SNP as detailed by Rose a few posts above.

I don't think there is negativity over being Scottish Twolf if you take the time to read the thread. 🙄
The negativity is about the current government's decision making and how everything they do is influenced by their raison d'être, independence at any cost.

Operations cancelled at NHS Grampian due to nurse shortage
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-38509828

But, hey. There is always (crap) poetry.

There's an incredible correlation between people coming on with cries of 'the makar' and how can anyone be mean about the maw wonderful boxes and the beautiful poem in them and posters insisting that the SNP's highly reductionist and exclusionary vision of Scottishness is the One True Way to be Scottish and anyone who disagrees with that is just embarrassed to be Scottish.

What the cybernats don't seem to understand is that Scotland is a diverse and interesting place with rich culture that goes way beyond The Broons. Or that political diversity is desirable. Or that it's perfectly possible to support independence for Scotland but not support the SNP (or even just not to support the SNP completely uncritically). Or that people definitely should be encouraged to question and criticise what the government do.

The baby boxes may be a lovely idea but they are not equivalent to 'giving every child the same start in life'. That is the most superficial and tokenistic view of inequality imaginable.

Even if the boxes were going to be some magic bullet for reducing or eliminating social inequality, there is no need to put a poem in them at all. The poem will have no effect on infant health outcomes.

I forgot to add to my list: that it's perfectly possible to not support independence and not be some sort of self-hating evildoer.

Being negative about the SNP is not the same as being negative about Scotland.

Quite agree. I love being Scottish. I was born and raised here, and am raising three kids here. There are lots of great things about Scotland.

However, you can still believe all of that and STILL hate what the SNP are trying to do. I don't think we'd be better off independent. I don't think we're different at all from people in other parts of the UK. I don't recognise "Scots" as a language at all - certainly not something I hear spoken on a daily basis. The odd word here and there yes - not lengthy sentences. I think the SNP are doing a shite job of running the country as they are so focused on their independence agenda that everything gets left by the wayside.

I also loathe the inference that criticising Saint Nicola and her cronies somehow makes me "less Scottish" - that is hugely insulting.

I dont mind people criticising the SNP. Thats the nature of politics. Cant please all the people all the time as long as you please enough people to get the most votes. What makes me laugh is the cant do people, the negative naysayers who scoff at everything the SNP do (the SNP could find a cure for cancer and some people would still find fault in that) whilst offering fuck all in return. Dont like SNP or people voting for SNP, then I and many others as floating voters would love to hear what you think we should vote for. And i think it is prudent that we pay attention to what is happening in England. Because the reality is, if SNP is not in power, then likely it will be Labour, Liberal or Tory, and only a fool would overlook the mess they have made of and are currently making of England and believe they could do a better or different job in Scotland despite having the whole time since Parliament was created (1707) but everything thats wrong with Scotland is the fault of the SNP who have been in power 9 measly years!

But education is devolved. NHS is devolved. They are a bit shit. The SNP is in charge. They need to sort things out. But, instead, they go for headline grabbing aren't we great Scottish things which are tokens and do very little. And their defenders keep deflecting onto Westminster, or mentioning 1707, or talking about the Tories, or the Labour Party.

Actually, NS has more credibility with me than most of her members because at least she attempted to accept responsibility before doing nothing.

OK. I offer you something in return.

Pay for proper school nurses / Health Visitors and fund it so that each child can be seen regularly and issues can be flagged up. This could be instead of the baby boxes.

Put money into adolescent and teen mental health services which are woeful and this could come from all the trips NS is taking to try to make herself look like a world leader. And by ending Mike Russell's new department (he, incidentally, wrote a book advocating the end of the NHS).

Sort out ACE. Until about 8 years ago there was a maximum class size in English and Maths in S1 and S2 of 20. No headlines, no fuss, they just stopped funding councils and councils were no longer required to do this, so it was dropped. Cue huge classes (up to 33) in core subjects and worsening results. Get rid of N4. It is worthless and easy. I had a pupil arrive from Overseas who completed the course, in English, in a week of class time! A week!

Getting rid of bureaucracy in education has been much heralded - but they fucking put it there in the first place. And bureaucracy costs money, so they are saving money. Oh, and John Swinney's brother is very senior in the SQA so he knew and still they present this as helping teachers. And the units are shit for pupils too, take weeks and have no educational value. This saves money which could be spent on putting teachers back in front of S1 and S2 Maths and English to work on Literacy and Numeracy. (Note, Science is a practical subject so maximum 20).

That should keep them busy for a while.

These are all things id probably like to see. Which party is promising these and has a proven track record in these areas?

To be honest, none of them. Under Jack McConnell (ex teacher) Labour did the most to support schools and education. He brought in the max 20 for Maths and English as well as capping P1 classes (also gone). Sadly, there isn't one of them who has really stepped up on education. Ruth is probably the most likely to get things done.

What are the SNP trying to do?

Out of interest, are P1 classes not capped at 25? They are at my DCs school - are there loopholes?

I agree Rose.

I think it's a very sad state of affairs when the party that prides itself as being the party for Scotland is seen as nothing more than the best of a bad bunch. This should be the time when they prove to us all that they are capable of running an independent country that would, under their watch, excel in all areas and demonstrate to no voters that they have no cause to doubt. Instead it's a bloody shambles.

It was 25 but lots of councils can't do that and are getting away with it. Also, in small schools there is now more "flexibility" on class mixes, allowing 2/3 exam levels in the same class. And in small primaries, there are often multi level classes (say p1-4) of up to 25. Should be 20......

18 for P1-3 was the election pledge iirc

Why is the mixed class 20? The P1/P2 composite class at my DCs school is capped at the P1 size of 25 although there are only a handful of P1s. I thought this was the limit. My DBs children in England were in much bigger classes when they started school. I'm glad my DCs got the benefit of the 25 class and not the larger classes they'd have been in if they were older.

In very small schools you have to have a bigger class mix surely. It's either that or scrap the school which could mean a long distance for the children to travel. My own primary school had two teachers - one class of P1 - P4 and the other P5 - P7. We were the last school in the secondary school catchment so the choice would either have been add another teacher to an already tiny school, scrap it and have the kids travel 10 miles to the nearest secondary catchment primary or change the secondary catchment so we went to the closest primary in the other direction (which would have gone down badly for a variety of reasons).

The thing I think is really shit is limiting the number of subjects. That was the big calling card of the Scottish education system, the broad basis of education. I had a uni friend from Africa whose DF worked for a global organisation (not UN but that kind of thing). He was sent to various countries to live and his kids went to boarding school. Friend told me her parents had no connection to Scotland but chose to send two of their children to school in Scotland out of a choice of the whole word because they liked the broad nature. Not now.

Yes, you do. My own kids were in a p1-4 composite,but it was capped at 20. Now, there are more pressures and councils are trying to find ways round this.

And in small primaries, there are often multi level classes (say p1-4) of up to 25. Should be 20...... I often had 28 in my English mixed age primary class although we had class assistants. In addition I often had 2/3 pupils with quite severe SEN issues.

Well i can definitely agree that SNP are the best of a bad bunch. Until the others improve (and it doesn't seem likely) SNP are probably going to garner the most votes. Its a shame that instead of attacking SNP, which seems to be de rigour these days, the opposing parties couldnt up their own game, bolster their own party and advocate the policies that the voters feel they could vote in confidence for.

Surely what Scotland needs is more schools built? More schools, more hospitals, more social housing and imo more prisons . God knows where the money is to come from tho. More social housing would hopefully mean less being spend on housing benefits for private landlords. Labour relied on pfi which was the biggest scam ever. Personally id scrap trident over baby boxes.