Some Schools Forcing Parents To Accept Only 'Online' Parents Evenings, Forever?

[cgksheff]

1 hour ago, Chekhov said:

I have answered you, I feel you are just trying to make some point now.

You are implying you are happy to spend most of your life online wherever possible, I am not and I do not want my child brought up to think it is normal, because it is not and should not be encouraged. Face to face parents evenings were on offer when we enrolled our child in the school, so it is not unreasonable to conclude that the fact they have been withdrawn means they are not sticking to their commitments. It is not out of the question we would have enrolled our lad in a different school had we known what was going to happen. That is how strongly I feel about it.

Now you have totally lost it.

Ask for a meeting and see what happens.

[ECCOnoob]

2 hours ago, Chekhov said:

I have answered you, I feel you are just trying to make some point now.

You are implying you are happy to spend most of your life online wherever possible, I am not and I do not want my child brought up to think it is normal, because it is not and should not be encouraged. Face to face parents evenings were on offer when we enrolled our child in the school, so it is not unreasonable to conclude that the fact they have been withdrawn means they are not sticking to their commitments. It is not out of the question we would have enrolled our lad in a different school had we known what was going to happen. That is how strongly I feel about it.

But it IS normal. Imposing your dinosaur backward thinking ways onto the child is certainly not going to help them be prepared for their life if in their future adulthood.

 

You need to quickly realise that the current generation of school children have never known life without the existence of a smartphone. They've never know life before the existence of mainstream broadband internet. They've never known life without instant delivery services, remote shopping, 24-hour access to everything, self checkouts, online forums and virtual chat rooms...... 

 

They will be entering a world where by the time they reach working age, it will not be uncommon to see vehicles driving themselves, autonomous delivery operations, workplaces where remote and virtual meetings are the default setting, option of working remotely from home is an expected right in employment regulations, the ability to use online resources, app based business tools, keyboarding and use of touch screen technology will be absolute mandatory.

 

Nobody is suggesting for a minute that face-to-face human contact and the tactile needs of us mortal species will not be met. It will just be done in different ways just as things have evolved time and time before. The way people make friendships, the way people build relationships is all different and just because something is virtual does not make it any less real or relevant to those part of it - no matter how many times you try and protest otherwise.

 

You may feel very strongly about such issues but it is misguided. Why should you impose your own quite frankly absurd position on others.

 

The world is moving on. Time to stop forcing against it. Coronavirus may well have sped up the process but the direction of travel was set decades before that. Take a look at some of the BT archives, good grief even in the 60s there was serious discussions and prototypes regarding some vast network of information all connected by computer and talks about video calling and home working. Some of us were doing such things well before anyone have even heard of 'Wuhan".  It aint going to stop now.

Edited April 22, 2022 by ECCOnoob

[Anna B]

3 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

But it IS normal. Imposing your dinosaur backward thinking ways onto the child is certainly not going to help them be prepared for their life if in their future adulthood.

 

You need to quickly realise that the current generation of school children have never known life without the existence of a smartphone. They've never know life before the existence of mainstream broadband internet. They've never known life without instant delivery services, remote shopping, 24-hour access to everything, self checkouts, online forums and virtual chat rooms...... 

 

They will be entering a world where by the time they reach working age, it will not be uncommon to see vehicles driving themselves, autonomous delivery operations, workplaces where remote and virtual meetings are the default setting, option of working remotely from home is an expected right in employment regulations, the ability to use online resources, app based business tools, keyboarding and use of touch screen technology will be absolute mandatory.

 

Nobody is suggesting for a minute that face-to-face human contact and the tactile needs of us mortal species will not be met. It will just be done in different ways just as things have evolved time and time before. The way people make friendships, the way people build relationships is all different and just because something is virtual does not make it any less real or relevant to those part of it - no matter how many times you try and protest otherwise.

 

You may feel very strongly about such issues but it is misguided. Why should you impose your own quite frankly absurd position on others.

 

The world is moving on. Time to stop forcing against it. Coronavirus may well have sped up the process but the direction of travel was set decades before that. Take a look at some of the BT archives, good grief even in the 60s there was serious discussions and prototypes regarding some vast network of information all connected by computer and talks about video calling and home working. Some of us were doing such things well before anyone have even heard of 'Wuhan".  It aint going to stop now.

Certainly the world is 'moving on,' and you're probably right that nothing's going to stop it. But we need to stop and think first, is it for the better? Is it improving our quality of life? And if it's not then we need to modify it while we still can.

 

Real Human interaction is part of the human condition, I'd go so far as to say it's what makes us human. And we lose it at our peril. It has benefits to our mental health that we are only just beginning to realise. We depend on face to face interaction, it makes us happy, I think we learned that from Lockdown. And in the time of cyber crime and cyber wars, handing our entire lives and infrastructure over to a computer system seems to me to be potentially the biggest folly of all. We need the practical skills which the young generation don't have and will probably never learn. We may well need them in the future, who knows?  

 

Things are moving very fast these days, and changing equally fast without time to assess the pros and cons fully or consider the unintended consequences. Surely the aim of life is to live it happily and with satisfaction and meaning. At the moment we seem to be experiencing the highest levels of stress, mental illness and disaffection, and I think this is linked to the way we are being forced down a certain digital path that doesn't suit everybody, isn't efficient, and builds stress, yet we are being given no choice.

