How insane is the government? Perhaps you shouldn’t answer that, we’ve not got all year. However, we should be questioning the sanity of Professor Lord Richard Layard, a government adviser, who believes “the central purpose of schools should be to teach “the secrets of happiness”
” (source).
What bollocks. Schools are not a place to learn happiness. Well-being is something that parents should be “assisting” with by providing a safe and happy environment at home. Schools are a place to pick up basic things like, I don’t know… English? What a shame that this key skill is obviously being skipped over, leaving the likes of Shropshire Star Teen Blogger Rhian with a serious spelling problem. “Its” instead of “it’s”, “should”/”would” and “of” in a sentence next to each other, mixing up tenses, etc..
I think we should be questioning why our teenagers — Rhian, my little sister, and who knows how many others — need lessons on happiness when they haven’t even got essential, necessary literacy smarts.
(Watch me cock something up in this entry and look like a right hypocritical ass now.)
03 May at 9:10 pm
Eh, the school I go to is focused on having the teachers whisper lessons to students (um, we’re not going to get quiet just because you are, Mrs. Teacher!) Even worse, half of us don’t even know what participles are! (And that’s a state standard for the year I’m in, I believe)
03 May at 9:15 pm
My teachers are absolutely useless, as is my school: we only have 40-50% of the students achieve 5 A-C grades at GCSE level. It’s been rumoured that it will be shut down in the next decade; not a vote of confidence for the likes of me who is receiving ‘education’.
03 May at 9:23 pm
@Amber: 27 out of 100 are in the Algebra 1 class in 8th grade. Gee, I may stink at math, but it’s not that hard for the other kids to get into that class (the other class is Pre-Algebra)! Heck, if everybody paid attention, did their homework, read the READING (hmm, they don’t seem to get that word) assignments, and took more than one second to study for a test occasionally, then only about 10 of them wouldn’t make it into the Algebra 1 class, just because they do have conditions preventing them from learning properly.
03 May at 9:24 pm
(at my school, I mean)
03 May at 9:38 pm
-sigh- Sorry, Jem, but that sounds typical. Government and education make a powerful distrubing mix. Nobody high enough up to make a difference gives a damn about how the citizens of tomorrow are being educated, because they look at it as “I’ll be dead and it’ll be their problem.” And you think it’s bad there? Shit, come to the great United States. We’ve got the best public education system ever. /sarcasm.
03 May at 10:32 pm
My favorite part of the article is the fifth paragraph. It’s just one, huge, run-on sentence. I’d say it’s also the worst “sentence” in the entire thing.
03 May at 11:58 pm
Actually, I recently found my sister’s MySpace and was absolutely appalled at her spelling. She insists it’s the cool thing to do. Needless to say, I’m buying her a very large Dictionary for her Birthday this year :) But horrible spelling is becoming a big problem. I know I’m only 25 and shouldn’t be saying “young kids these days..”, but we have a few 20-something year olds at my work and I’m constantly pulling my hair out because they make the same mistakes – on letters going out to customers! Even speaking correctly seems to be a problem. I think I’ve told nearly every person under the age of 25 that people SPECIFICALLY ask for me, they don’t PACIFICALLY ask for me! I really wish schools would put emphasis on simple things like spelling.
04 May at 3:03 am
I don’t know how people survive grammatically. I was editing a bio for my friend in art, and I was stunned by her grammar. This girl was in AP-level english for two years! You would think she would have better writing skills. She easily had five run-on sentences and her use of verbage was mangled. I don’t get it.
04 May at 4:19 am
Best thing that ever happened to me was a program called ‘Shirley English’ in 5th and 6th grade. My grandmother is also a grammar monster. While studying for Will’s GMAT, I asked my grandmother the sentence correction questions and she got all of them correct! If we use incorrect english in her presence, she always corrects us :)
04 May at 6:35 am
When i went to school nobody cared if you were happy or not, so long as you learned the lessons they taught. School was for learning how to read and write and count and to reaffirm the discipline that our parents taught us. Sadly however, nowadays, thanks to interfering governments parents are not permitted to even do that without severe consequences. Admittedly, these new guidelines were set up to protect the children that were abused by their parents which of course surely everyone must be in favour of sadly it also prevents the instruction of decent moral values that so many lack these days. This in turn leads to a lack of respect for our elders and society in general. Governments should be concerned with governing and leave the teaching to the teachers (Although a lot of those should go back to school and learn how to teach!)
