They have more than enough to contend with at school as it is, are they expected to take responsibility for everything in kids lives. There are only so many hours in a day, when will they fit it all in? I would rather all kids learnt how to read and write to an acceptable standard.

wow you are really taking this over board!

half the subjects is school kids dont even care about, and dont even remember! i didnt leave school that long ago, i remember!

all she was saying was a bit of pet care! id rather learn that than any language or and religion, which i HAD to pick and i failed because i honestly dont care about either................. maybe schools should have more options?!

or a after school club?! that way the kids who like it can go, the ones who dont, dont go!

sorted! [/COLOR]

I don't think I am going overboard actually, I just feel some people have unrealistic expectations of school and teachers. Their role is not to pick up all the loose ends that parents don't cover. They are supposed to educate in core subjects, subjects that whether we like them or not will serve us well in life. I disliked several subjects at school, but that doesn't mean I haven't retained the knowledge they made me acquire. As much as we may all love dogs, I really can't see it as a core subject at school

Absolutely NOT .. School hours are limited and quite frankly I want my son to be taught more important things than "how to be nice to a dog" I cannot teach him particle physics, but I can teach him love and respect and that goes across the board, not just animals, I agree 100% with Trouble, schools are for academic education not for filling in the moral and social defiencies of poor parenting, despite the fact that they are expected to take on that role more and more.... Unfortunately we live in a society where material goods are more important than raising our children

Science, religion, languages or .. dog care..a somewhat naive attitude

Rachel

:smt038 :smt038 :smt038 :smt038 :smt038

Couldn't agree more.

There are not enough hours in the day.
As I also said before...just because we enjoy our 'pets' doesn't mean other people want them or should have to hear about them or have their lives affected by them.

What gives????
Learning a language...how ignorant a nation would we become...we're bad enough now, learning a second language, especially nowadays, is important and to be honest, polite, why assume everyone speaks English?

Art? Some children are not academically inclined and so enjoy this subject as they can excel without having to write anything...

The core subjects? Without english/maths/science and IT you wouldn't get far...

RE...teaches us understanding of other people/clutures and faiths...

DT...again like art, some people excel at this and many go onto use it in their work...

PE...again necessary (much as it wasn't and isn't my thing) for oh so many reasons...childhood obesity being the main one...

History/geography...important subjects to give us a sense of who we are and where we come from, they also help to train our brains to think...outside of the box as the subjects progress...

PSHE...vital...

What gives in our overfilled curriculums (not all of which I've listed) so that we can teach a canine class...that chances are, most of the pupils will never use?????

Some people don't make good parents...is it therefore up to schools to take on that role??? Whole other debate there I think...

No I don't think this should be taught in school as there are already not enough hours in the day for schools to deal with the subjects that they already teach.

I think that rescues should play a bigger role in educating would-be owners to the responsiblities of owning a dog. I think all the national rescues should insist that prospective owners should attend pre-ownership sessions that cover responsible dog ownership. I know rescues are short of funds and that they want to get the dogs rehomed asap but I think some people would think twice about rehoming a dog if they fully understood what it really involved.

In my opinion it would be better if a dog stayed slightly longer in rescue but then went to its forever home rather than to be rehomed only to be returned to rescue as the new owners couldn't cope.

I agree completely with this statement- parental responsibility etc. but I guess it is probably another debate .

I don't see canine (or other) education as a core subject. However I do like the idea of instilling some kind of moral code in youngsters where animals in general are concerned.

I remember doing a project in junior school about the history of the horse.

When I was in secondary school there was a shed that housed mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, that kind of thing and some kids would take responsibility for one of them during holidays. (Actually,in retrospect I hope they weren't for the biology labs ) I'm not saying schools should keep dogs and I don't think it should be a taught subject. . I guess animal husbandry is a further education subject?

last year my som was in the nursary at the school and was asked if we could take our pets in and talk about them as there are children who dont have pets, that way they got to meet diffrent kinds of animals. I took in my dogs and the kids loved it we went in every other week and the kids would ask questions on feeding grooming ext. I thought that was a great idea as there was kids in there that was scared of dogs as they had not been aloud to see them or stroke them. They are now quite happy to see and stroke them and they always ask first if they can. So if kids at the age of 3/4yrs old can learn from just a 10min time slot every other week why cant other schools find the time just to do a small time. I now school is for the main education but how can parents teach kids if they dont have a dog ect or are scared them selves. sorry

Nursery education is slightly different as the Foundation stage has plenty of opportunities for children to learn about the world around them.
I've been in plenty of schools with the pups (and Brownie groups etc) and the children can stroke them if they want (same with the working dog that sometimes comes with us and with his owner)...not all children want to stroke thwem though and in some schools and areas there are religious implications.
I also, in a junior school arranged for Dogs Trust to come in and give a talk and bring some dogs in (think it was them...may have been another rescue, can't remember) as a result of work I was doing in Literacy on captions...'A dog is for life' thing...we just developed that a bit. I did that though as it was obviously an interest of mine and close to my heart...not all teachers like dogs though.
It isn't a teachers job to teach children not to be fearful of dogs IMO...that's up to the parents/family/friends/ recue charities....

You guys are ridiculous you have taken this completely out of pro-portion.
I am not a politician and do not ever intend to be. It was said as a light joke, ''wouldn't it be nice if...''

I also mentioned me becoming queen, surprised you didn't jump down my throat over the unrealness of that situation