Friday, November 17, 2006

Forcing nursery rhymes on parents

UK Daily Mail:
Did you want to laugh or cry when you read that mothers and fathers who fail to sing nursery rhymes to their children may be obliged to attend classes?
Weird. It sounds like a parody of what a nanny state might do.

Another story:
Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children, plans a national academy for parenting practitioners to train a "parenting workforce" of teachers, psychologists and social workers. Among other priorities, she wants them to educate "disadvantaged parents" about how to sing nursery rhymes and read stories. You surely could not make it up. At least, not without the support of your professional "co-educators".

This new academy is meant to develop an evidence-based view of "what works". If Ms Hughes had done her homework, she might have learnt that years of research shows no clear evidence that an interventionist approach to parenting works at all. Yet the parenting industry pursues its agenda regardless, always insisting that "more research is needed", presumably until they get the "right" results.

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