Yes, they are mad

Posted by William M. Connolley on October 23, 2008
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One of the more regrettable aspects of having children – other than the entire lack of a life – is interaction with the school inspectors. And the insanity reaches its peak in the inspection of after-school clubs. Its all such an utter waste of time that I’d rather ignore it than bother mock it, but since my wife was reading “Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage” and found this, I had to share it:

From the “Numbers as Labels and for Counting” section, under 40-60+ months:

* Use rhymes, songs and stories involving counting on and counting back in ones, twos, fives and tens.
* Emphasise the empty set and introduce the concept of nothing or zero.
* Understand the limitation of Riemann integration and the need for Lesbegue integration.

OK, I made that last one up. But hands up all those who have failed to emphasise the empty set to their three year olds.

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Comments

  1. #1 jayh
    2008/10/23

    Dare I ask. What the HELL is a school inspector????

    sounds like something positively Orwellian.

    This whole business sounds bizarre. When I was young, many years ago, parents helped out. Now, according to my wife’s niece (who has several kids in school) you need to get fingerprinted by the fukkin FBI before you can help. (And you get to pay for it) like you’re a damned criminal suspect.

    That is enough to keep me from ever getting involved in my granddaughter’s school when she starts to attend.

  2. #2 Eli Rabett
    2008/10/23

    As in you bunnies are not going to get any toys for Christmas? Oh yeah, the Ms. and I frequently make the point.

  3. #3 Hank Roberts
    2008/10/23

    I can’t imagine any 3-year-old who could fail to understand the empty set after learning “Nothing”

    http://fugs-nothing-mp3-download.kohit.net/_/98935

    And of course this cheerful bouncy song will gladden any childlike heart

    http://the-fugs-boobsalot-mp3-download.kohit.net/_/364889

    You probably don’t want the volume turned up loud at work, of course.

  4. #4 Babakathy
    2008/10/24

    Re: fingerprinting and criminal records check: OTH, you would not be exactly delighted were you to find out your granddaughter’s school allowed a paedophile to participate in running such things…

    [Indeed. Here we don't have fingerprints, we have long tedious forms to fill out. The concern I have is that this dissuades help, whilst being not very difficult for genuine evil-doers to circumvent -W]

  5. #5 jayh
    2008/10/24

    , you would not be exactly delighted were you to find out your granddaughter’s school allowed a paedophile to participate in running such things…

    ….The concern I have is that this dissuades help, whilst being not very difficult for genuine evil-doers to circumvent -W]

    There are a couple of problems. The concerns about disuading help has been documented in studies. One study in Britain concerned model airplane clubs, many of which simply closed access to young people.

    This whole thing turns presumed innocence on its head. You are treated like a criminal (historically one was fingerpritned when arrested, that was the only reason for most fingerprints to be in the government’s posession) until you prove yourself otherwise. you’re expected to give up a core privacy to satisfy someone’s squeamishness.

    What is happening here is essentially people are being coerced into accepting what amounts to an unconstitutional search.

  6. #6 Richard Simons
    2008/10/24

    Now, according to my wife’s niece (who has several kids in school) you need to get fingerprinted by the fukkin FBI before you can help.

    I’ve given presentations in schools on the ways in which people make use of plants (with lots of samples) at no cost to the school. One school division required me to get a criminal record check from the RCMP plus another check (sexual offenders? – I can’t remember). I decided not to bother, but afterwards I was thinking. Has there ever been a recorded case anywhere in the world in which a person giving a talk to a school has deliberately caused harm to the children? Does the school division really have its priorities right? Things like this certainly discourage members of the public from participating.

  7. #7 Andrew Dodds
    2008/10/24

    So I have 5 months to teach the concept of ‘All Gone..’

  8. #8 Bishop Hill
    2008/10/24

    State education eh? We’d be lost without it.

    [To be fair, its not the education system thats at fault - its the inspection thereof -W]

  9. #9 Raymond Arritt
    2008/10/25

    Ah, The Fugs.

    Anyway… tell us again what a “school inspector” is? One would think it’s a person who inspects schools, but that’s probably too logical.

    [They are... the bottom inspectors -W]

  10. #10 Eli Rabett
    2008/10/25

    As I recall, England has a system where schools are locally controlled (down to the level of individual schools at least sometimes) but with a national set of standards and examinations enforced by the school inspectors. On the whole a good thing but there is obviously a push-pull potential.

  11. #11 Sam-Hec
    2008/10/25

    What’s an Empty Set?

    Is that like our economy here in ‘Merka?

    I guess we don’t really need to know what an Empty Set is, otherwise our dEucation President would have told us.

    yuk yuk yuk

  12. #12 bigcitylib
    2008/10/26

    “Emphasise the empty set and introduce the concept of nothing or zero.”

    You can do this by withholding the child’s allowance.