OzTennis

In the immortal words of Ned, ah so it has come to this, such is (modern) life!

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...844914168.html

OzTennis

Peter

Two hours per week is nothing onerous. You'd get that easily with the usual PE classes most schools have.

Flying the flag at school is not unreasonable either.

Howard's desire to see kids sing the anthem before class is a bit much though. They're going to sing it enough as it is throughout their school career.

OzTennis

Many might think that 2 hours isn't onerous but believe me it is for a lot of school pupils. The modern curriculum is so full of different subjects that some don't get 2 hours timetabled for P.E. and then there's always the frequent absences when it's P.E. day, not to mention the notes from home to excuse Jack or Jill from P.E. It gets a bit of a Catch 22 situation with a lot of pupils - they don't exercise, they eat the wrong things, they get overweight for their age and height, they don't want to be seen in P.E. kit, they get breathless when they exercise etc.

I note that it only applies to primary and junior secondary - is the presumption that middle and senior secondary aren't obese, they can't be forced to exercise, their timetable is too full or what?

I'm not against flying the flag or singing the anthem personally. (I was subjected to 'God Save the Queen' endlessly when I was at school, at least AAF is more relevant).

OzTennis

seang

wonder if schools here would be allowed to fly the flag?

OzTennis

No, along would come the 'PC Police'. It would cause offence to those in ethnic minorities etc, etc. BTW, it was reported in the papers last week that an education authority issued an edict to the schools in their authority (East Anglia somewhere). Pupils were NOT to be taken outdoors unnecessarily because of the dangers of skin cancer, if they did have to go outdoors then sunscreen should be applied and staff were NOT to help the pupils apply this because it would represent 'inappropriate contact'.

OzTennis

OzTennis

And on the subject of PC'ness, during the D-Day events recently a man wrote into the Times saying that Aberdeen City Council flew a special flag to commemorate the homosexual soldiers who died in the D-Day landings - my father wasn't and I found that insulting to his memory was the gist of the man's letter.

OzTennis

Peter

That's pretty sad re: PC Police and flying one's own flag. Hell, here in the US if any foreigner objected to the flying of Old Glory, they'd be shown to the airport.

Some folk around the world just can't grasp the concept of when in Rome...

renth

Yes, but which flag?

You wouldn't get the Union Jack flying anywhere apart from England and a few neighbourhoods in Northern Ireland.

I guess the "PC Police" wouldn't have a problem with the Scottish or Welsh flags but the St Georges cross would be banned because it is seen as racist.

A bit like the southern "rebel" flag in the USA, which features on a few southern states flags still.

RichS

whats not been addressed in this post is this:

Will you have to pay for the gym classes for your kids?

The answer I suspect is yes.

Ceri

we used to sing our national anthem ( I was not subjected to God save the queen thank gawd) once a week in junior school at assembly.. I can still remember the exact day of the week too - it was held every Wednesday morning, where everything would be in welsh from the hymns to the readings .. and I can always remember one little girl being excused for this .. I thought eh where's she going then..lol ( why is she getting out of it??). she was a bit of a weirdo, germima her name was... and I remember she was a bit smelly, funny the little things you remember sometimes. I also remember a little kid ( actually he was fat)who used to kick me with his false leg right through the welsh assembly ( he was a b*gger) .. and I couldn't hit him back, because it was always enforced into me by my parents not to pick on people who were less fortunate than myself ... I really hated that boy, he used to kick people with his hard plastic leg for no reason at all.. just because he knew he could get away with it. If I ever see him again, I'm going to kick him.. and say remember me? lol

jayr

Not this Welsh Assembly surely??

Ceri

Assembly as in assemble. meetings as in speeches, songs, readings.. ok I know you're taking the p*ss aren't you ( you haven't got a plastic leg by any chance have you?lol)

Every Wednesday our school assembly would be in our welsh language

cheers