Nar Dax, she'all larn hoo to tark reet propp-ah, like!

Canadians sound increasingly like Americans over here...don't want K forever apologising for her mistaken national identity.

As for pubs, once the pound 'crashes' you'd better rush over here quick as they are biting the dust, something to do with supermarket and offie loss-leaders and soaring cost of property...erm...well, scratch the last one for a couple of years...

Given that I'll be teaching KS 4 English, yes, it'll be a few years before there's any danger of that.

I'm already an upmystreet junkie, and although there are some sketchy areas to the south of my bit, I'll be right on the outer fringe of London, which seems very nice. Quite filled with Asians to the north though. That function on that webpage is hilarious, btw.

It's not the best school in England, but it seems to be middle or slightly lower than middle of the barrel. Not supplying at the bottom rung like I would be over here. Waking up at 5 am to see if someone needs me that day is not particularly how I'd like to spend a few years.

And I have a planned retort for the expected "What state in America are you from?" questions.... "Ontario. What part of wales/scotland/ireland are you from?"

Welcome back, Kiari. I never knew you before, but I'm glad you have a teaching job, even if it means dislocation and crossing the big pond. Teaching jobs are so hard to come by.

I'm not sure if I should bring this up here, but there is a book (one of several, I'm sure,) written for people want to do so, that explains the process of impregnation--with drawings--to children who are too young to read. It's called something like, "The Great Swimming Race."

I think sex education--if it is sex education that's being required by Cassie's daughters' school--should be a home thing rather than a school thing, especially if the child is too young to read. Parents should be able to judge when their child is old enough and to what degree a child is ready to learn. It shouldn't be an abitrary decision made by a school. Opt her out of it, Cass, if that makes you feel more comfortable. But find out what the class is all about and have your wife talk to her about it, first. It could be that your daughter really wants to know--in a way that she'll understand--why she has a little brother.

Good to have easy access to stress free areas, though as people know there are plenty of good parks in London.

Asian's do great food...in moderation...I'm pincered between two fish and chip shops an Indian and Chinese takeaway and it's murder on stomach/discipline war!

The Acorn function is funny...though one gets 'blind' after a while.

Middle's reasonable, depending on how big, how good the school management and whether they rest on the laurels or provide good educational value added.

So your getting to grips with our #National Curriculum? I suspect you are used to similar.

Yeah, or the oh I know someone from there, do you know Jim Bloggs?!

Anyways, have fun!

RNG:

In the job that I do I get paid to listen and if and when I go to my daughters school I wll be polite and calm and will listen to what is been said.The one thing that I will like clearing up is "are the 4 year olds going to be taught about homosexuals" when the press talks about different types of human realationships?

I agree that a four year old child won't get much out of learning about homosexuals, especially since they are too young to even understand heterosexuals.

At what age do you think children should be taught about the plethora of sexual variations, and how should they be so taught?

Should it be taught at home? At school? In the street by friends? Through books? Educational video? The Halloween gay parade in Greenwich Village? The cartoon-ey graphics of South Park?

Four year olds do not need to be taught about homosexuality, heterosexuality, bestiality or any other sex acts. Even if one believes that a person is gay or straight or English by four years old, it is not the place of the school to teach those acts to four year old children. They don't need to be taught about the "relationships" either. The school should stick to basic hygiene and anatomy at the most. And really, the anatomy should only come up as part of hygiene.

This is your tricknology right here, Cass. The system is trying to wow our children away from us with sexcapades. Be on our side, boys and girls. We have sex. Sex is yummy like candy. Don't you want some candy? Come inside the big government van and we'll give you some.

I'd like to go a bit further, though, and say that all of us here know what homosexuality is. We must have larned it someplace.

Is there anyone here whose sexuality or sexual behavior changed when they learned about homosexuals? Did anyone feel that knowing someone who was homosexual made them less heterosexual? Any homosexuals feel that knowing straight people changed their sexuality?

Anyone?

Anyone at all?

I'm going to say this in an irritatingly whiny, nasal, and high-pitched voice that hurts your ears and makes you wish I would have an anvil fall on my head:

WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EVER *LISTEN* TO ME??

I told you guys that by the time I was 6 years old, my little peers and companians had already shared with me, in a very eager way, everything they had learned from their 7 year old siblings about sex, gender, and anatomy, which was extensive, graphic, and mostly wrong to a comical degree.

Little tiny children are NOT pure, innocent, clean little creatures. They are grubby, grimy, sticky little critters with brains that were made to gather as much information as possible as quickly as possible, so they have intense curiosity and few qualms about asking "sensitive" questions that make adults blush, or chatting about private parts with one another, or sharing a peek at what they all have got under the underwear, or drawing instructive pictures and diagrams for one another, authoritatively explaining the mechanics of how adults have sex, or compelling much younger children to submit to examinations and probings, or participate in bullying that consists of sexual humiliation or threats, or proudly learning an extensive vocabulary of obscenities and profanities.

Say this out loud with me: CHILDREN ARE NOT INNOCENT. INNOCENCE IS A FABLE. KIDS KNOW THEY HAVE NAUGHTY BITS WHETHER THEY ARE TOLD BY TEACHERS OR NOT.

If you said that out loud, you just spoke truth.

If you didn't, I just have to ask... do you have total amnesia or something? Have you no memory at all of your own experiences learning about sex in the wrong way from other children? Have you wiped it all out?

Here's a charming personal anecdote... when I was four years old, a lovely, pure, innocent little girl, I was sitting with my little cousin of the same age on the kitchen floor, and she and I were playing with clay. She made a doggie. I made a Santa Claus. We talked about if Santa was a boy or a girl, and I asserted that Santa was a boy. She wasn't convinced. To prove my point, I fashioned an oversized clay phallus and attached it in more-or-less the right spot to Santa to prove that he was a boy. Then Mommy came in, turned white, and punished me real good.

My parents never taught me anatomy, neither did any school. Kids learn it, badly, from other kids.

Adults who fear teaching the truth are fighting inner demons and fostering the growth of new demons in their kids.

Kids are not innocent, the truth about sex is not perverted and will not hurt them, they already have some strange ideas about sex by the time they get into the classroom.

Dax:


Homosexuality is a strange subject to me,so I understand that people who supports homosexuality may ask strange question on this subject from time to time,so I will just stop right here.

Homosexuality could never ever have change my sexuality but as a kid the first time I encountered homosexuality on tv I remembered how I felt.I felt confused at first seeing two men in bed,I couldn't talk to my dad about the film " the naked civil servant",so I talked to my mother about it,she told me all I needed to know.

Aint:

I have been on this site to long your getting to know me to well.When my wife comes home and tells me that the teachers said that we as parents should not be teaching my daughter to read,trust me the alarm bells just keep ringing louder and louder to me.I do believe Aint that schools today are doing more corrupting than educating children.

Helice:


Get a grip Helice theres a good lady.All I know is that teachers with the mind set like yours will be watched keenly.This is what I like about some Americans like you Helice,who told you that your truth is my truth?