It’s Official: You’re All Bad Parents !!!!!
I hasten to add that’s not our opinion: we think you’re all fantastic.
But, sadly it “must” be true, as it is the opinion of Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Head of Ofsted and chief inspector of schools.
He wants to get your son or daughter institutionalised and into school as soon as is humanly possible after birth. To make matters worse, you have apparently damaged your child’s prospects of a fulfilling and successful life by placing them with a childminder. He states, “If we are going to do something radical to promote social mobility, it’s too late by the time these youngsters are 11 or 16. With poor families now getting 15 hours free provision of childcare, the Government should try to ensure they go to a school-based nursery, not the local childminder.”
It might be worth, at this point, wondering quite how objective Ofsted inspections will be under Wilshaw. His organisation is trusted with regulating and inspecting childminders, but he clearly holds us in exceptionally low esteem.
It might also be worth asking Sir Michael whether his wonderful school-based nurseries will be open when parents who work all sorts of hours require care. I for one would like to know if they would take a frantic ‘phone call from a desperate mum late on New Year’s Eve and agree to provide care starting less than twelve hours later.
Not only does this man believe that the sole purpose of early childhood is to become ‘school-ready’ he also thinks that is the only job that parents and child carers need concern themselves with. This is not just about Wilshaw’s priorities for inspecting childcare settings: i.e. that we should be primarily educating children, rather than protecting and caring for them first and foremost, whilst giving them lots of experiences and a secure emotional foundation. Wilshaw believes parents should be admonished and punished if they “fail” their children by not training them to hold a pen correctly, sit quietly for ‘circle time’ and generally comply with classroom regimentation. Mum and Dad must then keep up the constant pressure on their children to complete the hours of homework that we somehow managed to survive and learn without doing in our day.
It goes to the heart of the parent-child relationship and the very definitions of “family life” and “childhood” as we know it.
Mind you, it is hardly unexpected. Sir Michael, a lifelong Conservative, is a political appointment and one who is keen to ingratiate himself in the Tory hierarchy. He is firmly behind the Westminster regime’s apparently laudable aim to “raise educational standards”. Sadly, that has nothing to do with improving your child’s job prospects, life chances or happiness and fulfilment. It is entirely focussed on pushing the UK up the statistical league tables of examinations achievement to a point where it can compete with the likes of Korea: a country where children study for up to 16 hours a day; where young professionals ‘burn out’ rapidly in high-stress jobs; and with one of the world’s largest instances of teenage-young adult suicides as a result.
So when Mr. Wilshaw and his ilk try to tell you you’re a bad mummy, just remember your child is far more important than his career. He’s made his opinion of you as a parent perfectly clear. If you’d like to give him your opinion, the Ofsted address is, as ever, on display at my setting.
See:
Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw: Headteachers should not be afraid to say
https://www.pre-school.org.uk/media/...-two-year-olds
