our kids are thick - overweight & aggressive.

by - Mon Mar 28, 2005 18:12

not a fat, obese, big swinging mickey, racist, biotech share dealer amongst them.

They deserve better.

http://www.tui.ie/hot%20Topics/CongressDocs2005.html

.:.
the cheese will move
if you scrape the eFFing toast
.:.

by screw 'em. - think it - talk it - work it Mon Mar 28, 2005 20:58

Some agencies "work with teachers" to ensure that the growing problem of obesity in Irish children /as in Irish adults) is tackled.
The minister for Health, Mary "the mammy and granny" Harney holds responsibility for the message sent by teachers to our kids in the fight against STDs (with such thought provoking slogans as -
screw safe - think it - talk it - work it
& "sixth sense")
as well as the message to "eat healthy food in moderation so as to avoid diabetes, obesity and heart disease".
She shares responsibility with the departments of Education and Sport for the lack of physical activity amonst the youngest of the Eirinns, who don't seem to get off thier little arses except when protesting the racism of her colleague who deported a leaving cert student.

from the mammy/granny's web site:-

"Obesity in children has been identified as an emerging public health problem, particularly in the Western World. Data from recent surveys indicate that one in five Irish boys and girls are overweight and one in twenty are obese. Worryingly, the age of onset of obesity in children across the world is falling and a child is twice as likely to be an obese adult, if obese in childhood.

Addressing the trend and scale of overweight and obesity in Irish children is a priority. To do that we need to look at the eating and activity habits of children and what influences these. Less than half of teenagers aged 15-17 years take part in regular physical activity, and school children’s diet has a higher than desirable fat content - a significant proportion of which comes from high fat, energy dense snacks.

While many of the most active children in society spend time watching television, excessive television viewing is a contributor to obesity in children. This may be related to the high levels of food advertising to which they are exposed as well as reduced physical activity levels"
http://www.healthpromotion.ie/topics/obesity/#children

Quite, the children of Ireland are being sent the wrong message, and set a bad example for life.

Oh, if only the minister for health was like the minister for justice, whose ban on smoking has been credited by some health practioneers with restoring vitality to many ageing men's "sixth sense". Good on him, he'll be great in opposition.

by Ray McInerney Mon Mar 28, 2005 22:19 raymond.mcinerney at ul dot ie

and improve the students physical and mental health. Introduce a period of 15 to 20 minutes of Transcendental Meditation in the classroom.

by dunne Tue Mar 29, 2005 01:51

fifth and sixth dont get to do P.E. no matter how much they want to. and that protest had to be done for our friend who did nothing wrong.

by too lazy for anarchy Tue Mar 29, 2005 02:29

over the years i have been disapointed by friends who joined the education set up. why teach nonsense such as religion ? kids deserve much more than this. i don't think teachers want to take responsibility for their mistakes. the we doing our best schlock rings hollow and if people feel victimized by the one size fits all system its only understandale. if little has changed since i was at school .... we have learned nothing.

by knowing the trade Tue Mar 29, 2005 15:23

down with this sort of size-ist fascism.
"one size doesn't fit all".
sin é.

by & more much much more... Tue Mar 29, 2005 16:16

More than one union serves the needs and aspirations of the estate of society known as "academia" which as you amongst the emergent networking global political class knows includes universities, primary schools, secondary schools, kindergartens and all activity done in the name of "passing it on".

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation" have today welcomed in the broadest sense a five year plan by the Government to "reduce class size, and include additional resources (such as teachers). But INTO spokesperson and vice-president Sheila Noonan mused "That's all very positive, but like everything else, the devil is in the detail and we're not entirely sure when this exactly is going to roll out and how many teachers are concerned."
go to their website and see the little "road signs" choose your "road sign" depending on which side of the end of Mc Dowell's jurisdicion you live.
They are also having a conference at the moment in the Corrib Great Southern Hotel, Galway. http://www.into.ie/

And the discipline thing -
The Association of Secondary Teachers is another union serving teachers of ireland, they want increased right to exert discipline on kids.
And in some ways prepare them for the big world, so that their first brush with authority isn't getting lagged and fingerprinted by the local Community blackGuarda for carrying three grammes of hashish valued at around 260€.
ASTI spokesperson and president Susie Hall has confirmed that "discipline" is one of the 9 main points at their conference this week which will be held in European City of Culture Cork. Her words :-

"What we want would be a national policy on student behaviour where all of the partners involved in education - the students, the parents, the teacher unions, the principals, the boards of management and the Department of Education and Science - are all obliged to buy into a national plan,".

