Schools ban children making best friends

Originally posted by LordGoofus
So just to get this straight.. the same country that has the most security cameras per capita in the world, that has schools banning hugs, or holding hands, and has special schools that deliberately label child as an "it" instead of "male" or "female", is also now trying to "educate" the upcoming generation to never form a close bond with someone else. I genuinely feel disturbed by what the next 1-2 generations are going to become, it really does have strong echoes of 1984...

God, I wish people would shut the hell up about the damned CCTV....

95% of the CCTV in the UK is just the one's you find in shops and businesses. Only a fraction over 5% is actually "monitored" and they are largely traffic camera's. This myth we are the most watched in the world stems from an often misquoted report that no-one seems to have read but is happy to lean on to prove a point.

You may be shocked to know, but US cities such as New York and Chicago have far more CCTV camera's actually monitored by "the Government" than any in the UK.

Originally posted by Golf66
This is yet another classic example of the State indoctrinating the children.

They want their future herds to lack the support of a close friend so they feel more isolated and can then turn to the government with all their problems.

Then the government can "solve" those problems creating a generation more accustomed to it.

Further - they want the herd to not have close associations with each other so that they will more likely spy and report on each other.

This is indoctrination - plain and simple.

Thing is, this is nothing to do with "the State", "The Government" or anything else except the school itself. Schools in the UK are rather independent and ones that are right next to each other can have totally different ethos.

This is nothing to do with some Government directive.

Originally posted by omegazap
Oh I see, it's in the UK!!! that explains it, the wankers are all brainwashed constantly, lulled into a false sense of security by an over controlling corrupt dictatorship. They will continue to do what they please, tell you how to take a shi# if they can.
Obey. That's all they want from you , part of their plantation state. This would be okay if they were sane.

What a total crock of retarded nonsense. You clearly are a plank.

I have nothing else to say to that.....

My queery here is what gives the teachers the right to social experiments with our kids?
This is going too far...obviously just more programming for the new society where everyone is dissociated from close relationships....makes em easier to move around.....no ties....

schools are prissons nothing more nothing less

This is one of the most off the wall things ive ever read ..All kids should have best friends in school i sure did one i could laugh and hold hands with or even hug and tell secrets to I also had other friends but just not as close..Maybe there having some kind of bulling problem and want the kids spread out who knows..Whats this world coming to sheesh there just little kids this whole idea is just outrageous!
peace,sugarcookie1

While the debate on this thread over what constitutes a "best friend" is understandable, isn't the main point of posting this article to alert readers readers to the insanity of governmental interference in the daily affairs of human beings? I don't mean that in a confrontational way toward other posters, it's just that my immediate concern (whether it be in England or here in the U.S.) is that schools often are used to "even things out," to control, to encourage "group think" while avoiding hurting anyone's feelings -- to the detriment of individuality and consequently to innovation and, dare I say it, competition. I say let's encourage civility, but without discouraging individual choice in most instances.

reply to post by loam

this is weird and wrong. nobody ever told anyone that they have to have a best friend. its a natural development in children and the breaking up of best friends is natural as well. it really seems to me that society is trying to prevent people from having any real emotion at all. how are these kids going to react when they suffer their first broken hearts? if they've never felt loss before, it's going to be terrible. everyday it is looking more and more like 1984. we're being desensitized and pulled away from everything that is real in this world- our relationships with people.

reply to post by loam


this is just dumb.

The only people close to me are my Family and my Friends.....All of whom I met while I was in Elementary school.

They were my best friends then and are also now. I don't understand what is bad about it.


Only thing I can guess if they don't want people getting attached to each other.

At my children's school they don't allow more than 5 friends to talk in a group on the playground, they told parents that is how gangs are formed! Ridiculous!

Good! having a Best Friend is Elitist, jeez the things people get wound up about, having you got some pants to sniff

Originally posted by loam

Schools ban children making best friends

TEACHERS are banning schoolkids from having best pals — so they don't get upset by fall-outs.

Instead, the primary pupils are being encouraged to play in large groups.

Educational psychologist Gaynor Sbuttoni said the policy has been used at schools in Kingston, South West London, and Surrey.

She added: "I have noticed that teachers tell children they shouldn't have a best friend and that everyone should play together.

"They are doing it because they want to save the child the pain of splitting up from their best friend. But it is natural for some children to want a best friend. If they break up, they have to feel the pain because they're learning to deal with it."

Russell Hobby, of the National Association of Head Teachers, confirmed some schools were adopting best-friend bans.

Just when you think you've heard it all, someone proves otherwise.

This world is filled with nutcases.

edit on 23-3-2012 by loam because: (no reason given)

Everybody should have more than one best friend. The best of the best should be their spouse if they're married, but the best of the best of the best should be Jesus, if you're lucky enough to have found the real one.

Ah a outsider gets in a posotion of power and decides that since they had no best friends No one should have any. Is it just me or is this a sad situation? Im sorry they did not have any friends growing up but its no reason to screw with kids. They have to learn life is not all sunshine and lollypops someday. Personally in school I had 2-3 best friends. The rest were casual friends. This is why I will home school my kids one day.

What ever happened to that saying - "its better to have love and lost, than to have never loved at all" ?

Stupid people in charge of teaching our kids. Imagine that.

This is outrageous. I never really had a best friend in my elementary years, but I would have never thought of banning them. I was a little jealous, but I was able to watch all thise kids litterally cry their eyes out because they wouldn't see each other every day as a reward. A little sadistic, but that's me.
The idiots here are afraid of the pain of splitting up, but isn't that a part of life? What happens when it is time to move out? Will these kids be so afraid of the pain of breaking away that they end up living in their parents basement for the rest of their days? What happens when a loved one or friend dies, they won't be prepared to handle it effectively. The ups and downs of best friends are a part of life which prepares for the difficulties of life in terms of social relationships, and depriving a child of an early experience of it can have... unforeseen consequences.

Im glad I live in a pretty conservative area......this crap would never happen in my daughter's school.
While I teach my daughter to be friends with everyone (and she is really good about that and very social) she has a couple of best friends....these are the ones she hangs out with outside of school. And the teachers are pretty aware of these special bonds. Teachers also try hard to keep the close ones together in classes as they move on to other grades....

There is also hand holding and hugging alowed (little girls are notorious for this amongst their friends) and even the kids can hug their teachers....

It is all about balance: be friends with everyone, but good to have a close best friend or two who always have your back, etc....

To whomever said there is no such thing as a best friend....I feel sad that you have never experienced that.
While im a very social and outgoing person myself, I much prefer my very close "best friends" over a large group of non-close friends.....