UK Schools Ban Kids From Making Best Friends

reply to post by IAMTAT

Seriously, calling white people "idiots" is a racial slur

No it isn't. The *racial* slur would be saying they are idiots *because* they are white. I myself am white so that would be a very silly thing to say, wouldn't it.

Anyone can be an idiot and the PC police wont stop me calling out stupidity wherever i see it,

The point, that you have so gloriously missed twice now, was that these were white people taking it upon themselves to guess what offended the Asian Muslim community despite there being no such complaints from anywhere, as a result a storm was whipped up that kids couldnt celebrate christmas in school for no real reason at all. That's what made them idiots. It was another example of stupidity in support of your OP, had you taken the time to comprehend it.

The problem with this is once it takes hold across the country the UK Government will have a vehicle lure mass groups of people into compliance Ie, must all conform to the wishes of the state.

1984 anyone.. Brazil, A Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, Logan's Run, THX etc.

Originally posted by littled16
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

Really what it boils down to isn't preventing the kids from pain if best friends "break up" but to force the children to be friends with everyone, even kids they don't like, so that none of the little buggers feel "left out". They are programming them at an early age to do what is considered best for the "collective" rather than what is in their own personal best interests. Let the brain washing begin!

wow...so now if a teacher wants a student to form many relationships rather than just one friend that is BRAIN WASHING??? c'mon people, it's simply trying to get kids to learn to socialize with each other....i'm 60, and the very same thing went on when i was that age...many kids are shy, and/or they only know a neighbor kid, so getting the kids in groups and socializing is not a new or bad thing...too many people are again going off the deep end with this crap.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


How is it going to take hold across the country? Everyone agrees its a stupid idea and the government is not involved at any level.

It's not happening at any school I know of.
Typical drivel from the Scum.

Have to admit that it made me chuckle, I can just imagine the kids around here taking notice of what teacher/school/government say..Btw, that was sarcasm, given that the teachers have enough difficulty maintaining simple order in the class room, so I struggle to imagine them having the wherewithal and skill to try to engineer something so complex like this..

Originally posted by IAMTAT
Ban confirmed:

It seems bizarre," said Russell Hobby, of the National Association of Head Teachers, who confirmed the bans.

From the article:
www.examiner.com...

Russel Hobby (General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers):
twitter.com...

National Association of Head Teachers:
en.wikipedia.org...

edit on 29-3-2013 by IAMTAT because: Links added

Nope...the only part that was a direct quote from Russell Hobby was "it seem's bizarre" The Sun used the wording "bans" which could be their own wording/ take/sensationalism on the matter. Do you see the difference? Just because The Sun call's it a ban doesn't make it a ban.

From the same article Educational psychologist Gaynor Sbuttoni was claimed to have talked about the "school policy" but she doesn't use the word policy in her direct quote which says ..

"I have noticed that teachers tell children they shouldn't have a best friend and that everyone should play together," she said. "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," Sbuttoni added

So who is actually calling it an official school policy or ban?

Again...if it was an official ban the children wouldn't be merely ENCOURAGED to do something different.as was reported in the article..I stand by what I said earlier and I would like to see evidence from these school's that it is an official ban or school policy that a child cannot have a best friend. Because until I do I can't take what the Sun report's as factually correct and certainly not in the context it is reporting it.

reply to post by jimmyx
There is a huge difference between encouraging multiple friendships and amicable relationships between all students and forbidding a child from being too friendly with anyone in particular. I'm sure not all of your friendships are equal- how would you like it if someone made it a law that you couldn't be friendlier with a few people than you are to everybody else in your world, including people that you might detest? I imagine you would rebel! But if you were a child you would do as you were told and respect what authority demands of you- thus training you to be a future unthinking drone .

Originally posted by waynos
reply to post by JohnPhoenix

 

How is it going to take hold across the country? Everyone agrees its a stupid idea and the government is not involved at any level.

That's how these things start. A few teachers think it's a good idea. The media gets a hold of it. Other people get persuaded it's a good idea. The government sees this and helps spread the infection persuading more people. They start to actively campaign for this which is now becoming mainstream belief slowly over time. They change the peoples minds through propaganda. This is how they gain and keep control. Every government does this with no exceptions. Every government has used these tactics to change your mind over the years and you don't even see the subtle ways in which they have changed you. Same for me, same for everyone. None of us on this planet are immune. This is how government policies are pushed on the unwilling public. This is the best psychological warfare money can buy.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Whilst I agree with a lot of what you have said.....this issue being discussed is not going to spread across the UK...I can assure you.

reply to post by IAMTAT


...one of the many things 'best friends" do....

Some say that school days are the best of ones life. Some, however, are blithering idiots with all the intellect of a concrete garden gome, and approximately one fifth of the charm.

School, wether primary or secondary, has the potential to be the most harrowing expirience in ones life. I am twenty eight now, and I can safely say that in all my adult years, I have never been in as much mortal danger as I found myself in during my younger days at school. The pressures one is under, to fit in (which I never wished or managed to do) to do well (which I would have done if I hadnt been busy fighting for my life) and the constant exposure to the evils of other children, makes school a psychological, and potentially a physical health hazzard.