*****************

Meanwhile the Government are considering a 150€ charge for delivering the youngest to primary schools. Added to the cost of providing them with convenient high fat snacks and microwaved food, this now means the average hard working parent(s) of modern tippy toppy celtic tiger pluri-cultural Ireland are to be even more screwed for not having networked properly.

All current spokespeople on the "aggression" problem have significantly left out the local gardaí and the US entertainment corporations, it might be time for the PDs to consider the suggestion of fingerprinting all the little feckers as a sort of 11+ ritual, and then installing spyware on their mobile phones and PCs as a sort of challenge to the IT students at 3rd level to monitor the time they spend on learning violent behaviour on the internet or in videogames. Minister Mc Dowell of course is building new prisons, but there aren't enough people with the right qualifications in the "real world" to tell you, that your Kids are overweight - thick & aggressive, because you've made them that way.

Children learn by example and by watching TV & by interacting with "new media". For a decade you have seen held up as model of behaviour the most mediocre crowd of hypocrites and aggressive dishonest capitalists as desirable both at home and abroad.

.:. Mol an iguana agus tiocfaidh sí
as we say in hogworts .:.

by burn the rich Thu Mar 31, 2005 13:24

Children are overweight, because many working class/poor families cannot afford to buy fresh, healthy food for their families, it is cheaper to buy processed packets of chicken nuggets/beef burgers, even BSE big macs and chips are cheaper than fresh fruit, and vegetables. Fed on a diet of fast food and junk food, it is no wonder our children become hyperactive and aggressive.

Working class/poor families cannot afford healthy food, so as usual the rich/middle class win once again in terms of being able to afford the healthiest/organic food.

The food provided at school lunches is no better, with again working class/poor children being priced out of healthy nutritous school dinners.

When i was at school, teachers were allowed to administer corporal punishment, inevitably in those days, teachers would constantly pick on the poorest children in the class, even though those children may not have been doing anything wrong.

Teachers would target them simply because their parents were poor and of low social status therefore rendering those parents powerless to complain about abuse.

In those days rich/middle class teachers, didn't have to hide their hatred towards the poor and the children of the poor and were able to do as they liked and keep the poor in their place.

by jsr Thu Mar 31, 2005 15:05

Poverty is not the only thing to blame my friend, and your ramble bout getting hit as a nipper in school has nothing to do with modern fat/nasty kids. They hit left handed kids too, was that a class thing?
Kids are bring bombarded with ads offers and slick marketing which pushes junk food at them and parents who are too weak or just not there ( double income households, here is where income/poverty plays a huge part) indulge the little snappers. Ask any teacher, kids are not more petulant and spoilt than ever.
Parents are not around for their kids, due to financial factors such as the property market which has forced both parents out into the work place. If you don’t encourage your kids to play and even God forbid play with ’em of course they will be fat. Plonk them in front of the box and they will be subjected to ads for unhealthy crud they don’t need.

by burn the rich& professionals Thu Mar 31, 2005 19:05

Modern, fat, nasty kids?. You don't sound very mature or child friendly, maybe you're just a sadistic rich snobby bully professional adult.

The rich/middle class are not reknowned for their consideration or caring/kind natures, behind their hypocritic veneer of snooty niceness and morality, they're sadistic cold hearted viscious psychopaths.

It is our dog eat dog capitalist society which is to blame for the way families live.

by Hilda Thu Mar 31, 2005 19:25

Jsr, with an attitude like yours towards vunerable children, noone would leave you in charge of a hamster, nevermind trust you with the care, development and education of young minds.

