A youthful theme to some of the topics that have provoked the most interesting conversation today, with stories on education, health and nutrition and children in the workplace all below.
To join in you can click on the links in the comments below to expand and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments worth reading as the day goes on.
Children as young as two grouped by ability in English nurseries
Half of nursery teachers surveyed for this piece said they separated under-fives for reading, raising fears over impact on children’s confidence. You’ve been sharing your reaction in the comments.
‘Setting by ability has nothing but a detrimental effect on the least able children’
Research conducted in British schools since the 1980s has overwhelmingly concluded that setting by ability has nothing but a detrimental effect on the least able children and has no impact on middle ability children. Given that we now know that academic intelligence can grow given a favourable context, if we continue to ability group them we are condemning two thirds of our children to a learning experience which inhibits their progress.
Seekingsomesense
‘Children don’t learn or develop when they’re stressed’
Finland has the best education system in the world and they have no ability grouping, or indeed exams, until the age of 18. Children don’t learn or develop when they’re stressed. Stop this insanity.
Autonova1
Children in poor areas exposed to five times as many fast food takeaways
You’ve also been sharing your thoughts beneath an article that says increasing numbers of fast food takeaways are springing up close to schools in England, with pupils in the most socially deprived areas exposed to five times as many outlets as their richest peers.
‘Even as an adult I struggle to buy something healthy on the high street’
Won’t schools in a densely packed urban environment have more of everything located closer to the school? I would bet they have more convenience stores, coffee shops and charity shops within 400m as well.
Deprived or not, give a kid money for lunch and they will likely but junk food. If these places are removed, is the assumption that kids will suddenly purchase healthy food? Where from? Even as an adult I struggle to buy something healthy for lunch on the high street.
RDUK123
‘It seems that priorities are very skewed in some families’
I worked as a teacher in what would be considered a deprived area. A great number of the children who came to school got their main meal in the school. Their parents didn’t cook for them or provide them with a healthy diet. The children would get school dinner and then supplement their diet with whatever fast food they found on the way home.
The issue is not that these families are too poor to buy healthy food and thus have to turn to junkfood (although recent studies have found that, in the long run, it’s cheaper to eat healthily) it’s that due to either poor education or laziness, on the parents part, these children are suffering. It seems that priorities are very skewed in some families.
limu
Why should work be a baby-free zone?
This piece argues that with the right provisions the workplace should positively welcome mothers who would like to bring their infants with them. Here’s some of your reaction:
‘Why does anyone think the kid wants to be in an office?’
Why are parents more special than anyone else? Why does anyone think the kid, who has no choice in the matter, wants to be in an office with desks, scratchy carpets and a throughput of strangers walking past. Why should other workers who all have their own issues, elderly parents, sick relatives etc not bring dad with dementia into the office as well? Why are you so special that your kids should be forced into spaces with other people who don’t want to be responsible for them? No thanks.
Person77
‘Babies do not just sleep and breastfeed’
I, like many others, have sensory issues. Babies do not just sleep and breastfeed. They cry, loudly. They shriek. Toddlers are as bad, constantly yelling for attention, which they never seem to get, even when mum isn’t working. These are all creatures that have not learned to moderate their volume in public, and see me avoiding many “public” spaces as a result. I’ve had enough of needing to leave an otherwise decent coffee shop because some caregiver can’t be arsed to manage their brat. This can only be more difficult if said caregiver is working.
Lailoken
Comments have been edited for length. This article will be updated throughout the day with some of the most interesting ways readers have been participating across the site.