04 May at 7:01 am
My kids refuse to have me check their work. Although they are too young for certain words I insist they use them . When a whole sentence can basically besaid in one or two words, I prefer that. I forget theat my kids are not that advanced yet. Actually they are a year behind in the English department. I truely believe it is because their school is one of the top 100 in the state and they let slower kids slip between the cracks to keep their status. I know I have typosis, but when writing papers, stories, etc I do check them, rearrange them, etc so they will look professional. I learned this all from my Grandma. She didn’t know how to speak English until she went to school. Once all the kids where in school German was no longer allowed to be spoke unless someone was sick so she told me. It was so important they knew English, as they came from Germany and at that time Germans where hated to say the least. Long comment eh? Anyhow she thought since she had to work so hard at being so good at English she believed everyone should too and therefore it was drilled in my head. I know though when happiness is the concern on the schools minds they have huge problems and the directors, etc need counseling. Sure kids learn better in a happier enviroment, but they also need to know there is no such world where it’s happy all the time. Also if there wheren’t so many pervs, people would trust more and therefore kids wouldn’t need happiness lessons.
04 May at 8:53 am
I make the same mistake as “would have”/”would of” as her, and I’m well into my 20’s. As far as “happiness lessons”, maybe not. But the article does mention “coping with life”. If that is in the form of basic budgeting/cooking skills, then I’m on for it.
04 May at 9:59 am
I hate bad spelling and grammar! I tell people off about it and this has actually caused several arguments between me and my best friends. They protest that “it’s msn, it doesn’t matter” Yes it does! Just because you’re using msn, that’s no excuse not to use proper grammar. And don’t even get me started on text talk… Gah!
04 May at 10:21 am
i rawk @ speeling. But I’m not the happiest person ever – I just wish I had happiness lessons at school… Seriously though, I hate the kids’ grasp of spelling and grammar nowadays. I don’t have much dealings with them other than on one of my forums. We have resorted to adding words into the “swear” filter to correct spelling (ie “m8” becomes “mate (but I’m a lazy c*nt)” ). As for brought/bought/their/they’re/there/where/were/der/would of/could of. Agh. :(
04 May at 10:49 am
I make loads of mistakes when I’m writing. My mother always corrected me when I was speaking when I was little. It wasn’t until I got more active on the internet and started up my own websites that my English improved. Happiness lessons? Sure, bring that in after I leave! Like you said, it would save me doing that boring old English stuff. Haha Jem, I can just imagine you reading, re-reading and re-re-reading that entry again before you posted it to make sure there wasn’t a single typo :P
04 May at 10:51 am
:S How did you guess?! Don’t give away my secrets ;)
04 May at 2:00 pm
I certainly didn’t learn happiness at school…quite the opposite. I don’t understand why people can’t at least try to be more eloquent when they write to one another…it’s like trying to read a made up language otherwise.
04 May at 2:57 pm
I know there’s a rash of “netspeak” in schools. Even in college, I’ve run into site/cite/sight and other such mix ups. I mean, seriously, you’re writing a research paper and you can’t “site” your work properly?(pun intended) Anyway, I can understand having learning problems (my mother is dyslexic and can’t spell my dad’s name sometimes). But to not write correctly when you have the capability is beyond me. I know I have issues sometimes with my casual writing, but when it’s for class or work I re-read it a couple of times to make sure it’s as correct as possible. Plus spell check is wondrous! I don’t see the purpose of schools as teaching the secrets of happiness. But if creativity, stress coping skills and other such things can be worked into a normal lesson, that’s all the better. I think the parents should handle most of that responsibility and the school should encourage healthy behavior. I also think that reading is terribly important. You can learn lots of things from books without actually putting yourself in those situations. My family are all avid readers I know I benefited immensely from it.
04 May at 3:35 pm
@ mallory – I have run into cite/sight so many times. Worse still is my 40+ year old boss, who asked me to to create a “web sight design” for the company.
04 May at 4:05 pm
I guess it’s all in how you interpret that. I mean, maybe to some kids learning grammar rules and how to multiply IS their happiness. Ha ha ha. Education is screwed up right now. Too many tests. Not enough teaching. I really don’t want to start ranting on here. Learning the difference betwen its and it’s and their, they’re, and there is NOT difficult. I don’t know why so many people have to be idiots about it. I KNOW the schools teach it, but it’s not sticking with people for some reason.
