Stupid survey results

[fireheart]

This is from one of my old high schools. It's an all-girls school. They recently set out a parent survey and published the results. Here are some of the more stupid responses and suggestions they got towards school issues. (My thoughts on these are in brackets)

"Help in the community ie Meals on Wheels, visiting sick/elderly" (The music students already visit the elderly. Where exactly do you propose the students find the time to do Meals on Wheels during the school day? [this is the actual suggestion] It wouldn't be an issue if they were encouraged to do so outside of school hours, but this is something you could encourage!)

"Tighter controls on length of skirt, hair colours and acrylic nails." (The school's response is in line with mine, which is basically "parental enforcement is needed, control your own damn kids.")

"Career counselling should be offered for parents." (There have been many sessions offered over the previous years and attendance has been poor. The comment sounds more like it was written by someone who HADN'T attended those sessions)

"Offer these subjects [five different languages, fashion design, child studies onsite and mechanical/metalwork studies] (The school's response was thankfully that each subject is pricey and they can't offer them if they don't have enough students. One of the languages listed they HAD offered in the past, but apparently dropped it after I moved.)

"Offer Art to Year 12." (the school already does this. )

"Provide more organised sport for the girls to join." (There are plenty of teams already, what more do you want?)

"Support students who are struggling with subjects." (There is tutoring already available)

"Regulate due dates so they don't all fall at the same time." (this one sounds legitimate, but I actually find stupid. The reason why is that when you go to university, you're going to get due dates all bunched up together and sometimes you'll have multiple assignments due on the same day. If school is meant to be preparing students for the real world, they're going to get a huge shock once they start uni)

"History should be an alternate to Language." (this is a compulsory part of the Australian Curriculum. Even if the school offered the International Baccalaureate (which it doesn't), your child should still be forced to learn a language!)

"Random issues with school facilities." (A couple of these I agree with, but I also agree with the school's response in that they cost MONEY.)

[Amina516]

It amazes me the amount of people who make no effort to be involved with their kids or their school. I work a crazy schedule, but i take the time to go or send my husband to the conferences and back to school nights. If you don't help or bother with your kid, you cant expect others to care about them. Theres generally a ton of resources available, if you would just look!

"Tighter controls on length of skirt, hair colours and acrylic nails." (The school's response is in line with mine, which is basically "parental enforcement is needed, control your own damn kids.")

Once again, let's make others responsible for your own responsibilities.

[greek_jester]

"Tighter controls on length of skirt, hair colours and acrylic nails." (The school's response is in line with mine, which is basically "parental enforcement is needed, control your own damn kids.")

I'm confused; doesn't this fall under school uniform rules? My old high school would send a kid home if they:

1) Were wearing a skirt that was more than 2 inches above the knee (the one exception being when the sprinklers went off and we were all allowed to wear our gym kits rather than sit around soaked to the skin).
2) Were wearing a hair colour that wasn't found in nature.
3) Wore heels more than 1.5 inches high.
4) Were wearing "visible" makeup i.e. pancaked on foundation, false eyelashes, vivid lipstick as opposed to discreet foundation, clear/hair coloured mascara, neutral lipstick (although you were given the option of washing it off in the loos rather than going home).

[AccountingDrone]

I am firmly behind the suggestion to start offering a second language as early as first grade ... the younger you are when you start a second language, the better you pick it up. I haven't bothered doing anything with French, and I can still think in French - I can even dream in French, and I can still maunder along in German and I only had a year of German though I had a German Nanny, and spent my first 5 years in Germany.

[greek_jester]

I am firmly behind the suggestion to start offering a second language as early as first grade ... the younger you are when you start a second language, the better you pick it up. I haven't bothered doing anything with French, and I can still think in French - I can even dream in French, and I can still maunder along in German and I only had a year of German though I had a German Nanny, and spent my first 5 years in Germany.

This, completely; young children do best at picking up languages since their brains are still wired to learn that sort of thing extremely quickly. Make it a couple of languages that have common roots with a lot of European languages and you're laughing; for example, picking up Italian if you know Spanish is a lot easier than cold-learning it from a purely English background.

[Pagan]

"Career counselling should be offered for parents." (There have been many sessions offered over the previous years and attendance has been poor. The comment sounds more like it was written by someone who HADN'T attended those sessions)

Why should the school be doing this?

