Rock and a Hard Place
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Rock and a Hard Place
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
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I find that a very interesting statement to make (really! I am not being sarcastic). Given all of the problems with bullying in schools in the U.S. (no to mention the U.K. and Germany), I have a suspicion that children are not always being socialised in dc/preschool/school to the degree that they could be...certainly not to the point that they always or even often play well with others. But this, I think, is very culturally based. The idea of socialisation in German and Swiss schools tends to be that kids should learn early on where they fit in the pecking-order and deal with that without resorting to calling in the teachers when they are being harrassed or bullied. The idea of socialisation in Swedish schools is that children should learn exactly how to function in groups, make decisions as a group and be able to compromise and problem-solve within a group setting. These are survival techniques for the work-place since the lone wolf (however brilliant) is far less appreciated within the working enviroment than the team player who helps to achieve solutions through dialog without conflict. It is a culture, btw, that drives an awful lot of foreigners nuts since they always have to be careful to include everyone in a group in the decision making (even the cleaning staff at times) and can't be bluntly honesty if there is any risk of stopping compromise or hurting someone's feelings. Decision-making is not always straight-forward :-). But the result for children is that socialisation as a skill is placed high on the list of priorities at schools and active work on those skills continues through high school.
Laura
Edited 11/29/2003 8:22:16 PM ET by cyndiluwhoagain
What gets my goat are parents who insist their children *should* be reading at that level at age 4 or 5. One woman pulled her daughter out of the preschool because the school's curriculum doesn't include reading at the preschool level (they learn their letters, how to write their names, etc.).
DS can read just fine now even though by this woman's opinion he was "held back." I don't push him to do anything. He is already reading Hebrew -- something that has just amazed his Hebrew instructor. He started reading the prayers Friday night without any prompting from us. DH and I just about died.
outside_the_box_mom
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