Who could be surprised by our children’s unhappiness?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/24/who-could-be-surprised-by-our-childrens-unhappiness

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Improving the happiness of children in this country will not happen solely with “bandages” such as counselling (Report, 19 August). We need a change of culture which values people rather than treats them as commodities in a system where the acquisition of money is the only value taken seriously. Teachers must focus on testing and league tables because that is what the system forces them to do. Our children are denied a holistic, interesting and fun education.

Classes are far too large and the quiet, well-behaved pupil is often the one suffering most internally, a fact not evident to the busy teacher. Similarly, their parents, often on zero hours contracts or to trying to build their home business, often have no time to play with them, except at the end of the day when the whole family is exhausted. Instead many children are subjected to a regime of improving activities, worthwhile in themselves but not giving children space to develop their own self-reliance and .

We condone a bullying culture when we vilify immigrants and the disabled or single mothers as lacking in worth rather than a means of enriching our society. The children in the playground will echo the values of the adults they mix with. Children who are socially marginalised by circumstance are natural victims. Children learning their place in this unfair world will look to be reassured that others have less value than themselves and demonstrate it to those around them. People who are bullied grow up to be bullies we are told. It is no coincidence that our leaders mostly received an education where survival of the fittest is the guiding principle. Sue Hubbert London

• “Bottom of the class in pupil wellbeing table”, is, alas, all too accurate. One culprit, identified by the Children’s Society, is a lack of physical exercise: a shortage of sport and PE at school. Not only have both been shown to improve academic performance, but physical exercise releases endorphins, triggering positive feelings in the body.

In sport, skills such as resilience, team-work, self-discipline, character development, and so much more, are acquired.

To demonstrate its commitment to fostering British values, the government would do well to rack up sport and PE in its national curriculum and encourage local authorities to improve their sporting facilities rather than sell off land for a short term financial gain, but with an  inevitably unhappy effect on its young people.Father Vladimir FelzmannCatholic chaplain for sport, London

• Bottom of the class in pupil wellbeing table. Who is surprised? We have the most assessed pupils in the world, the most punitive inspection regime, the most stressed teachers, the most pressurised leaders and an emphasis on short-term gain. Whoever thought anyone in the system could be happy?Ann BurgessLincoln

• It is possible that low levels of pupil wellbeing are linked to low staff wellbeing in schools, so shouldn’t we look to help them too? In our survey of over 1,500 school staff in 2014, 91% said they had experienced stress, 74% had experienced anxiety and 47% had experienced depression within the last two years. Staff simply cannot be expected to play their part in improving pupil wellbeing and educational attainment unless they are also better supported. The Teacher Support Network Group is reforming next month so it can support even more staff in education, but we need help from the rest of the sector if staff wellbeing, and in turn pupil wellbeing, is to reach even remotely decent levels.Kevin ArmstrongHead of research and policy, Teacher Support Network Group

• As someone who has run and analysed many global opinion surveys, can I urge some detachment in the way we react to the Children’s Society report? The authors quite rightly admit that making valid comparisons of children’s self-reported welfare “can be challenging”. They add that it is “important to view the findings with the context of social, economic and cultural differences.” Once that statement is made, any attempt to create an international league-table of findings is seriously destabilised. It becomes nonsensical to juxtapose the school experience of children living in England and Ethiopia or those in Norway and Nepal.

Of course, any agitation in favour of a better deal and a better environment for kids everywhere is welcome. But let’s all eschew headline-hugging hyperbole. No child’s lot is improved when we stop keeping it real.James MurphyLondon

• Without denying that English school children face many problems, not all of their own making, I am tempted to wonder whether they are more unhappy, or more honest and open,  than their counterparts in other countries.Professor Colin RichardsCumbria