isyulli: children

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Kamis, 10 Maret 2011

Foster Care Is Still an Issue

Australians are not doing their parental duties very well. A record number of children are in government care due to abuse and neglect. Authorities say that out-of-care has grown largely because of improvement in information gathering. However, an increase of 44 per cent in 4 years is worrying.

Putting children in care is seen as making life better for badly treated children. There is debate about this issue. A child living on a quasi temporary basis in an institution or foster family situation certainly grows up with a "skewed" outlook on life. Their upbringing is not "normal". And they know it.

Saying there are multiple issues at home is really a cop out by the government. It doesn't explain why the problem exists nor offer a satisfactory solution. Holding that reuniting them with their families is too much work sounds very much like the department has given up. The desire to be with their families is strong even when they are young adults.

Foster care has always been a second-best cure. Children move from family to family and never trully fit in. They feel isolated and this isolation continues into adulthood. A problem that is never examined is that a child from a family with poor parenting skills grows up to be a bad parent also.

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~~~~~Society~~~~~

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Senin, 10 Januari 2011

Women Want to Stay at Home - That's a Fact

New research shows what many have known for years, that woman want to marry a rich man and stay at home. Going shopping everyday with a pleasant trip to the coffee shop makes the ideal life for most women. In regard to sex many don't even need it. Perhaps the lower libido of an elderly man suites them.

Times of campaigning for equality are over. Look around and you see most women marry, get pregnant within a year or so, and live off their husband's income, totally. Many never intend to work after getting married. A staggering 69 per cent of those surveyed said they wanted to stay home with their children.

Ask a man who is heading toward the age of 30 what he wants out of life. He will breath in deeply, heave out a sigh, then say "I am sick of work!" No one wants to toil away all those valuable hours in the day when you could be relaxing, fishing, messing about with the car, or tinkering with something in the garden shed. Women feel the same, though they would rather do other things.

It was believed that women wanted partners who were more educated and generally smarter than themselves. New evidence shows this is not the case. Only 19 per cent wanted a more intelligent husband. Indeed, 32 per cent of women said they were brighter than their partners. More women than ever are marrying wealthier men irrespective of age.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Women are genetically programmed to stay near the hearth, preparing food and tending to children. Give a man a child caring task and he will usually mess it up. His mind wanders to other things. He will take the easy way out - tie the kids down to playing a game or watching TV while he wanders off into another room to do his thing.

