What you said about Madonna King column on prep students crippled with anxiety
A battle between parents and schools has broken out after startling revelations about the education system. HAVE YOUR SAY
Parents need to step up, governments need to step out and technology needs to switch off.
These are the main concerns of readers after Courier-Mail columnist Madonna King highlighted growing concerns around Aussie schoolchildren.
“Students in prep are now refusing to attend school; their anxiety so severe that they cannot climb out of the car at drop off,” she wrote.
“And self-harm is an issue schools are routinely dealing with in students aged just 10 years.
That’s heartbreaking.”
So what is the cause?
“Whole classes struggling to know how to take turns, share, listen to others, and just play. PLAY. Not being able to concentrate. Unable to get along with each other,” she wrote.
“... (Teachers) paint the same alarming picture, which began with NAPLAN measuring children, and a curriculum that rarely leaves time for any questions!
“... Teachers are racing through a curriculum to meet benchmarks a year or more earlier than previous generations. Parents, unsure how to parent, are expecting schools to solve their children’s anxiety or mental health challenges, when it is not their job.”
Readers were quick to have their say, with many taking aim at parents for failing to do their jobs.
Others pointed the finger at other parts of the system, while many claimed there remains wider problems.
In an online poll more than 85 per cent of readers voted that primary schools should include more play-based learning.
See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>
WHAT YOU SAID
Parents, do your job
FionaW17
I have 3 grandchildren in prep (and 4 others in higher grades) this year, the teachers and school already do a wonderful job at integrating schoolwork and play. Why once again does school and teachers need to change? Why does the responsibility of this ‘anxiety’ become a school curriculum problem?? Parents need to step up so much more!
A Queenslander
High time parents got back into parenting. Schools are not a baby sitting service and they are not pseudo parents. Too many have dropped the ball and pack their kids off expecting teachers to fill all of the voids until something goes astray and then they come out all guns blazing accusing the teachers of wrong doing.
Steve
Resillience? I hated primary school and would be in tears most school mornings. My parents made me go. I survived.
Jane
Society and education is in crisis! Why? Kids don’t know how to sit and play because many parents give kids iPads and phones. Parents don’t parent because they don’t know how and are lost in chasing $$$ to live. Powers that be don’t understand child development and force schools to “teach” a ridiculous curriculum. Underfunded schools that are dealing with complex kids who are the product of the above!
I know who to blame
Gary K
Lets be completely honest then; not parents, but mothers. Anyone who thinks most dads get any say in how their kids are raised is lying to themselves. Many dads may try, but the family court and child support agency are kept busy with them. This is 100 percent about mothers who have molly coddled their kids, left their upbringing to child care and electronic devices, and refused to provide discipline.
John
The old ways didn’t seem to create these behavioural issues. Maybe reintroduction of those methods would be the answer? But education bureaucrats would see that as regression.
Adele
Parents need to remember that these are children, not adults. Children need parental guidance in decision making. I’ve heard too many parents say that they want the child to decide where to go, what to do. Be a parent and make those decisions. By all means give the child some input but ultimately, the parent must make the child feel like they had a free choice, but the parent actually makes the choice.
Teacher
I am sick of the excuse that they want their child to start Prep early because they don’t want them to be 18 and drinking in year 12...... Parent, it is a verb!
Wider issues
Sandra
Parents are sending their children early so they don’t have to pay for child care. This is the cost of both parents having to work these days. It’s a sad generation. Teachers are not their to solve the problems that are the parents responsibility
Robyn
Well how much would it cost to have a babysitter for a night out? I actually don’t go out without my children so I don’t know. Pre school children are little and dependent. There are different needs for a high school student and a pre school child but if you want good quality childcare you will have to pay for it or stay at home if you are able.
Kash
How many of these kids have unlimited access to screen time at home? Perhaps they are stressing due to no iPad or iPhone for the day.
Terry
It is an easy escape for parents. I know parents are busy. I was a single parent during the period when there was no Ipad or Iphone. They played outside or board games, cards, read books etc.
Marg
Get rid of gender fluidity, divisive race stuff out of the curriculum and go back to basics. Better teacher training wouldn’t go astray either.
Originally published as What you said about Madonna King column on prep students crippled with anxiety
‘I wish we had someone like this as PM instead of bumbling Albo’
