London's Burning

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

I had a dream last night that I called Dani (and I don't even have her number) at 1am for her birthday. There was more to the dream, but it was weird.

taunting vixen

[infinite monkey]

I blame soccer.

[tw]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

I blame soccer.

Now that makes sense. They are so confused as to even call it football.

[Big Sarge]

Ref Sundae - I tried calling her earlier today. Got no answer

[Sundae]

I'm back.
I may enter this discussion at some point, but I just wanted to let you know I was okay.

Mum & I headed off to Cardiff first thing Tuesday morning, and didn't get back until last night. We were watching the footage on SkyTV while we were away, but I had no internet access.

On the coach on the way down we heard that there were rumours of trouble in Grangetown and in Splott (parts of Cardiff), but it must have been contained as we heard nothing more of it. There were definitely a lot of police cars zooming about on Tuesday though, making sure that trouble didn't get a chance to start.

Funnily enough, saw a photo in the paper when we were on the way home of a Welsh policeman deployed to London. How could we tell? He had his back to the camera and Heddlu printed on his hi-vis jacket. Heddlu is Welsh for police, although it transaltes more correctly into "keeper of the peace".

[grynch]

glad to hear you and yours are safe and well..
Wales huh?.. their licence plates should be printed with the motto

"I'd like to buy a vowel please" ( love the accent tho.. especially on the *ahem* ladies. )

[Trilby]

I'm glad to hear from you too, Sundae.

[Aliantha]

It's good to know you're ok Sundae. I actually think it was thoughts of you that prompted my dream of calling Dana. lol Weird.

[Sundae]

I dreamed that people kept congratulating me on my Australian accent the night before.
But in the dream I'd actually performed Steve Pemberton's part in the Go Johnny Go Go sketch, which definitely does NOT have an Australian accent. I was being self-deprecating and saying I'd been listening to it for about 10 years, so no surprise I nailed it...

And I think that came from twice being identified as an American on the way through London (I was wearing & stars & stripes top though, and carrying a tourist sized bag). I used to be identified as an Aussie when I was a teenager. Something to do with the way I pronounced some words.

Dreams tangle things up in funny ways.

[DanaC]

Politicians are lining up to offer tough talk. Apparently we live in a 'broken' and 'sick' society. Children growing up with no sense of themselves as citizens. No discipline in schools. Being failed by teachers and parents alike. They've grown up with a sense of warped entitlement, borne partly of state handouts etc etc etc.


OR:

How bout the fact that this government and indeed the last two governments have consistently downgraded the role of teachers? Their wages have not risen at the same rate as other professions of similar qualification level, so that they are comparatively low paid. They've been the whipping boy of three successive governments when it comes to child crime and lack of social cohesion amongst the youth. But they've been hemmed in at all bloody sides when it comes to actually teaching these kids.

In the tabloid press, in political speeches, in the constant refrain to save our broken schools, and start turning kids into citizens again, teachers as a profession are at best disregarded, or at worst villified. How can we expect children in schools to hold their teachers up as social models and respect them as a matter of course, when we as a society have lost respect for their profession.

Then I hear from Cameron, that kids 'are growing up not knowing the difference between right and wrong' and the government are going to restore a sense of moral decency in all our towns etc etc. As usual this is placed firmly on the parents and teachers, not instilling these values, and not providing a proper civic example.

OR: how bout these kids are growing up seeing their elected officials prosecuted for expense fiddling and outright fraud, the top police officials standing down pending enquiries into fraud and corruption at the highest level, and a financial meltdown caused in large part by the unscrupulous actions of the banking and broking elite.

Yes, parents have the ultimate responsibility for their children's upbringing and moral outlook. But to place the blame so firmly on to them and the teachers who are struggling to try and find a way to actually educate these kids beyond the test-passing exercises they're dragged through at every new stage, and ignore the wider picture is disengenuous.


Utterly hypocritical to stand up there and point fingers at a section of society that is 'without morals' when your own social group has been shown to be morally bankrupt.

[ZenGum]

Dana, someone should give you a column.

[Aliantha]

If the parents are not at fault then who is? Seriously.

If my kids misbehave as they do, I don't find excuses for it in the latest political scandal. I look to myself and recognise that I have obviously not got the message across properly so I try something else. Yes it's frustrating, and yes it's hard and it's also largely thankless, but kids don't ask to be born. Parents decide to have them.

Society starts at home within the family. Fix those issues and you'll fix the problems of society at large.

eta: I don't believe it's a teacher's responsibility to teach kids morals or right from wrong. A teacher's role is to facilitate learning. no more.

[Aliantha]

I just have to say that if you can even imagine a world where kids do learn morals and right from wrong at home, so that when they go to school they know how to behave and recognise and appreciate that the teacher is there to help them, a teacher's life would be so much easier, and maybe they (we)'d all stop complaining about what a tough life teachers have.

[DanaC]

My point, Ali, is that the leaders of my country are pointing accusing fingers at various different levels of society for the loss of moral context, when they have themselves, as a group, been found with their fingers in the till and somebody else's fingers in their pockets.

Cameron stands there and bemoans the fact that children no longer respect authority. That children no longer have the basic respect for law and rules that their generation respected, and have no respect for those who uphold the laws.

I look at the news coverage of the last few years and I have to ask myself, why on earth would any sensible child growing up in Britain today feel that the politicians who govern them, or the police service that polices them have in any way shown themselves to be worthy of authority and respect?

They are pointing fingers every which way but their own.

[Aliantha]

Seems like everyone's pointing fingers and no one's really doing anything about it.

We see the same sort of deterioration in family values here as well. It's very sad, but I just try to change things just in my own area. I try and support those in need and give the kids that are struggling a bit of a leg up if I can. It has to start at grass roots. The politicians can't help. Only the individual can make a difference.

I just don't believe the government is capable. It's up to communities to work together to help their kids and families in trouble. The problem is just too big to solve all at once.