"The UK has been accused of failing its children, as it comes bottom of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6359363.stm Is there anything the Scandinavian countries aren't on top of?
Re: UK accused of failing its children Yeah the list you just showed very sad state for our children in this country
Re: UK accused of failing its children Of course they're not but there isn't much discrepancy between the Scandinavian countries and Holland and they're in the top part of the list. Given the conditions of places like US and the UK they are in good shape.
Re: UK accused of failing its children By all means, someone go ahead and change it. Perhaps it'll get more attention. This is very important data.
Re: UK accused of failing its children At the risk of delving into politics, what are the criteria for measuring how well we are doing for our children?
Re: UK accused of failing its children "The Children's Commissioner for England, Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, said: "We are turning out a generation of young people who are unhappy, unhealthy, engaging in risky behaviour, who have poor relationships with their family and their peers, who have low expectations and don't feel safe." This quote near the bottom of the article struck me. My wife is a middle school teacher with over 20 years in the same school district in the Central Valley of California, about 80 miles east of San Francisco. She sees the breakdown of the family as the major reason children are doing poorly. At present, over 60% of the children in her district are not living with BOTH of their biological parents. That in itself is sad as it introduces all the complexities of step-families, and although those are sometimes better than the original set, it is, at best, complicated. Further, between 15-17% of the kids are living with grandparents. While this also may be better than the birth parents, the grandparents with whom the children are living are often the same ones who raised the kids/parents, who are now no longer care-givers for the children. This is usually a mess as well. All of this shows that there is very little thought that goes into family planning. Kids are all to often the result of NO planning and irresponsible decision-making by adults. In the end, the kids are not welcomed, appreciated and loved in the same way they would have been if the parents were truly interested in raising and nurturing children instead of having them "forced" upon them as an unwanted consequence of an otherwise selfish act. What is worse, the lowest achieving children are members of an ethnic group with a continuing rise in single parents where the father is either absent or only involved infrequently. Teachers like my wife are being constantly put in a position of trying to help kids but there are NO responsible adults in their life. As a result, what little the teacher can do in the classroom just cannot overcome the absence of quality parenting. Even when both birth parents are physically in the home, emotionally they are seldom there as their quest for "more, bigger and more expensive stuff" drives them to longer hours at work where both parents are already working. This sounds a great deal like the "dog-eat-dog" society that is described in the UK. Until adults begin to give serious thought to a structured family environment and planning for children and to plan QUALITY AND QUANTITY time with them, things won't change. Further, turn off the TV and take away all video games during the week, and chase the kids outside to get some exercise. I appreciate the Mormon practice of Family Night on Monday. The entire family plans, prepares and eats dinner together. They have a little family meeting to discuss everyone's need, thoughts and concerns, and then has some entertainment that involves everyone. Both America and the UK would be better off if they followed this type of parent behavior.
Re: UK accused of failing its children I think this paragraph I copied in the above post is a start: The Children's Commissioner for England, Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, said: "We are turning out a generation of young people who are unhappy, unhealthy, engaging in risky behaviour, who have poor relationships with their family and their peers, who have low expectations and don't feel safe." I don't know how you measure it but when children are obesely overweight, doing drugs including smoking by their 13th year, engaging in sexual activities in early-to-mid teens, have garbage for parents, get poor grades in school and are afraid the local gangs are going to hurt them, those are all things that should give us some measurement though I don't know how objective any of this could be.
Re: UK accused of failing its children It's capitalism's fault. Just do the best for your own kids and they'll be okay.
Re: UK accused of failing its children Bah. Anybody can write something inflammatory and have it printed. It's the logical, sane, reasonable stuff that isn't "fit for print" these days because it's so obvious that it isn't news. Until I see the methodology used for that study, it's meaningless to me. This is one messed-up, scary world we're living in. (Yes, that mall shooting that happened this week was less than an hour from where I live...) I don't need a newspaper to tell me this world is going to be tough for my kids. Until they get older, I'm going to show them all the beauty and happiness and cheesy crap I can to give them some years of peace and happiness. And I'm not going to let a reporter tell me I'm not doing the best I possibly can--because I am. </vent>
Re: UK accused of failing its children There does seem to be a correlation between a big poor-rich divide and unhappy kids. Whereas the so-called welfare states without such a big divide including the Scandinavians and the Dutch always seem to do well in these type of lists. Also, doing the best for your own kids might not be enough, unless you're planning on locking them up in your cellar for all of their lives.
Re: UK accused of failing its children Of course. Because the lists are politically biased Might not. But it ususally is.
Re: UK accused of failing its children It's a bit harsh to label Unicef a bunch of leftie liberals with a preference for welfare states. I think that it's pretty much common knowledge that they have children's best interests at heart, no?
Re: UK accused of failing its children No. It's an arm of the UN that has a slant against the US and UK first and an aid organization second.
Re: UK accused of failing its children I think it's important to know what the criteria are. I find it funny that the two countries ranked lowest on this part of the list are also the two countries where a kid is most likely to have a job upon adulthood.
Re: UK accused of failing its children That shows you have little knowledge of Dutch unemployment figures.
Re: UK accused of failing its children I read bits of the study and I fail to see what's anti-UK and anti-US about questions like: "Do you have an adult around that you trust completely"
Re: UK accused of failing its children So American and British kids are more skeptical. Big deal. It just means they are more independent.
Re: UK accused of failing its children Form my experience, the opposite is true. And I'd like to post the non-scientific thesis of mine that you need more trust to truly be independent.
Re: UK accused of failing its children Well I don't know if it's anti-UK or anti-US or not but these Unicef/United nation reports tend to put down the UK and the US a lot.
Re: UK accused of failing its children Maybe that's because they aren't anywhere near as good as they think at some things. You don't see the Dutch talking about ASBOs do you?