This is from the
Optimist Patriot, a blog. "Scary stuff out of Britain," begins the blogger. He quotes from a site I could not access called
The Corner.This autumn is likely to see an extension of parenting orders that can force parents to attend parenting classes so that they can be used on the say so of local councils against parents.
For the first time, parenting orders are likely to be directed against parents whose children have committed no criminal offence.
The threat of action against parents who fail to sing nursery rhymes was unveiled by Mrs Hughes as she gave the first details of Mr Blair’s ‘national parenting academy’, a body that will train teachers, psychologists and social workers to intervene in the lives of families and become the ‘parenting workforce’.
Mrs Hughes said that it was necessary for children to develop ‘emotional intelligence and flexibility, and to have good problem-solving and interpersonal skills too.’
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Oh my! Let's don't confuse "singing nursery rhymes" with emotional intelligence. This, I fear, is typical media hyperbole. What a shame they did not quote the two sentences just above this one. Mrs. Beverley Hughes, Children's Minister, is further quoted in the
Daily News as adding: 'These attitudes start with good family experiences, in the home, with strong, loving, aspirational parents. So supporting parents and providing good early years education can pay dividends here.'
Mrs Hughes said: 'It is now clear that what parents actually do has a huge impact on children's well-being and capacity to succeed, both at the time and in future.
'Some parents already know that reading and singing nursery rhymes with their young children will get them off to a flying start - often because this is how they themselves were brought up.
'For other parents without this inheritance these simple techniques are a mystery and are likely to remain so - unless we act and draw them to their attention.'
(from
The Daily Mail reporting the incident, entitled "The Nursery Rhyme Police")
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Offending parents can now be sent to court-ordered parenting classes.
The brouhaha is about whether these things can be "ordered," and thus the willful emphasis on "singing nursery rhymes." This is, of course an EMOTIONAL ISSUE. One blog responder, for instance, wrote that stories about trolls under bridges, old women shoved in to ovens, and grandmothers eaten by wolves was ..." He wasn't thinking straight, as you can see, because these, of course, are NOT NURSERY RHYMES, they are FAIRY TALES. And that's exactly what high-running emotions do -- cloud our thinking.
Whatever the arguments here, there's nothing wrong with EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Clearly it is needed.
Hooray for Mr. Blair and Mrs. Hughes for supporting it. Are their methods the way to do it? Well, if we would each take care of our own shop, learn emotional intelligence, pass it on to the kids ...
Order my ebook "
How to Develop Your Child's EQ" for practical tips. Nobody's
ordering you to do it, here in the US of A, it's just an emotionally intelligent thing to do.
Regardless of politics, there's not a person in the world in their right mind who could argue there's something wrong with children developing ‘emotional intelligence and flexibility, and to have good problem-solving and interpersonal skills too.’
Is there?
How IS your EQ? Take THE EQ MAP and find out. Then get coaching to address any deficits.
P.S. According to the bbc which doesn't mention "emotional intelligence," but does mention the nursery rhymes, "The Department for Education and Skills stressed there would be no element of compulsion in the help and advice offered to parents and dismissed newspaper claims that some would be forced to attend nursery rhyme classes."
But in the bbc article this was added, which no doubt caused the controversy: "Speaking to the annual conference of the National Family and Parenting Institute, Mrs Hughes said research suggested class was still a more important factor than intellect in how children achieve."
