Children allowed to smoke in school breaks

Discussion of all things non-11 Plus related

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now
In a huff

Children allowed to smoke in school breaks

Post by In a huff »

I could not believe the news:

http://www.tes.co.uk/2297024

Am I the only parent concerned by this?
Grumpy Old Man

Post by Grumpy Old Man »

It beggars belief, but then we shouldn't be surprised at much these days!
Bo Peep

Post by Bo Peep »

How stupid! With the governments current drive to encourage people to stop; all the training of primary school kids teaching them about the dangers of smoking... and then we go and say it's okay to smoke so long as your parents don't mind. 'Yeah well my parents don't mind me having sex behind the bike shed' :oops: and 'my parents said it's okay to have a beer with my peanut butter sandwiches.' :roll: Please!
Bo Peep

Post by Bo Peep »

How stupid! With the governments current drive to encourage people to stop; all the training of primary school kids teaching them about the dangers of smoking... and then we go and say it's okay to smoke so long as your parents don't mind. 'Yeah well my parents don't mind me having sex behind the bike shed' :oops: and 'my parents said it's okay to have a beer with my peanut butter sandwiches.' :roll: Please!
RR

Post by RR »

From the report
"Their smoking did not begin at the centre, and is not encouraged or condoned by us in any way.

So if they are not encouraging or condoning it, what are they doing??????????

Agree with GOM, it sure beggars belief!!!!!!!!

RR
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear All

Perhaps its a bit of reverse psychology, if you tell a teenager not to do something, they will and vice versa, not necessarily all teenagers by the way

I have always allowed my children to drink with certain meals at home, therefore has not become a big thing., slightly different to smoking I know.

Patricia
Guest

Post by Guest »

As a smoker who really wants not to want to smoke and am booked in for hypnotherapy in 1/2 term I am amazed that the government is condoning the taking of highly addictive substances that have been proven to have huge health & financial costs- once you're hooked you're hooked -I know. Can these kids' not manage a day without a cigarette? Seems to me that they're are already hooked and alarm bells should be ringing.
Rebel

Makes sense to me

Post by Rebel »

I've often thought about my children in this regard - i.e. which option would I rather take:

(a) to know that they were doing something potentially harmful and be on their side from the outset of a challenging process, hopefully leading to their abandoning the abuse,
or,
(b) strike fear into their hearts and come across as a tyrant that would likely disown them if they did those things, thereby making it likely that I would only find out long after the problem had taken hold?

As you can imagine, I prefer the tolerant, non-judgemental, open and communicative approach of (a), and that appears to be what this Learning Centre are trying to do, by way of helping them to actually KICK the habit! It makes perfect sense to me, at least to try.

At lot of this goes back to the question of whether some or even all 'drugs' should be made legal so that we can control their usage better. To make it a different issue because they are 'school' children is to perpetuate the entrenched ageism and hypocrisy against kids that is still prevalent in society today.

Since it was mentioned already, which would you rather - to provide a child with access to condoms 'just-in-case' or risk a teenage pregnancy?

These issues are not necessarily easy to solve and it's admirable that some are trying alternative approaches. It really doesn't help to use emotive language and massess of exclamation marks in discussing this.
Catherine
Posts: 1348
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2005 4:47 pm
Location: Berks,Bucks

Post by Catherine »

Very good point, Rebel.
Bo Peep

Post by Bo Peep »

Sorry Rebel - your point is well made, but I don't agree. Of course we want parental involvement, love and guidance rather than the 'You're no child of mine' approach.

I didn't mean to raise the s.e.x. issue, but really meant that if schools decisions can easily be overturned by parental decisions we run the risk of having all sorts of rebellion in the school, from silly things like 'my child is allowed to wear trainers/jewelery/have every Friday off etc' to more serious stuff like, 'my child needs a drink/cigarette (or worse) to steady his nerves before his test.' and I have no doubt it could get worse. I just feel it's asking for trouble.

If a parent wants their kid to be given condoms then let the parent give them to the kid - why do we leave all this important stuff to our schools? Likewise with smoking - whist we surely all agree that we'd rather our kids did NOT smoke - if they are smoking and we want to be supportive so that they can have a cigarette during their lunch break then let the parent pick their child up and take them home for a smoke. It will be a far less attractive prospect than standing and being seen in the smoking zone at school! I don't think it makes any sense to say we want to discourage kids from smoking and then given them a designated area to do it in!
Post Reply
11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now