What we learned this week #52

Okay, so I know we were all a little disappointed by the summer holidays fun being spoilt by some school talk last week but, uh, well it’s happened again. Sorry, but the stuff we’ve learnt this week about that there new English curriculum is just too darn good not to share; we’ve got more fun-in-the-sun fare though, so don’t fret, and keep lathering on the sun tan lotion!

Make your kids check their Facebook!

Eh? Surely it’s more of a challenge to try and stop them? Not always, but it’s important, as Cliff Jones explained:

‘Last weekend on a camping trip my 13-year-old son lost his phone. My first instinct was to call it, but he said it was on silent, reigniting our old argument that he should keep it on. Putting it on silent is a habit he has from being in class a lot of the time. Consequently, he misses texts and social media alerts, and with the summer holidays upon us, I’m worried he’ll miss out.

‘There’s a balance of course, but I feel it’s important he stays connected. It feels strange nagging him to check his friends’ Facebook updates, but that’s the way the world is now, and if there’s a new viral video, mobile game or digital life event which he misses, I’m worried he’ll be a digital outcast.’

Rote learning is a load of nonsense!

So yeah, the new curriculum – what’s that all about? Not a lot, as Matt Thrower explained in scathing, hilarious sarcasm:

‘Those who can memorise huge lists of unrelated facts will succeed, and become the next generation of University dons. Their creativity and imagination will have been rote-learned away, replaced with good, hard facts, facts we mandated get taught as such in school. And then the establishment will finally have inherited the earth.’

Don’t let tech raise your kids!

Well, I mean, obviously – but maybe not, what with iPads potty training kids nowadays. Where does it end, asks Heidi Scrimgeour:

‘A potty-training child needs to tune into its body, not zone out to whatever’s topping the kids’ app charts. Frankly, no-one going to be impressed by your high score on Angry Birds if you can’t tell when your own bladder’s full.’