How do explain school is important to young people anymore?

[Protheroe]

The fact is they didn't attend. Nor were absences from piss poor online lessons followed up. Many are completely lost to education and a productive life for themselves and society. Some even died when they should've been in school.

Any amount of whataboutery doesn't change the fact that the school is, or should be the central institutional focus of kids' lives. And the government summarily removed that.

We are seeing and will continue to see the effects of Lockdown for decades to come.

[Shabby Russian]

You do realise schools did stay open and teachers worked on rota?

But not for the vast majority of kids - particularly those that needed it the most. That's the issue.

It seems most of the teaching profession that did rock up to work survived too.

Which kids that needed it most do you think they weren’t open for?

The most deprived and those with the greatest educational needs. Tens of thousands have fallen off school rolls for good.

But even if covid had not happened, the exclusion if vulnerable children from the education system was something that would have continue to increase.

Sadly too many schools either subconsciously or consciously pursue strategies that exclude what they consider to be difficult pupils from their school.

Schools want bright, compliant pupils who have parents who are engaged with their children's education. SEN children are an anathema to these schools and must be discarded with .

There is an obsession with discipline, leading to situations where minor infringements of the rules, e.g wearing the wrong coloured socks, are met with punishments that are exercises in performative cruelty.

No wonder that so many children are put off going to these so called educational establishments.
As the Jenkins article indicates, by and large, primary schools are nurturing environments for children, but sadly too many secondary schools treat their pupils as units of production, denying children a well rounded education, in the pursuit of meaningless exam targets.

[CaptainFantastico]

The fact is they didn't attend. Nor were absences from piss poor online lessons followed up. Many are completely lost to education and a productive life for themselves and society. Some even died when they should've been in school.

Any amount of whataboutery doesn't change the fact that the school is, or should be the central institutional focus of kids' lives. And the government summarily removed that.

We are seeing and will continue to see the effects of Lockdown for decades to come.

And the impact of withdrawing all the vital support services that would’ve tempered the above.

You can’t rewrite history to convenience

---

You do realise schools did stay open and teachers worked on rota?

But not for the vast majority of kids - particularly those that needed it the most. That's the issue.

It seems most of the teaching profession that did rock up to work survived too.

Which kids that needed it most do you think they weren’t open for?

The most deprived and those with the greatest educational needs. Tens of thousands have fallen off school rolls for good.

But even if covid had not happened, the exclusion if vulnerable children from the education system was something that would have continue to increase.

Sadly too many schools either subconsciously or consciously pursue strategies that exclude what they consider to be difficult pupils from their school.

Schools want bright, compliant pupils who have parents who are engaged with their children's education. SEN children are an anathema to these schools and must be discarded with .

There is an obsession with discipline, leading to situations where minor infringements of the rules, e.g wearing the wrong coloured socks, are met with punishments that are exercises in performative cruelty.

No wonder that so many children are put off going to these so called educational establishments.
As the Jenkins article indicates, by and large, primary schools are nurturing environments for children, but sadly too many secondary schools treat their pupils as units of production, denying children a well rounded education, in the pursuit of meaningless exam targets.

This is just spot on from top to bottom SR

[Protheroe]

And the impact of withdrawing all the vital support services that would’ve tempered the above.

You can’t rewrite history to convenience

I don't agree with your first statement, nor do I perceive that I'm trying to rewrite history.

[CaptainFantastico]

You think if we hadn’t lost hundreds of EWO’s we wouldnt have had more capacity to support kids into attendance?

Fascinating view. What’s the basis of it?

[Protheroe]

There is an obsession with discipline, leading to situations where minor infringements of the rules, e.g wearing the wrong coloured socks, are met with punishments that are exercises in performative cruelty.

What is so difficult about wearing the right coloured socks? avoiding coating your face in orange paint? avoiding the use of false nails? eschewing dangly earrings? tying your hair up?

To be quite honest if kids find following these sorts of simple rules so difficult to follow I dread to think how useless / dangerous they'd be in the workplace.

And as a father, thank fuck there is an obsession with discipline. I hear about the low level and not so low level disruption every day from my kids.

---

You think if we hadn’t lost hundreds of EWO’s we wouldnt have had more capacity to support kids into attendance?

Fascinating view. What’s the basis of it?

I don't agree that the impact of that was anything remotely like the impact of closing schools and giving both (some) parents and (some) kids the impression that education was somehow optional. That's not to say that the government shouldn't fund more EWOs in the short term now lockdown has completely fucked up attendance.

[CaptainFantastico]

Fair enough, but as I say, vulnerable kids could attend during lockdown and the stripping out of support services meant many (as you rightly say) got lost.

This isn’t hindsight. We warned for years the chickens would come home to roost and we ended up with a barn full.

[Borin' Baggie]

There is an obsession with discipline, leading to situations where minor infringements of the rules, e.g wearing the wrong coloured socks, are met with punishments that are exercises in performative cruelty.

What is so difficult about wearing the right coloured socks? avoiding coating your face in orange paint? avoiding the use of false nails? eschewing dangly earrings? tying your hair up?

To be quite honest if kids find following these sorts of simple rules so difficult to follow I dread to think how useless / dangerous they'd be in the workplace.

And as a father, thank fuck there is an obsession with discipline. I hear about the low level and not so low level disruption every day from my kids.

What is the point in policing what socks kids are wearing exactly? It doesn't detract from the student or others learning if someone has patterned or colourful socks and I certainly don't see how it would affect people in the workplace to express the tiniest bit of individuality.

I'd also like to posit that there being an obsession with zero-tolerance discipline has not led to improved discipline in school as it's designed to keep up appearances and is unsustainable.

[CaptainFantastico]

It’s archaic industrial era new right thinking for a world that has left it behind. Managing discipline is a people skill, not a pair of socks.

[Ossian]

It’s archaic industrial era new right thinking for a world that has left it behind. Managing discipline is a people skill, not a pair of socks.

My recollection of the school contemporaries who did better than me at 'O' and 'A' level is that they were just generally more diligent, probably more mature, made smarter choices and were, often, simply more gifted. 

I've never had reason to suspect it had anything to do with wardrobe discipline or tidy hair.