Maria Arpa
This week
Inhuman Stupidity
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
the Wednesday Whisper
You guessed it, schools again.
If you’ve been following the blog for a while you’ll have noticed the absence of schools featuring for a while. If you’ve just joined the blog recently, every now and again a school somewhere in the UK makes a rule or a decision that defies anything I recognise as a ‘decent education’. And, since we have just begun a new project with local schools called ‘Living and Learning in Harmony’, I have concentrated on meeting with the many wonderful human beings that work hard to develop our children into compassionate and rational decision makers. So, a big shout out to Byron Court Primary School, Ark Franklin Primary School and Salusbury Primary School, all in the LB of Brent. We’re working with these schools to bring the Dialogue Road Map and Peer Mediation into the culture.
So, there I was, putting stupid schools on the back burner, about to write a masterpiece blog on the topic of Passive Aggressive Giving, when my daughter sent me an alert.
A school in Lancashire has refused a mother permission to take her children out of school for 5 days while she has her second HEART SURGERY after complications from the first operation. She has to travel 120 miles for the surgery and the whole family are going with her meaning that she will have no childcare at home. The school says they can only let the children out of school for 2 days because it is too near their exams. The Local Authority said the decision rests with the head teacher and, wait for it, ‘each case is taken on its own merits’.
So, apparently SATS exam results are more important than a child’s mother’s life?
When did that happen? What do you think children will learn from such a decision?
So, this is exactly the kind of nonsense that we have a duty to care about. And, if not for the sake of kindness, compassion and love, then because we will be expecting these children to look after us in our old age.
I’m pretty sure the school will change their decision given the adverse publicity but if not, I will personally offer to pay the £60 fine for taking the children out of school on an unauthorised absence.
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
I give a lot of thought to what an education system for these times would look like. And I can assure you it is nothing like the outdated throwback to the industrial revolution that we call school.
The Wednesday Whisper
What would you wish for an education system for the times?
Would you be willing to send this out to anyone you think might be interested in getting a little dose of mindfulness each week?