I find it somewhat appalling then, that those children who can find comrades amongst thier peers, who can find some measure of friendship and trust in such a terminally dangerous environment, are being denied the freedom to involve themselves in such a thing. Humanity in a group is and always has been a terrible disease, a pox, a bane upon the land, and upon itself. The mob mentality is well enough established, without this promotion of the pack mentality.

I hope the robotic souless halfwit that came up with this ban gets fed to a car compactor.

This doesn't (and will not) happen at either of my kids schools and I have never heard anything so daft.

It's also worth pointing out to the OP and anyone else who has stared whining that this would be individual schools making the decisions, not a Government policy, so can it about brainwashing or 1984 parallels.

reply to post by TrueBrit


I recall lots of my childhood being painfully shy and extremely self conscious at school, the need for being part of a friendship or group was more than essential, it was tantamount to survival, and I luckily always maintained these peer interactions to varying degrees, even so, it took years for any self confidence. I recall some other children that didn't have friendships regularly crying and never seeming happy, any attempts at making them feel worthwhile fell on deaf ears.

Children are thrown into school from such a young age in the UK and expected to intrinsically know how to deal with social interactions, little of it is taught, a lot of it isn't the sort of interaction parents can teach at home. Schools should be more aware of how taking children from their nurturing environment of parents and home and placing them in a socially unnatural setting of daily schooling affects the psychology of developing children.

How many animals leave their dependent children on a daily basis to a large group of other children and a disproportionate amount of adult strangers looking after them for 6 hours or more 5 days a week.

Reports suggest sending children to school at such and early age and the lack of teaching social skills in the UK isn't good for bonding. European Kindergarten models fare better for social skills, integration, confidence, and spatial awareness. A lot of societies ails could be prevented with better parental bonding and social responsibility.

An educational revolution in the UK is long overdue.

www.guardian.co.uk...

It's an eye-catching statistic. Almost 20% of schoolchildren in the UK are registered as having special educational needs, five times higher than the EU average. The statistic has inspired an eye-catching book title, too. The Tail: How England's Schools Fail One Child in Five is a new tome edited by Paul Marshall, chairman of ARK Schools, which runs a group of academies.

As well as this high level of special needs provision, there's another huge discrepancy between the way children are taught in Britain and the way they are taught in the rest of Europe: the age at which formal education begins. This issue is always skulking around in the background of UK debate, but is somehow never fully discussed or explored, no matter how many experts warn that it is damaging.

In most European countries, children usually start formal education at six to seven, rather than our four to five. Finland has the best educational outcomes in the EU: it not only boasts a high level of income equality but also has the highest age for beginning formal education – which is seven, a full three years later than many children here.

There are many reasons why it's not necessarily a good idea to get children learning in an academic way at too early an age. People tend to think that this puts more pressure on the less bright kids. Actually, it's not terribly good for the majority of children – academically or psychologically. But, interestingly, it can be the brightest children who fare least well, when their natural curiosity about the world, and instinctive eagerness to learn about it, is institutionally curtailed in favour of prescriptive learning. People think that clever kids will always be spotted and always thrive. It's a wrong assumption. The charity Potential Plus UK advocates for "gifted" children. It argues that such children often underachieve for a variety of reasons, including: an inability to manage time; disorganisation and frequently losing things; lack of intrinsic motivation to succeed; problems with friendships; bullying; being disruptive, confrontational or disrespectful in class; difficulty concentrating; poor handwriting and overall poor presentation of work, and perfectionist personality type – resulting in resisting work that is deemed more challenging because the fear of failure.

In fact, a talented child can look a lot like a child who has significantly little in the way of talent. Sometimes it's simply because they are tired at school – they often have trouble sleeping because their brains won't stop. Here's another list, this time of learning difficulties that "gifted" but underachieving children are often misdiagnosed as having: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; oppositional defiant disorder; depression; bipolar disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder or obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and Asperger's syndrome. As far as the last is concerned, Asperger's is frequently misdiagnosed in gifted children. That was partly why the American Psychiatic Association this year dropped the Asperger's diagnosis from the fifth edition of its highly influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

The video in this post ^^^^^^^^ shows how these government bureaucratic sociopaths are ignoring real and important reports for our children's futures, for these illogical decisions that affect so many children and families for a very long time, and should be removed from their positions henceforth.

From punishing financially those that need it most, to punishing children for not being the sort to sit mindlessly when they are not at a developmental age to do so, is abuse of power at it's worst.

The video quotes the government as being guilty of following a biblical quote Matthew 13:12

Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.

I will never trust any UK politician, look into their eyes and they all seem soulless, empty, robotic, spouting words that do not make sense, making false assumptions and speaking with forked tongues. Revolution is required.

The Sun story is extremely suspect as it doesn't give any specific examples. It doesn't name any schools where this policy is being enforced. There's also no follow-up to the article. I would have thought that if it was true they'd have had dozens of irate parent contacting them to say how their child was affected by this.

I can also say that this doesn't happen at either of the schools my two children attend.