What a load of Balls?

Of all the Labour MPs that should be sent to the scaffold, ‘Herr E. Balls’ should be at the front of the queue. His new Children, Schools and Family Bill, which he is hoping to pass both Houses before he’s ‘hopefully’ dumped in the unemployment line, is disastrous for children from working class backgrounds. Balls’s boldest statement of intent is to abolish traditionally taught subjects such as Maths, English, History and Geography and roll them into 6 ‘themed lessons’ based around issue based topics, as opposed to the tried and tested methods of teaching rigorous fact and figures.

They will fall under these new ambiguous areas:

Understanding English, Communication and Languages; mathematically understanding, understanding the arts; Historical, geographical and social understanding; physical development, health and well-being; scientific and technological understanding.

Mr Balls is noted for saying he is not “abolishing traditional subjects but reforming the curriculum so teachers have more freedom.” I’m sorry, but this is absurd. ‘More freedom’, coming from his Government, which takes great joy and pleasure from infantile-ling the whole of society, I don’t think so. With youth unemployment at almost half that of the full dole figures; the mythical idea that all can/should go to university and the State will pick up the tab; to dumbed down multiple choice science GCSE’s - this Government needs to be brought to its knees over its abject failure of young Britons.

How on earth can any of these whimsical and wooly-headed thematic lessons allow for freedom, if you ask a teacher to teach History or Maths, they will know where they stand and have no problem understanding what's asked of them. The same goes for the pupils who when asked upon what they learned that day can easily quantify and qualify English from Geography. Riddle me this: What on earth is ‘social understanding’?

They do not need lesson on how to use Google Earth, Twitter or learn how to blog - this they learn for themselves (I learnt it well enough) As kids often are, they appear well ahead of the curve on all things technological and do not need time taken out of official school time to try and condense the meaning of Shakespeare or the reasons for the outbreak of World War II to 140 characters in a tweet.

One prime example of these well-being lessons already happening is one go my friend’s primary school aged children who has to keep a record throughout the weekend on how they were feeling from happy, sad, angry and laughter etc. What happened to real teaching not empathy lessons. Another similar story is that pupils now take ‘big writing’ as opposed to a straight English subject.

What is also strange is how a public educated school boy like Ed Balls knows about struggling comprehensives and how to turn them around? Well, the commonsensical answer would be that he feels they should mirror private primary schools, however these schools stick rigidly to traditional teaching methods and focus not one jot on emotion, just a neat balance between competition and camaraderie. I would know I personally went to one. Although, Mr. Balls thinks it relies in constant tinkering with the system.

It is therefore right that Prince Charles and his chief educational aide, Bernice McCabe, has got involved in denouncing Balls’s latest educational malaise. If the King Elect feels ‘his majesty’s Government is failing children he has a right to voice concerns despite the assertion that the monarch is above politics. This is negated as this isn’t politics, it is a generation of children’s education that Labour’s socialists policies are wrecking.

Mrs. McCabe has said: 'Sometimes there are too many shortcuts into theme-based teaching. That's not what gets children learning.” She is completely correct as are the Prince’s opinion on a ‘cultural disinheritance’ that is occurring under New Labour. It is well known that Labour spends most of it’s nefarious time dreaming up ways to undermine a sense of British History, as it is embarrassed at Britain’s former greatness. But denying a child a right to know the truth about their background is a savage act of mal-governance.

I urge Michael Gove to repeal and outrightly scrap this bill is it ever makes it into law. We need a Conservative administration to public come out against Labour’s latest educational bankruptcy. This should big a flagship element of Tory policy to reclaim the moral authority from Labour to show that it is able to look after the nation’s most vulnerable, be they young, old or in social difficulty - we owe it to great Britons that came before us.

GCSE Parenting - State institutionalised parenthood that will destroy the Family

Why does the Liberal/Left civil partnership insist on the State running our whole lives? The latest example of this is giving a GCSE equivalent certificate for teenage parenting.

They have already destroyed what it means to be a father by allowing women and their offspring married to the State through over-supporting single parents over married couples and getting the man’s name off the birth certificate. Now they seek to become mothers to these children as well as Fathers - this really is a Brave New World.

I can’t fathom this Left wing idea of institutionalising parenthood - surely the family is a private institution and should have little tampering with by the overarching State? These kids shouldn’t need to take a course, which proscribes through modules how to be a parent, as it will no doubt come from a Lib/Left post-modern view point of how to raise a child, which has already led to the problem children we currently have fathering their own offspring.

The result will be that no sense of discipline will be instilled because of the anti-smacking laws; the absurd notion of children’s rights trumping parental commonsense; the support for children to keep underage sexual activity secret from their parents; and the idea that parents should be their kid’s friends over teaching them right from wrong.

The problem lies with this utter parasitic obsession of Left wing policy makers that everyone must have ‘qualifications’ in order to be equal. This stems from the skewed ideological belief in ‘equality’. So it goes: ‘We all must be the same to be equal’.

In this county we have people from a different era doing their jobs perfectly well, but have no ‘qualification’ other than their apprenticeships and 40 years practical service up against people competing for the same jobs who have all the ‘qualifications’ in the world, but no practical skills, or even the soft skills needed for the world of work. This crusade to be appear equal is destroying UK business and young people’s careers. Now the Left want to do this to people’s families as well.

It begs the question: Will we soon all need the State’s approved parental GCSE to be allow to reproduce? The course is only a D to G worth of a GCSE, what does that hope to achieve? It is completely pointless.

The breakdown of traditional family life has led parents not educating their children in the ‘private’ sphere on how to be a parent. As a result, we are currently witnessing almost three generations who have had no such life lessons.

The Mail is correct in saying that by devising this course it sends out a message that getting pregnant at 15 is an achievement and an academic qualification is the correct way in supporting this decision.

This is State-sponsored ticket to welfare dependency!

Furthermore, education confers respectability, so by having this course it will infer that underage sex and pregnancy is the social norm and the respectable thing to be doing - hey you’ve got a piece of paper congratulating you on doing it!

The solution to all this mess isn’t the ‘State’s guide to parenthood’, rather we need a seizing back of power from children to adults. That means abolishing the idea of liberal children’s rights - which are to have the right to do/question anything they like. We need a children’s rights system that resembles moral and social rights, which are both public (a right to an education) and private (parents taking responsibility in educating their kids right from wrong)

We also need a seismic shift away from uniform ‘qualification’ culture. Every child has a talent that shouldn’t be standardised and our education system should reflect all talents.

This can be done through the rebirth of apprenticeships; a return to grammar school type selection; lowering the school leaving age so kids can leave pursue other talents, which are not necessarily connected with academic performance as some aren’t wired that way; and finally a strong sense of civic duty through a modern style national service - not necessarily military drills, but authoritarian and disciplinary in nature.

For example, tasks which revolve around the military idea that if one person fails the whole team fail. Over time this would increase team work and interaction, therefore breaking the atomised youth who has an outlook only for himself.

However, this can only happen if the State is curtailed significantly, so that other private institutions can be given a chance to show their social worth be they religious organisations, the family unit, charities or local businesses.