UK schooling performance is similar to Australia.
We are not alone. Concerns over schooling performance are international. Modern lifestyles, technology and social factors have a similar impact in schools in Australia the USA as in the UK.
Jeremy Roberts wrote in “The Australian” that bad parenting permanently damages the brains of infants, leaving primary schools unable to help them to develop. This stark fact was established by Dr. Fraser Mustard, a Canadian medical doctor specialising in childhood development and founding president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
“Gene structures are susceptible to nurture: touch, speech, movement, smell and so on. But genes for learning problems - and the more serious problems such as depression and anti social behaviour could be turned on by bad early childhood environments.” But good environments could lead to genetic structures that were resilient and could insure against learning difficulties and more serious problems. “If you were brought up in a good environment it largely doesn’t matter what genes are present,” he said.
Dr Mustard said that primary schools were largely unable to help certain children entering key stage 1 to develop. “The schools cannot change the outcomes because the damage was already done in early childhood.”
Schools seem to be faced with an impossible task. Whilst attempting to control and develop those children displaying learning difficulties, teachers are diverted from developing those children more able to learn.
It would seem that the responsibilities of the parent or family circumstances dictate the ultimate performance of a child. Perhaps a grading structure would ensure that the output of the class as a whole is not degraded.
Alistair Owens
keen2learn
