Troubling statistics about Prince Rupert’s kindergarten children - Report Card:
By the time many children reach kindergarten they have clocked innumerable hours in front of a television set. Although television has a valid role to play in learning, it is a minor one. Passively sitting in front of a television activates only a small portion of the brain. Some studies even suggest excessive TV viewing actually stupefies the brain and damages cognitive function in children. It takes surprisingly little effort for parents to ready a child for kindergarten. Turning off the TV and devoting just a half hour a day to teaching children the basics, in addition to incorporating teaching opportunities in normal daily activities, can make a huge difference.
If one were to pay attention to recent research on early learning then one would also be reading about how schooling and therefore teaching contributes to the stagnation of children’s creativity.
More teaching may not be the big answer.
Young children don’t need more structured learning time. They need parents who are more engaged. I didn’t mean they needed more time in the classroom. I meant they need more parenting.
Research constantly contradicts itself. Always be skeptical of the most “recent researchâ€
You certainly can list a number of highly regarded learning and medical theories of the past 50 years. All miserably failed to deliver but widely promoted as our salvation for each mentioned cultural or societal ill.
We are now lead to believe that more institutional teaching will make our little Jason’s and little Britney’s ‘more competitive’ once they reach school age. Our minds have even been allowed to warp to believe that more institutional teaching will bring forth even better results.
This is the new nurturing phenomenon in schools. Over the past couple of decades our schools have taken on all sorts of responsibilities. To be sure very little in the life of a child cannot be tied in some way to schooling. But should it? Teaching degrees are the least rigorous of any university degree available and yet we put such high expectations on them. Educators cannot deliver all that is expected. Never could.
A long route taken to say I agree with you in that you say parents should be the prime care-givers of their children. Anything else is a blend of averages. Is this what you hope for your child?
Talk to your kids, from birth. Read to them and with them. If they don’t know their colours, up from down, left from right, and how to print their name when they start Kindergarten you haven’t done your job as a parent. Teaching doesn’t start the first day of school, it starts the first day of life. For those who think this is a no-brainer, you would be surprised at how many show up, not even potty-trained!
Ah the chicken or egg dilemma.
Children should not be held responsible for the situation. It is clearly on the shoulders of parents. However parental responsibilities have been eroded by society and institutions like schools.
So should parents be blamed?
Schools?
Where can we point the accusing finger?
Huh? How did you come up with that?
The main reason why so many schoolkids in our town are performing below expectations is that many of them come from dysfunctional families. The main reason we have so many dysfunctional families in our town is our epidemic of teenage pregnancy.
It is not surprising that when a 15 year old girl has a child (or a second or third child), the father won’t stick around longer than a few months, and the teenage girl won’t have a clue how to raise children. Likely grandparents won’t be much help. If they had taught her the skills and behaviours she needed, she wouldn’t have become a teenage mother in the first place. Why are people so surprised that kids shuffled between teenage mom’s home (with a succession of boyfriends present), dysfunctional grandma and grandpa’s home, and intermittent stays in foster care, will turn out to be screwed up individuals?
Raising a child is hard enough for two adult, working parents with decent educational and social backgrounds. For a teenage mom with inadequate family support and a succession of children by different fathers, it is not possible to do an adequate job of parenting. Until we take steps to correct our horrendous teenage pregnancy statistics, this problem is not going to improve.
Kids need two parents in a home free of substance abuse, preferably with a supportive extended family. If you can’t provide this sort of home, don’t have kids.
The left wing mantra is that poverty is the root of these problems and handing out more money is the solution. Of course this is crap like all other left-wing “thought”. Poverty is a marker for dysfunctional families, it is not a cause-and-effect relationship. In other words people who don’t have their act together enough to get an education, learn some work skills, and earn a decent income also don’t have their act together enough to stay in a long-term committed relationship and devote the effort to parent effectively. So we see poor people neglecting their kids, and think they are neglecting their kids because they are poor, when in fact the cause is deeper than than.
Wow, way to reduce an argument. “Left-wing mantra” ? So you repeat the right-wing mantra that if someone is poor, it’s their fault.
Nice. 
Yes, of course – blame the GIRL, as usual. Maybe the root cause of all this so-called “dysfunctionâ€
it is shocking to see so many young first nation kids with
new Born’s.I have lived in Rupert for 44 years and have many
first nation friends and i will tell you that the kids are not to blame
we have the highest child poverty rates in BC and there are no jobs
out there 8 dollars a hour just doesn’t do it,i have heard that women
will drink to get a Alcoa Fidel syndrome child so she can get a bigger
welfare check that is sad and god will be very upset with them,we need
to do more for our children and get them off facebook and msn.
Regardless of what side of the political fence you sit on, if you consider that the majority of our K students aren’t performing at a necessary comprehension level, it doesn’t bode well for the long-term success of Prince Rupert.
Poverty is not a personality trait. Our economic structure demands that someone must be poor for others to be rich. That’s how capitalism works. People wish to pay less for goods and services than they have to and if they can, will. Myself included.
Our economy creates winners and losers depending on a variety of reasons – job, location, age, gender, race, parents and of course, education. This disparity, whether it is natural or a monetary control system, plays out in telling ways.
A 2008 UCSF study showed the difference in health for women 65 and older in economic terms. “Wealthy women,” the report said, “in poor health are more likely to receive screening mammography for breast cancer even when they are unlikely to benefit from the test, while poor women in good health are less likely to receive screening mammography even when they are likely to benefit. The results are in a study led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.”
"While the study did not investigate reasons for the disparity, lead author Brie A. Williams, MD says that wealthier women may be more likely to request mammograms and to have fewer financial and time barriers in getting to mammography appointments. Regardless, she says, “Wealth is associated with more screening, whether you are healthy or unhealthy.â€
Welcome to htmf Rush Limbaugh!
The above quote illustrates the failure of our school system.
A post states that the primary reason for failing kids is that their parents are unprepared to parent them, and throwing money at the problem won’t help.
The knee-jerk ad hominem reaction is to equate me to Rush Limbaugh. There is a lack of logic at work here. First misunderstand the post and the poster’s intentions. Then come to a conclusion which doesn’t make logical sense.
I care a lot about the children I see growing up in neglectful homes. It sickens me to see so many apprehended kids in this town. To solve this problem, we need young people to delay having kids until they graduate high school and are old enough and mature enough to parent.
I agree with BigThumb’s characterization of you as Rush. You were the one who dismissed all left-wing thought.
You dismiss any left-leaning thinking as crap. Heh, that sounds exactly like Rush. If you are going to troll here on the board you can expect a reaction. 
All left wing thought is crap. I used to be left wing too until I got a job and started paying taxes.
LOL. So what are you now???
POOR… 