04 May at 4:08 pm
Well, I guess our Public Education system is, thought I live in a very very small country in Europe, pretty good. OK, so it’s not perfect, but even before entering high school you get a lot of education. Speaking fluent (or at least very good) English, for example, is an requirement to have an A in the last grade of primary school (or junior high, whatever).
04 May at 4:27 pm
I really wish that the education system would put its emphasis back on the “3 Rs”. These stupid schemes and gimmicks to “modernise” education seem to do nothing but result in people leaving school without even the most basic levels of literacy and numeracy.
04 May at 8:27 pm
Education should not be like that. You find happiness on your own. You can cover these concepts in a literature class somewhat as it relates to a character. Did you know that some people can barely do math properly or spell. It’s disgusting.
04 May at 9:15 pm
As long as they don’t actually TRY to do anything in that direction, let them speak. Our government changes the educational system every bloody year *rolls eyes* The current high schoolers learn almost nothing similar to what I have learned in high school (and that was only 6 years ago…) I think the guy meant something like, being happy with more. I mean not just having the daily bread… but he forgot some words along the ride :P
04 May at 11:41 pm
Schools are generally useless. I went to a primary school that boasted the status of “Beacon School” (whatever the hell that means) – where I spent a miserable 4 years being dumbed down by patronising teachers and stupid classmates, and I now go to a grammar school that isn’t much better. I still don’t understand how people my age are unable to tell the difference between to, two and too, and their, there and they’re. I’ve always understood that kind of thing. We have SATs exams next week, so yeah, well done crappy education system for not teaching us anything useful. But as for people using text speak on their websites… well, that’s just obnoxious in my opinion. They say it’s quicker, but you have to remember where to put all of the superfluous z’s and exclamation marks. It’s stupid.
05 May at 12:47 am
I go to the same crap load of a school as Hillarie, and we are just now learning what prepositions are! It really is pathetic!
05 May at 6:14 am
I love you?
05 May at 6:20 am
Pah. I went to school to learn reading, counting, writing and that sort of stuff. Happiness… can you even learn that.I think in Finland system is pretty good, everybody are basically on the same line when they start (money doesn’t count in this case) and everybody get the same education (of course it’s up to you do you want receive it…). (Only thing I wish they would have taught at school would be filling the tax-return… Well it’s ready filled but I would like to know where there says how much I have to pay (or not pay) taxes. At least I found out how much I get tax refund :))
05 May at 9:17 am
“The secrets of happiness?” You can’t teach happiness. The teachers can make a classroom a more happier environment but they can’t control someone’s emotions. I don’t think any pupil/student will take a lesson in happiness seriously anyway. It’s just as inappropriate as allowing schools to deal with out of school problems, that is what parents are for. Admittedly, I’m not great with the use of punctuation and grammer but I do try to rectify my writing (by asking my younger sister to check my writings). It might sound stupid but (a while ago) I tried to writing in “text language” but failed miserably. Even now I find it hard to decode people’s texts, the non-existent use of punctuation doesn’t help either! In conclusion, school’s are there to teach the fundamentals and build on a person’s knowledge Not to enlighten people on how to be happy.
05 May at 1:22 pm
Keep in mind, it was a professor who wrote this. Considering most professors only teach college aged people, this is true. In college, your goal is to find something that will make you happy, and then to learn about whatever it is that makes you happy, so you can find a job that makes you happy. I can see this being applied further down the line though. There’s a lot of generalized study. Now, while I believe that liberal arts studies are important, I do believe that children should also be encouraged to take classes that they enjoy. At least one a day. For example, I always picked at least one computer class because I was good with computers. I also think that if kids are encouraged to learn about what they love, they might also learn a lesson about learning (ie. it’s fun to learn). And then they might improve their grades in other classes. Why this is good? Schools that are busy teaching their students to enjoy life are not dealing with massive death shootings (ie. Vtech). Of course this is all just a ramble about what might be true. I might be completely wrong.
05 May at 4:36 pm
Apparently, my the folks at my school are “Provider’s of a first class education”. I thought happiness was meant to be an instinct, anyway.