The trauma inflicted on the nation`s children

By Claire Fox

"Even if you’re not a parent, a teacher or a primary school pupil, you can't have missed that it’s Sats week. The media is drowning in tales of tearful tweens and the trauma being inflicted on the nation's children by the tyranny of testing."

"To be honest, while headlines scream `factory-farming education` and `inhumane testing treadmill`, I want to scream back: `Oh please stop whining`..."

"Why do those on the brink of life's great adventure of adulthood seem so cowed and scared, to the extent that they demand protection from offence? My argument is that fragility is a core part of many young people's identity because we socialised them that way. And that takes me back to primary school. In the book I trace a parallel between over-coddled children - pre-loaded with therapeutic concepts, encouraged to complain at discomfort - and the growing number of over-sensitive, offended young adults in academia. School policies in particular have promoted notions of vulnerability from an early age..."

"Every trope used in relation to the #LetOurKidsBeKids bunk-off presages the problems ahead. The parents' complaint against the government's primary curriculum is that children find it `crashingly dull`, urging teachers instead to teach `stuff that actually interests and engages children`. So lesson number one for these primary school pupils: if your interests aren't catered for, if you don’t enjoy what or how you're being taught, you have a right to storm off in a strop? Once we concede education should be sanitised to cut out the horrible bits, we're setting up future demands for trigger warnings when lectures might contain any material deemed unpleasant."

"But for me the most destructive aspect of phenomena such as Let Our Kids Be Kids is how they incite the young to see their problems through the prism of psychological harm. Irresponsibly, campaigners have asserted that pupils are `traumatised` by the prospect of failing the tests, with Sats blamed for inducing stress, panic-attacks and anxiety. Indeed Natasha Devon (who is co-founder of the appropriately named Self-Esteem Team) fell out with her government masters when she weighed in to the Kids Strike row by declaring `the culture of testing and academic pressure is detrimental to mental health`..."

"Claire Fox is the director of the Institute of Ideas, a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze and a regular contributor to TV and radio debates, including Question Time and Any Questions?

http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/05/11/stop-whining-about-sats-mollycoddled-children-will-turn-into

My criticism is that she conflates political correctness, mental fragility and testing in primary schools as if these different strands coalesce into a single narrative. That is not necessarily so. It is true that they are all being enacted in the classroom and we have a right to ask, towards what end?

Pupils must take care to exude British values, whatever they are, because they can shift and seem rather strange. For instance, it`s important to tip toe around gender identity these days and there are many more identities than you might think. Diversity is something to celebrate but ethnicity ought not to be mentioned. Sustainable development is an acceptable part of the script but do take care how you express that in terms of environmental activism or you may end up in front of police officers accused of being a future extremist. And don`t forget your family is under surveillance too. Political correctness and the politics of offence is being practised in school, and it is no accident.

As for what is being done about mental health, Clair Fox is correct that children are being pre-loaded with therapeutic concepts. Social and emotional learning is now part of the school curriculum so that if girls and boys speak the language of emotion and sensitivity that is because they have been encouraged to reflect on their feelings ad nauseam. Of course, the one thing children can do is dramatise and play it up; there is no surprise about that. Kids are playful by nature. It is a pity that they do not have a more enriching experience to play around with.

Testing children in primary schools is another dead end. So much of what is going on in school is a complete waste of kids` time. And yes, some of it is harmful. If the only language around to protest is the language of trauma, so be it. It is good to see parents getting involved.

At this point it might be worth having another look at UK Column`s coverage of MAPPA, the Police and Crime Bill and the growing networks around children`s mental health. It begins about 15 minutes into the programme and suggests a much darker agenda is afoot. 

　

See also http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-nurture-room.html

In the Scottish garden, Named Persons will be `head gardeners`

"Parents will have their status in the family downgraded by the Scottish Government’s controversial "state guardian" plan, campaigners have claimed."

"They said documents suggested that children in schools across Scotland had been told their new "named person" should be regarded as the `head gardener` while mothers and fathers are merely `gardeners`."

"The No To Named Person (NO2NP) group said the comparison was made when the legislation was being considered in 2012 by the Children’s Parliament, which describes itself as Scotland’s `centre of excellence for children’s participation and engagement`."