The mind boggles to think about the immature weirdo backward bullying scum who qualify as teachers these days. Many are barely out of school themselves, and are victims of the same dog eat dog culture as their charges.

by Agnes Thu Mar 31, 2005 21:13

Many teachers are young insulated yuppie social climbers, who are just as inconsiderate, as the children they're put in charge of. Obviously children have an excuse for being inconsiderate, being immature and not grown up adults.

Many young teachers have no experience of dealing with children, and have no knowledge of child psychology or learning disabilities, they are simply taught to deliver a rigid syllabus, some have little or no interest in the subject they are teaching, nevermind an interest in nurse maiding the children of the poor/working class or children with learning difficulties.

There on the other hand dedicated women teachers, who genuinely care about the welfare and well being of the children they teach.

Holy Cross girls primary school in Ardoyne teaches 'Primary movement' classes to all their children, as therapy for dyslexia, learning difficulties and autistic spectrum children. A few dedicated caring teachers can make a difference to the educational progress of children.

I was never hit by teachers as a child, because luckily my parents were from the professional classes, but it was traumatic to watch, the less well off children getting battered and bullied by grown up teachers. We are not helpless children anymore who can stand by and witness institutional injustice unchallenged.

Thank God, Teachers are no longer able to blatantly batter little children/young adults they take a personal dislike to, because of colour, social class or religion. That is not to say prejudice and discrimination amongst the teaching profession, does not still exist.

With the scandal regarding overspending at the Belfast education board and other education boards looming, enforced educational cutbacks will mean that teachers will be put under intolerable class room pressure, with cutbacks in class room assistants and special needs, to the detriment of the educational progress of some of the most vunerable children, such as autistic spectrum and special needs childern. Children wit h learning difficulties already get the bare minimum of help and many parents have to struggle for years to get their children the appropriate support they need, without the sudden and total withdrawal of this.

by James Gaffney Wed Apr 06, 2005 02:27 Limerick

What about laws that would make it compulsory for everyone to be involved in some sort of sport/physical activity at least once a week? Would that go some way to solving the problem? Obviously if you could show that you were unable to take part due to health reasons you could opt out. They have such a system in place in Norway so I'm told.

by eeekkkk Sun May 22, 2005 20:03

The Government is coming under attack for engaging companies like McDonalds and Coca Cola in a new foundation to tackle obesity.

McDonalds, Nestle and Pepsi are some of the companies who will sponsor the Nutrition and Health Foundation which has been re-launched by the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan.

The Government claims these companies are providing objective information on how to tackle obesity.

However, John Gormley of the Green Party has criticised the Government's stance.

"On the one hand they are talking about tackling childhood obesity and on the other hand they are in fact endorsing the Nutrition and Health Foundation which is actually sponsored by a number of what I call obesity friendly companies," Mr Gormley said.

"I believe that the government has in fact sent out a signal now that they approve of these companies." He added.

by A10 Mon May 23, 2005 12:07

For everyone??Yeah great idea.Is done in very "free" countries like China and N Korea everyday.Along with some military drill in schools in small arms use and military tactics.Seems to be a mark of dictatorships of both left&right wing that the pouplation must be exercised.Over my overweight dead body!!!!

by jsr Mon May 23, 2005 20:22

Mine isn’t.

by Al Tue May 24, 2005 01:03

Whatever happened to just being a kid? So he or she is carrying an extra few pounds or he/she isnt the brightest spark. their kids, let them enjoy their childhood, theres plenty of time to be miserable and force fed by ads and stereotypes when their adults.
As long as my daughter is happy and healthy then so am I. If she wants to play a sport then I will be on the sideline, if its dancing or art then I will buy the gear and drop her to class. I wont force her to sport when she doesnt want to and I wont put my daughter on a diet unless were talking serious health risks. Moderate amounts of sweets and that are fine for a kid.
As far as teachers go, its no different to any career. You get some very dedicated and quality staff and you get some serious duds. I have a friend thats a teacher and the kids love him. I had plenty of great teachers who I would happily stop and chat to even now but again I had some real gits.