Posts by Kerry Weston
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But aren't I lucky? My son can leave school in February if he wants to, when he turns 16. I won't have to face the Truancy Brigade.
And I have to say, that as far as literacy is concerned, the best thing I ever did was teach my boys to read before they went to school, kept on reading to them and with them and expected them to talk "up" to my level. Perhaps the 1:15 ratio of teacher/pupils that's due to come in will make the most difference in achievement. It will certainly make teachers' lives a bit easier if they have to spend more time testing.
Interestingly, our MP, Simon Power, came to visit a local school before the election and assured the teaching staff that the "testing" legislation was merely putting measures in place to ensure that the current testing was uniformly done in all schools. As, according to him, it isn't.
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It's now about potential prosecution of parents of school-phobics etc. And liberals want the law to recognise that certain actions shouldn't be illegal, and conservatives are happy to rely on the 'this is about sending a message to bad parents' line.
Is anyone who has this inconsistency in his or her position concerned about this?
One of my fears about the s59 debacle was that a parent who did lightly smack would have one more thing to fear when it comes to dealing with truants, school-phobia or, indeed, any problems with their children. The person in authority asks the child "Have your parents smacked you?" If the child answers yes (whether true or not) then the parents would be harassed and blamed for that too - the child has problems because he/she was smacked. I simply do not have enough faith in those who wield such power over children and families that they can meaningfully discriminate between the multitude of family situations. My overwhelming perception of these people is that the last person they listen to, and believe, is the parent. They start with the mindset that the parent is responsible for everything, to blame accordingly, and the way to deal with them is to bully, threaten and scare into submission. I believe there must be a coterie within the Ministry whose thinking accords very much with National's.
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Tim Kong: Bravo! Long may you teach.
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newsflash - Jim Moira and the Panel are going to discuss truancy this arvo.
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Score me as another parent who condones their child's truancy. Fine me, jail me, call me names.
Pardon me if I've ranted about this before, but I can't let it pass. I've been down this path with my now-15 year old son. He was out of formal education for three years. you may well ask how this could happen - I did, lots. i did all the right things - consulted the school (where he was well-behaved & thought of) , went to Group Special Education, took him to counselling, Mental Health....A whole lot of meetings and form-filling and endless talk. No Do.
I never saw a Truancy Officer the entire time. I was, however, harassed by the NETS service (non-enrolled truancy) constantly threatened with getting fined & prosecuted, threatened with Family Group Conferences as I am a single parent,so plainly getting my son to live with his father (who doesn't care and refused to visit or help in any way) was their answer. Threatened with prosecutioin if I left him home alone while I went to work and he was under 14.
This year, after threatening the Ministry that I'd take them to the Human Rights Commission for failing to supply the education and the support for my son to get that education, that is enshrined in the Education Act, I finally got somewhere. Under a new scheme to support disengaged students in our area - the Manawatu Pilot Project - he was dual-enrolled at a high school and Correspondence School. He also, FINALLY, got assessed by a private psychologist who (surprise, surprise) classed him as Major Depressive, Social Phobic. I personally believe he is AS, but getting a diagnosis for that seems to be virtually impossible around here.
He still won't go to school - I got him there for one morning - then he retreated into Recluseville for a month. Amazingly, he has done enough good work under this project to earn an Award for achievement and has just passed some Unit Standards for Numeracy. It takes an enormous amount of my time to push him through the work, teach him, support him,cajole him. Plainly I don't work fulltime.
There are plenty more parents like me out there struggling and striving to do their best for their kids. It's options and support we need, not the Big Bloody Stick! -
One result is that is going to make it very hard for parents of children who are school refusers or school phobics. Watch out parents of kids with autism - they will be open to prosecution if their kids can't cope with all the stress of school and refuse to go.
This is horrifying actually. So when the kids just say "No, not going" what then? Those supernanny tactics of reward/punishment, timeout, withdrawal of privileges etc just don't work with adolescents who are determined not to go. Especially when those adolescents are AS, social phobics, depressives. It is not Bad Parenting.
And what are they going to do when a parent can't or won't pay a fine? throw them in jail? Who's going to take junior to school then?
Perhaps they'll put all these kids onto Correspondence School - too bad if both parents are at work and it is illegal to leave them home alone if they're under 14. But of course - I'm forgetting - Boot Camp.
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Just designed a calender which goes directly from the end of November straight to January.Very popular and much cheaper than the old one.
I want one.
darkwave
??
Is that some kinda geeky hairdo?
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I've long had an interest in art therapy and using any of the creative arts as an extra dimension to life - a way to live, especially for those of us who feel we don't fit. There's a huge gap where those creative ways of being could be nurtured. i do believe that finding a creative process is fabulously empowering. Whatever it is - writing, painting, singing, music. There used to be quite a strong movement around art therapy but it seems to have waned in the last two decades. It's not about making stuff to sell, purely for personal satisfaction.
As far as sanctuary goes, wouldn't it be grand if there were publically funded Relaxation Lodges where one could have Time Out for a month or two? Honestly, we could do this whole 'civilisation' thing a whole lot better.
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Yes, Joe, I too am rather cynical about what "community" means now. Suburbia is, by and large, deserted five days a week apart from oldies, a few young mums & kids (very few as it's now not the done thing to bring up one's own children, but put them into daycare at the earliest opportunity), and assorted others who don't do recognised work. All the busy families don't have spare time & energy to care about anything much beyond meeting their essential needs and a bit of entertainment.
If someone's scratching out a living on a sickness benefit, they're not going to be able to afford sports fees or club subs or even to go on a proper holiday. participation is limited by economics, even if they're brave enough to join a club.
There's still compassionate people around, but the old style community where you knew all your neighbours and helped each other out is gone - where kids ran in & out of any old house in the street and got to know everyone, with all their idiosyncracies. People just pitched in and did a little something to help - and all those little somethings added up to quite alot.
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Around 1990, i worked for a while at a hostel for people with mental health dilemmas - about 12 lived in, with a fulltime carer, I used to relieve so she could have time off. I don't know how it compared to other similar places, we certainly tried to be a bit laid back. We had a big garden and grew quite alot of food, everyone was rostered for cleaning and cooking, or most would simply have stayed in bed or in their armchairs. I found humour to be my best friend in getting to know people and earning their trust. Most of our residents had been in Porirua, Lake Alice or somewhere similar - some were glad to be out, others weren't. Almost all would not have survived outside a supported environment where someone kept an eye out, organised, made the effort to be inclusive. Some had employment, others went to sheltered workshops, and others couldn't have coped with any kind of regular job.
i just think that there are people who need sanctuary in this world. And it's cruel not to provide it. There is a place for independent living and one for shelter too. As for "institutionalisation" - how many of us work in hospitals, schools, tertiary education, govt departments, etc etc? They are all institutions. It's not the building and routines that make it a bad thing. It's always how we go about running them.