"It spoke to more than 100 children in different schools to help them try to understand the legislation, which will see a named person appointed for one million young people under the age of 18 from August."

"Children were encouraged to imagine Scotland as a garden, with each child a plant growing in it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/28/new-row-over-named-person-as-campaigners-claim-parental-role-to/ 

 

A plant appears at the beginning of the following video which is too big to capture. (See youtube link below picture] As the video scrolls up the plant, it can be seen that each leaf has one of the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators on it. At the top of the plant is the flower which consists of a circle with petals around it. The meaning of that becomes clear.

 

https://w;ww.youtube.com/watch?v=hnE4YesZwhY 

It`s moving away from the previous notion of the silos that we worked in to the spiral diagram that represents Getting it Right for Every Child; which is the child at the centre, with those services [PETALS] that they need wrapped as closely around them as possible, drawing the help they need through positive relationships that exist, rather than passing them on from one agency to another.  

And I thought, that was all there was to it; one joined up Enabling State with a stranglehold on children, until recently. Because if that was not bad enough, what has been happening is even more sinister.
 

I had recognised that children are instructed in school about GIRFEC and the plant analogy is often used. Beyond the convenience of pinning SHANARRI indicators on leaves (sometimes branches of a tree) I had not seen the full significance.

We have approached this incrementally, one step at a time; introducing practitioners to the concepts, raising their awareness, getting health to design the paperwork so that they are part of the solution and then incrementally beginning to use that in practice. So we have tried to manage it in a way that`s manageable for practitioners and not overwhelming.

An eco-approach - let`s not even go there with the symbolism. One step at a time, indeed ! They have also managed Scottish children (via the Children`s Parliament) by getting children to see themselves as plants and the Named Person as the chief gardener - and never a word about that to parents. All incrementally managed just fine as August approaches.

 

Have a look at another video: Children's Parliament: Having Our Say... 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdpZLPnHYLw

 

 Children were given the opportunity to have their say at a fun event with the Children`s Parliament.

 

A girl, given her voice, says this: "Family is the most important thing to me and to other people as well."  It echoes with the other children.

But these children and their parents are being undermined by a one party communitarian state which would put Named Persons in charge, with all the trappings of the joined up apparatus around that.

This government wants parents to be the last people to cotton on to this. They know that day is coming; they just want it all stitched up before that day comes.

The nurture room

https://www.nurturegroups.org/publications/media/nurture-room-dvd

"Aileen Campbell, Minister for Children and young people visited Pinkie St Peter’s Primary School to see some Early Years Collaborative work in action..."

"During the visit, Ms Campbell saw how the nursery and school is helping children develop their communications skills to support learning and build their confidence and resilience. With help from Puppet Animation Scotland, teachers have been trained to use puppets to help children to vocalise their feelings and emotions."

"This work is currently being tested using Early Years Collaborative improvement techniques and is already showing improved interactions from the children who have participated."

What they mean by improved interactions is that children learn to use words like anger, frustration, sad, embarrassed, excited, upset, scared. These might be useful skills to have when children progress and start filling in psychological surveys and questionnaires, but as an aid to building confidence and resilience I am not so sure. Young children grow in confidence by `doing`, not `introspecting`. In the presence of understanding adults, children should not need to worry about their feelings and have to spend hours explaining them. Behaviour is something else.

Last week the primary school produced a podcast talking about the `Nurture Room` which is a special room where children go to share their feelings. One child described the room as a very quiet place you can go to when something is wrong. The windows are big and lots of sunlight shines in. There are two sofas, cushions on the floor and puppets, if you need a rest or to `chill`. There are lots of games, so you will hardly ever be bored.

Of course, some children have special needs but that is another matter entirely. The point is schools are more and more mainstreaming nurture and wellbeing.

Parents, on the other hand, are being encouraged to read and story tell with their children to improve literacy, attachment and brain development. For many children, it won`t do anything of the sort because that will depend on what happens in school.

This is just another example of role reversal.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/early-years/early-years-collaborative/ministers-visits-to-cpps