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Parents of unruly children to be fined

By Press Association

Monday, 29 June 2009

Parents could be fined or sent to prison if their children misbehave, under powers to be awarded to schools. They form part of a government White Paper on education to be published by the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, tomorrow.

Most schools operate agreements under which parents and pupils undertake to promote good behaviour, but they are not enforceable. The new powers could see parents who fail to abide by them fined or given community sentences. In some cases, they could end up in prison if they did not pay the fines.

Mr Balls said on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC 1 that national curriculum tests for 11-year-olds and exam league tables would stay. The White Paper also spells out entitlements for parents and pupils.

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Another Underhand Coercion of the Populace
[info]diondeville wrote:
Monday, 29 June 2009 at 12:58 am (UTC)
On the face of it, it seems like good idea until you realise that children will be able to blackmail their parents, schools will be able to force parents to behave according to government guided models; and, if ever you've looked after children of any age, you must know that children are born to rebel against convention and find their bearings by pushing boundaries. Another ill thought out idea born of the pit of an autistic government that is constantly compelled to create impractically abidable laws and regulations (more correctly, decrees) to raise revenue hence we surfs can only fail to adequately comply thus become ever more out of pocket.
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[info]fendertele wrote:
Monday, 29 June 2009 at 02:49 am (UTC)
Unfortunately there will be many thousands of morons sagely nodding at their newspaper saying "It's about time parents took responsibility blah de blah."

They don't seem to realise that every child is different and responds differently to different environments and parenting techniques.

I think Labour have been reading The SUN and Daily Mail a little too much....
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Parenting techniques???
[info]annelew wrote:
Monday, 29 June 2009 at 12:37 pm (UTC)
If a child needs special parenting 'techniques' then the parents should be practicing them....not placing the emphasis on the schools

Its impossible for any head teacher to taylor to every childs' needs when he/she has thousands to accommodate.

Keep it simple ...A child needs love, boundaries, a good diet, a good night's sleep and to be shown by example...it's not rocket science....

Those parents too lazy to comply deserve to be fined. It is not compulsory to squeeze out children, so if a person isn't up to the dedication and sacrifice of raising a child they shouldn't burden the rest of us with their unwanted offspring.

Or, in the words of Russell Howard regarding obesity in childhood... "Ban fast food adverts??? ...Ban your f****y until you can take care of what comes out of it!!"
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This proposal confuses cart and horse
[info]tbird33 wrote:
Tuesday, 30 June 2009 at 01:57 pm (UTC)
"Modern" society insists that children spend much of their day at school yet still wishes to blame the parents when the children are "unruly". The most likely outcome of this misbegotten attempt at coercion is increased child abuse as overwhelmed parents attempt to cope with the impossible situation of re-socialising their kids after the kids have been de-socialised in the school prison culture. Maybe the schools should be fined, not the parents, but the real solution is better schools, better pay & conditions for the teachers, and more interesting challenges for underprivileged kids. The Outward Bound schools have a better approach.
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