 

So I don't find Chekhov's position absurd, nor is he alone in feeling this way, it's actually a lot more common than you think. I know several people who share his reservations and the numbers are increasing. I am expecting a backlash against it anytime soon.

 

To quote Jeff Goldblum, 'Just because we could, doesn't mean we should...'

Edited April 23, 2022 by Anna B

[Chekhov]

12 hours ago, hackey lad said:

Just talk to a teacher or the Head , make your feelings known and see what they say . Then report back on here 

I have done that, with no positive result as far as I am concerned. Whilst it has not been overtly stated that online parents evenings will be the only option from now on, the Head has never contradicted me stating I believe that will, unfortunately, be the case.

 

10 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

Nobody is suggesting for a minute that face-to-face human contact and the tactile needs of us mortal species will not be met. It will just be done in different ways just as things have evolved time and time before. The way people make friendships, the way people build relationships is all different and just because something is virtual does not make it any less real or relevant to those part of it - no matter how many times you try and protest otherwise.

You have just contradicted yourself in those two sentences.

Basically, and this is probably not unexpected on an internet forum, you are happy to experience much (most from the tone of your post) of your life, including your social life, online. I consider that unhealthy, particularly for kids, and I am the parent of my child so the school should be respecting my preferences, which they are not doing by withdrawing something which was there when I enrolled my child at that school.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Chekhov

[Chekhov]

10 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

You need to quickly realise that the current generation of school children have never known life without the existence of a smartphone. They've never know life before the existence of mainstream broadband internet. They've never known life without instant delivery services, remote shopping, 24-hour access to everything, self checkouts, online forums and virtual chat rooms...... 

That is an irrelevant argument in this case because my lad is at Primary school, year 4. Hardly any year 4 kids have smart phones, thank God. Most parents I know are dreading the start of pester power from their kids for a mobile phone, and, BTW, are not that happy about the fact some (a small minority) of year 4s do already have smart phones because that is the start of pester power  : "xxxx has got one Mummy so why can't I have one ?".

[Chekhov]

6 hours ago, Anna B said:

Certainly the world is 'moving on,' and you're probably right that nothing's going to stop it. But we need to stop and think first, is it for the better? Is it improving our quality of life? And if it's not then we need to modify it while we still can.

 

Real Human interaction is part of the human condition, I'd go so far as to say it's what makes us human. And we lose it at our peril. It has benefits to our mental health that we are only just beginning to realise. We depend on face to face interaction, it makes us happy, I think we learned that from Lockdown. And in the time of cyber crime and cyber wars, handing our entire lives and infrastructure over to a computer system seems to me to be potentially the biggest folly of all. We need the practical skills which the young generation don't have and will probably never learn. We may well need them in the future, who knows?  

 

Things are moving very fast these days, and changing equally fast without time to assess the pros and cons fully or consider the unintended consequences. Surely the aim of life is to live it happily and with satisfaction and meaning. At the moment we seem to be experiencing the highest levels of stress, mental illness and disaffection, and I think this is linked to the way we are being forced down a certain digital path that doesn't suit everybody, isn't efficient, and builds stress, yet we are being given no choice.

 

So I don't find Chekhov's position absurd, nor is he alone in feeling this way, it's actually a lot more common than you think. I know several people who share his reservations and the numbers are increasing. I am expecting a backlash against it anytime soon.

 

To quote Jeff Goldblum, 'Just because we could, doesn't mean we should...'

I don't know any parents who are not concerned at their child (older than my lad) wanting to spend so much time online, particularly on their own in their bedrooms.

I have yet to meet (and find it hard to believe they exist) anyone who thinks an online meeting, particularly a social one, is as good as a face to face one. In fact I would be disturbed if people did think that.

[Chekhov]

12 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

You may feel very strongly about such issues but it is misguided. Why should you impose your own quite frankly absurd position on others.

TBH I think you're missing the point here entirely.

This is about parents attending parents evenings.

I cannot believe for one instant that any parent would rather have a parents evening online than in person if it were the same trouble for each. I think it far more likely that convenience (mainly child care arrangements) mean it is easier for them so they prefer that. It is not because they actually prefer an online version for itself, quite the opposite. As I have mentioned before teh school could actually do something to make child care less of a problem, if they really wanted to......

[RJRB]

@Chekhov

What is the school  like in other respects.

Does your son enjoy it in most respects (as much as most kids “enjoy”school ?

[Chekhov]

2 hours ago, RJRB said:

@Chekhov

What is the school  like in other respects.

Does your son enjoy it in most respects (as much as most kids “enjoy”school ?

He does seem to like going to school, which I agree is the single most important thing, by far.

That said, one does not know if he'd have liked going to pretty much any school just as much, he's quite outgoing and sociable, a bit too much maybe !

[Chekhov]

The school has had a poll of parents and, somewhat surprisingly, a majority (57%) have actually voted for "face to face". What is particularly interesting is that most parents probably do want online, but, it seems, they could not be bothered to vote and it is probably no co-incidence that  many  of those same parents are the ones who cannot be bothered to go up to the school for parents evenings ! ! That said, I know child care can be awkward, though the school thinking outside the box could ease that problem.

Anyway, the school are now having one evening face to face and one evening face to face, which is what they should have done in the first place, much less heavily implied face to face had gone for ever......

Edited September 23, 2022 by Chekhov