Association Of Teachers And Lecturers Find What Makes Children Unhappy
“WHY are children so unhappy?” asks the Independent on its front page.
The motion at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference in Torquay next Tuesday runs: “Conference notes with deep concern that many children in our schools appear unhappy and anxious.”
The adults will debate and discuss why children are so unhappy.
Over the next two weeks, ATL members will discuss several topics relating to the mental health of primary age children and the pressures they face in modern society.
Teachers discussing what makes a young child unhappy is a bit like the jockey asking the horse why his face is long. It might be that – and whisper it – school is the biggest problem. It is school that ruins the child’s pursuit of fun.
Question asked; question answered.
It may also be that the teacher’s idea of happiness is not the pupil’s.
Armani is happy eating chips for breakfast, her teacher is not; Blake’s face lights up whenever he delivers a punch to a smaller child’s arm, his teacher’s does not; Romeo is never happier than when he is picking his nose and firing the oar at the girls, his teacher is not.
Conference should also wonder how the link between fat and jolliness has been broken and fat now leads to unhappiness? What has changed?
And how can teachers, politicians, heath researchers, scientists, Jamie Oliver do about it?
Posted: 11th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
