Literacy and numeracy programs threatened by “social engineering”

[nero_bolt]

Parents now days expect teachers to teach their kids what they as parents should. The kids are not learning the there R's any more, no time with all the  social engineering rubbish the teachers have to teach

Literacy and numeracy programs threatened by “social engineering” 

SCHOOLS have become so overburdened with requests to teach life skill subjects that many are struggling to deliver critical literacy and numeracy programs.

The growing list includes learn to drive workshops, hygiene, finances, substance abuse, multiculturalism, child protection, values, civic pride and community projects.

The latest impost on school time is a call to educate children in primary classrooms about domestic violence and sexism.

Children and their teachers have returned to school with a year of feverish work ahead of them — but finding enough time for the core subjects such as English and maths is difficult.

The school week of 1425 minutes has not changed for decades, but the added list of teaching matter is placing extra burden on students and teachers.

The Australian Primary Principals Association has complained the new national curriculum is too crowded and has called for a reduction in the content.

In a submission to the Abbott government’s review of the curriculum the association says it includes too many extra subjects and reduces the focus on literacy and numeracy

The Australian Parents Council also claims too much is expected of teachers and there should be a national focus on how parents can help with lessons at home.

Executive director Ian Dalton wants parental engagement written into education policy to take the pressure off teachers.

He suggests regular parent nights where teachers outline the curriculum and talk about how parents can reinforce the lessons in everyday life.

NSW Parents and Citizens spokeswoman Sharryn Brownlee said changes were needed to ease pressures on schools.

“We do need to stop putting more and more community and parent responsibilities on to teachers and schools — it is not their role to raise children,” Ms Brownlee said.

“Schools need to be allowed to get back to their core business of teaching and learning.”

One primary principal in Sydney’s west was barely joking when she claimed her school would need to stay open until 6pm just to get through the workload.

Chairwoman of the Public Schools Principals’ Forum Cheryl McBride said: “All of society’s woes have impacted on what is added to the curriculum.

“In secondary schools kids are even learning to drive and we are teaching obesity through PDHPE (Personal Development, Health and Physical Education). It just goes on and on.

“Whatever is happening out there in society schools have to teach the kids how to do it or not to do it. Even the banks are contacting us about units of work they have developed for kids’ numeracy and financial literacy. ”

Many programs offer value for students and are not mandatory but they can be demanding of teachers’ time. Some have been criticised as amounting to little more than “social engineering”.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/literacy-and-numeracy-programs-threatened-by-social-engine...  

[spotweldersfriend]

Hygiene's a leftist value? So what does that make the right?;)

[donnashuggy]

Full of it

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@spotweldersfriend wrote:
Hygiene's a leftist value? So what does that make the right?;)

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[*crikey*mate*]

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP, but for very different reasons than their opinions of what an education includes.

One of the three main purposes of a State provided education is to socialize the citizens (kids) into what society needs at a partiucular point in time.

Way back then in "the old days" when the three R's were paramount, was following the industrial revolution and the transgression of the underclass to acheive literacy. Before this, the prolateriate had no need of literacy, they just needed to be able to learn manual labour, hence the reasons why only the bourgoise went to school to be edumacated.

Then we needed simople math and english, to count our sheep and trade and barter our goods, but as the transition from fuedalism to capitalism sped up, many of those long ago valued skills lost thie significance, especially now with things such as calculators/computers and spell check and *horror* google.

But times have changed again, with the emergence of new technologies, there is now no need for a person to cram their heads with skills or undertake tasks that technology can perform for them, insert instead, the need to learn the skills relevant and needed for the society in which they are being groomed to be immersed in.

Someone up there said something like there are so many new things now that have to be included into the school curriculum these days - and yep, they're right, and the reasons why much of these are needed to be included in the schools is because the skills are so new that the parents simply don't know how to teach and show the kids - so where else but in the sorting houses of society, should these skills be introduced to ensure that every child has access to the essential skills that they will need to be of use to society as we move away from labour intesnsive means of production into the age of production of and access to knowledge?

Disclaimer - not saying I agree with all that, but that's the theiory behind it all -

it all comes down to what the real intention/purpose of education is, not what we think it should be.

[acacia_pycnantha]

The purpose of education in our schools is and has been to produce "good little obedient citizens" who will put up with being exploited by their employers and suck it up and pay their taxes and who will cause minimal social disruption in pursuit of what they obsteperously claim is a "fair wage" for their often hard labour.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@acacia_pycnantha wrote:

The purpose of education in our schools is and has been to produce "good little obedient citizens" who will put up with being exploited by their employers and suck it up and pay their taxes and who will cause minimal social disruption in pursuit of what they obsteperously claim is a "fair wage" for their often hard labour.

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exactly, you pretty much summed up the three main purposes of education.

1) sorting house of society

2) a produce an amenable workforce for a particular point in time

3) socialize people into the societal "norm"

[acacia_pycnantha]

I think my explanation has more of a literary, not to say poetic, resonance to it. 😉

[*crikey*mate*]

yeah, but yours had big words in it that I had to google

[acacia_pycnantha]

Who needs schools now we have the internet?

[*crikey*mate*]

a) someone has to teach us how to use thwe internet

b) someone has to teach us how to source the knowledge available on the internet

c) we still have to be socialized into societal norms cos we still have to go to the store to buy our computers and learn to stand in lines, wait our turn and say please and thankyou etc etc etc

d) oh and we still have to learn how to create persuasive arguments for those times when we are dealing with our internet providers, and

e) in case we aspire to be a Lithium mod, we have to learn effective methods of dispute resolution and be able to determine which contributions are valued and which ones aren't.

(Now there's an oxymoron for ya - does that mean that the Mods don't value our contributions provided in the posts that are on the boards? Asking cos they never go out of their way to tell me that they value THOSE contributions.

[spotweldersfriend]

If everyone could work for Gina for $2 a day, we could do away with schools altogether