[fireheart]

I'm confused; doesn't this fall under school uniform rules?

It's a public school and while they can enforce uniform, there are some reasons for students to not have the correct uniform (ie students skirt ripped, student is waiting on order for a skirt because it's not in their size etc.). The hair and nails thing can be enforced to a degree, but continually punishing the student for it basically sends the idea of "Great, if I don't want to go to school, I can look hoochie."

I am firmly behind the suggestion to start offering a second language as early as first grade ... the younger you are when you start a second language, the better you pick it up. I haven't bothered doing anything with French, and I can still think in French - I can even dream in French, and I can still maunder along in German and I only had a year of German though I had a German Nanny, and spent my first 5 years in Germany.

Nearly all schools in my home state start the students as young as Kindergarten in a second language. Language choice CAN influence which high school a student goes to (this is why I wound up at this particular high school at the time, as none of the GOOD schools in my area offered French. They offered either Japanese, German, Chinese or Spanish.). In my current state, some schools do, some don't depending on numbers. The school I work at for instance, does not do a second language.

Why should the school be doing this?

We have more options for students to select subjects in Years 10-12 (Year 8 and 9 usually allow the students to choose their language (if possible) and which form of Art they want to do (Dance, Drama, Music or Visual Art). Sometimes they'll also allow students to choose what form of technology studies they want to do ie Woodwork, Metalwork, Photography).

Because those subjects can also determine what you want to do for further study, you can receive careers counselling to determine what you should focus on in order to succeed in that career path. So for instance, if you want to be a chef, your focus subjects would be Food Tech, English, Maths and Science, plus electives. If you want to be a primary school teacher, you might have a more evenly spread path so you can teach multiple subjects. If you're planning on studying a science, medicine or similar at uni, you also need to have specific subjects and they usually have set criteria.

In some schools, students can also gain credits towards their high school certificate by studying "vocational" subjects. These are entirely career-based and consist of classes and on-the-job work towards a particular career. Sometimes they may include a school based apprenticeship, where you might do 3 days at school, 1 day at the Vocational College and 1 day on the job. These are for things like trade careers, childcare, allied health (ie enrolled nurse), aged care and so on.

[Employee28567]

"A hair color not found in nature? But have you seen tropical birds?

[Monterey Jack]

2) Were wearing a hair colour that wasn't found in nature.

"You know your hair?"

"I know of it."

"It's all blue."

"Dude, I change my hair every three weeks, get used to it."

[greek_jester]

"A hair color not found in nature? But have you seen tropical birds?

Let me rephrase. A hair colour for humans not commonly found in nature i.e. anything that isn't black, varying shades of brown, varying shades of blonde (not including albino unless you are one), varying shades of ginger (so long as they're ones produced by a human's genes rather than in a bottle). Did I miss anything?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Let me rephrase. A hair colour for humans not commonly found in nature i.e. anything that isn't black, varying shades of brown, varying shades of blonde (not including albino unless you are one), varying shades of ginger (so long as they're ones produced by a human's genes rather than in a bottle). Did I miss anything?

You mean pink isn't a natural hair color???

[dalesys]

You mean pink isn't a natural hair color???

The EU doesn't allow GMO humans???

[fireheart]

Most schools generally consider the "unnatural" hair colour thing to be things like bright blues or whatever, but some schools also extend it to things like ombre, balyage (basically the colour is painted on in sections so to speak), dip-dyes and so on.

[smileyeagle1021]

"Regulate due dates so they don't all fall at the same time." (this one sounds legitimate, but I actually find stupid. The reason why is that when you go to university, you're going to get due dates all bunched up together and sometimes you'll have multiple assignments due on the same day. If school is meant to be preparing students for the real world, they're going to get a huge shock once they start uni)

And it's not just uni... I've already finished uni and have entered the "real world" and guess what, I have 9 projects a week that have to be done and they are all due on the final day of my work week. I miss the days when I complained about two different homework assignments due at once.

[fireheart]

And it's not just uni... I've already finished uni and have entered the "real world" and guess what, I have 9 projects a week that have to be done and they are all due on the final day of my work week. I miss the days when I complained about two different homework assignments due at once.

That too.