Thursday 21 April 2016

R is for Risks and Responsibilities

Welcome to my posts for the A to Z Challenge 2016.
This year, I am posting 
Special School Stories
 tales from either my time as a teacher or teaching assistant within classrooms in the U.K. or from my own school days growing up around the country.



When I was at junior school
teachers took risks.
They allowed us to conduct assemblies.
Ones we had planned ourselves.
They allowed us to practise instruments.
In the hall.
Alone.
We chose books from bookshelves.
Without restriction.
We grew plants in a greenhouse unsupervised.
In our final year we were even allowed
out of the playground to the tennis courts next door.
And we knew that we had responsibility;
for our behaviour,
to be sensible,
to work hard,
to work with others,
to produce things of quality,
And so we did.
And it helped make me

the adult I am today.

Now it's your turn to tell me what you think about the risks allowed to be taken in schools today.  Do you think children are given enough responsibility?  What responsibilities were you given as a child? What risks did you take and what happened?  I'm looking forward to finding out more :)

9 comments:

  1. I would tend to think kids have less responsibility and freedom now, but there are still some of those old school teachers that take them outside during class, or whatever! I think my opinion isn't strong enough at this point because my kids are in elementary and I don't remember too many details from then!
    [Renée] from SpokenFingers
    Spoken Fingers ~ Life, Understood
    Quotes and Thought Provoking Words

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  2. Not even close, which explains why kids are taking so long to grow up now.
    Melanie Schulz from
    Melanie Schulz.com

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  3. I don't think kids are allowed many responsibilities now. And they have so little consequences for anything. It is a much different world we are living in.

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  4. When I was in Junior High, my mother and father decided to start a second family. By that, I mean that when their youngest, my brother was 8, they had three more children, one after the other. My sister and brother and I referred to the three of us as the first family. I was 11 when my sister, the first of the three of the second family was born. The next 2 kids, my brother and another sister were born shortly after the first.
    I became responsible very quickly, helping mom out.
    I think because I had so much heaped on me at a young age, I didn't want my own children to have to that kind of responsibility. Therefore, I'm afraid I did not do them any favors by coddling them the way I did.

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  5. I do not think kids today are given enough responsibilities or held accountable. I was 15 and spent a summer in Sweden When I came back I had more responsibilty and freedoms My mom said she had to trust me across the ocean, thus she trusted me here

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  6. I remember a summer between K and first grade when my mom had to work and I was free to roam the neighborhood. My 13-ypo brother was around, but what a thrill! I still remember it, decades later.

    Beth Lapin
    Activities for a Good Life
    BethLapinsAtoZblog.wordpress.com

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  7. I grew up on a dairy farm and had farm-related chores and responsibilities along with school work. It's been a long time since I was on the farm, and I wish my kids could have had some of the same experiences that I had growing up. I learned so much about responsibility while taking care of the animals and the land.

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  8. I jumped in the back of a hay truck (I was 14) that stopped at my house early during the summer to take me berry picking. Yes it was foolish not to have seat belts, but no one did then. It was my first job, plus I babysat all over my neighborhood. I saved my money for things my parents couldn't afford. It was a great lesson on being responsible and saving money.

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  9. I jumped in the back of a hay truck (I was 14) that stopped at my house early during the summer to take me berry picking. Yes it was foolish not to have seat belts, but no one did then. It was my first job, plus I babysat all over my neighborhood. I saved my money for things my parents couldn't afford. It was a great lesson on being responsible and saving money.

    ReplyDelete