There is so much people want to do in life. It is human nature for women to want to do it sooner rather than later. A wealthy husband helps in this regard. He may be older and not good looking. This is irrelevant.

~~~~~Society~~~~~

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Senin, 20 Desember 2010

A Restriction on Bringing Relatives Here Is Needed for Unaccompanied Boat Children

Privilege given to asylum minors must be changed. Australian immigration is giving priority to unaccompanied children so that they do not have to face the hardship of being locked up for years. However, this is being used as a stepping stone to get relatives here. The number of children on their own coming here by boat has sky rocketed. One sixth of new arrivals from Afghanistan and Iran are unaccompanied children. This is way ahead of one twelfth for Pakistan.

Like the Afghan man in Indonesia who boldly instructed Australia to hurry up and let him in so he can bring his wife and six children here, this nation is being taken for granted, as easy. Some boat people are plainly arrogant. This man had no feeling for those drowned in the recent boat sinking near Christmas island. All he could say was "at least the survivors are here now while I am stuck in Indonesia."

A restriction of say five years needs to be put on new permanent residents before they have the right to bring out other family members. Considerable time is needed before a wife can follow a husband here. We need such a deterrent. Sure there is a war in Afghanistan but not every disenchanted Afghani can come to Australia.

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Senin, 15 November 2010

How Do We Reduce Obesity?

While I agree with Dr Jennifer O'Dea's view that a tax on take away food is useless in reducing obesity, I strongly disagree that obesity is exaggerated. Look around; there are overweight children and adults at every turn. She admits that children from low income families have twice the rate of obesity of those from middle and upper income families. The reason why this is so should be ascertained. It is hard to believe that small income families spend more on junk food in real and proportional terms.

Dr O'Dea says we should not become emotional about the issue because that is unscientific. Perhaps we do need to be more emotional. The scientific approach is not doing much good. It is true that the problem should be tackled from the top - down. It is parents who can impress upon their children to eat better. Today, high sugar food is so readily available. In the 1960s and before many families didn't have a refrigerator. When children wanted a sugar fix they had to go to the corner store and get an ice cream or soft drink. Overall consumption of these products was lower. These days children consume such things at breakfast. It is indeed the case that some households don't keep tea and coffee in the kitchen cupboard. Coke is drunk at exceedingly high rates.

To say obesity is not increasing is lying with statistics. Fat children become fat adults. In 1985 approximately 1 percent of girls and boys were obese. This increased to about 5.5 percent in 1996. To say everything is okay because it has levelled off at this rate since is very, very wrong. There is a serious problem. A near obese child is an obese child. If the near obese are included the rate rose from 11 per cent to 23 per cent from 1985 to 1996. In 1996 the saturation point was reached. It probably can't get much worse.

Dr O'Shea says Pacific Islanders are genetically overweight and they are developing more muscle. This is nonsense. They clearly are fatter. Evolving on Pacific Islands has made them "susceptible' when they take to eating high calorie food. The natural diet for them in the past was fish. Research has shown that heart disease rises far above the rate for non-Islanders when they move from Pacific islands to New Zealand, adopt the Western lifestyle and eat the "bad" foods. Saying that the body mass index cam be high when we are taller is another "mythical" statement. When the BMI is high we are fat.

Few scientists try to find out why the lower socioeconomic strata is fatter than the wealthy. Social pressure is the main factor in determining lifetime food preferences of people, what is learned, in other words socialization. It is not really a "what can we afford" issue. Giving the poor more money will not change anything. Giving children a good breakfast when they get to school has achieved nothing. Many children just ate two breakfasts, one at home another at school - they got fatter. The lack of exercise contributes to obesity. Today, doing exercise at school such as sport is an option for children. It should be compulsory as it was years ago. Making such school exercise non-competitive is ridiculous. This is just one group of people forcing their silly ideas on others. Calling for restrictions on behavior is out of kilter with societies moving toward more freedom.

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Jumat, 29 Oktober 2010

Weird Findings About IVF Babies

There has been a weird finding in research done on IVF children - they are taller than average. Work done in New Zealand has found that by six years of age children conceived by IVF are taller. This occurred when fresh embryos were used, but not with frozen embryos. The higher quality of fresh embryos was the apparent reason for this.

No benefits nor disadvantages were seen in children born using frozen embryos than children conceived normally. The real issue is - Are fresh embryos really of higher quality? Donors giving frozen embryos are just as selective.

About one in thirty children are now conceived with IVF. It is girls who are notably taller. Another "weird" outcome is that mainly boys will be conceived if the embryos are left out in a dish for five days before implantation into the uterus.

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Jumat, 06 Agustus 2010

Making Drinking Under 21 Illegal Is Not Realistic

Dr Aric Sigman a UK psychologist says the drinking age should be raised to 21. Then we would have young people drinking illegally. Brain damage may be a fact but this has not stopped states in the US allowing the smoking of marijuana, which has similar effects. Anyway, some children drink now and are being permanently brain damaged. Illegality has not stopped them.

It is a myth that parents have control over their children until they are 21. Indeed, many parents seem to have no control over their children at any age. Young people are driven by emotion and they need to "enjoy" everything now. Parents and children sitting down to a rational discussion is fairyland stuff.

Drinking used to be the norm in Australia. Then we had the ridiculous situation where people under 21 could not drink alcohol legally, but they could die on the battlefields of Vietnam.

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Senin, 02 Agustus 2010

Memories Are Not Real

Childhood memories are figments of your imagination. If you believe that you'll believe anything. Children in the UK were asked to recall memories of things their parents said didn't happen. But how do we know if children were trying to please their parents? Most children live in a dream land anyway. So asking them to recall seeing Santa Claus is just "baiting". And asking them about flying through the air is "hypnotising" for dream recall.

If you broke your leg as child you certainly remember that, and whether the sun was out when it happened. The pain makes it stay in your mind. One thing that really remains is the care one receives from others. You remember things done with grandma because she was always kind and forgiving. Furthermore, really horrible events like being involved in a road accident and then taken to hospital remain as clear as the day they occurred.

We wouldn't have an identity without memories. We are the sum of our experiences. Taking that away from someone is condemning that person to live in the forever "now". Debate is rife about whether learning is anything of value. For example, a day after taking exams most of it is forgotten. But a university degree or any other academic test is something the individual values and society values. Whether you actually remember things taught is quite irrelevant. You have gone down that road and reached the destination. Surely, that is what life is about: having experiences, chronologically, with the past leading to the present and into the future and remembering certain milestones.

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Rabu, 10 Februari 2010

Don't Hire Clowns to Entertain Children

If you are planning to hire clowns to entertain children in a hospital, think again. Children do not like clowns and older children are afraid of them. All 250 patients aged from 4 to 16 years surveyed in a hospital disliked clowns. Adults may find clowns amusing but it appears that older children see them as scary, irrational beings.

So if you are a child and recovering from illness, the last thing you want to see is an odd adult dressed in colorful rags acting strangely. Maybe it would be better to hire a lady who presents children's television shows to cheer young patients up. Though a well known star once met a children's television presenter on a beach in Tasmania, When he introduced himself she promptly told him to !#?* off.

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Minggu, 31 Januari 2010

Schools Charge for "Free" Computers

When schools got new computers for their student the last thing you think would happen would be school charging a fee to use them. But this is what has occurred. What are the schools thinking of? A public school is asking parents to buy the computers for $1200. Another is trying to lease them for $1400. It boils down to a technicality. Schools are saying computers must be left at school. There will a charge if they want to take them home.

The ridiculous thing is after paying for a computer a student will still not actually own it. Computers will have to be taken back for use by other students. What a rip off. Over Years 9 to 12 a school will receive $1460. A good laptop can be purchased for $795 anywhere.

Just what is the Federal Government thinking of? It says schools can charge if they want to. Surely this negates the free computer promise. It wasn't voted in to do this. Education Minister Julia Gillard says Schools can arrange for home use as they see fit. The Government should have said providing computers was just a way of giving schools more funding because that is what has happened. Again children from poorer families lose out. It has brought further inequity with some states not charging.

The Labor Government is obviously in league with schools. It is trying to force parents to buy computers by making rental extremely high, so the Government will meet its target of every child having a computer by default.

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Rabu, 27 Januari 2010

Stop Funding Private Schools

The Australian Government is ignoring the protests of teachers and going ahead with publishing a list of schools ranked by proficiency. There are problems in how this ranking is done, what criteria it is based on and what parents can do about it. Teachers say the tests on students are not fully relevant to measuring how well schools "produce" good students. The rules of the test need to be explained to parents. If a parent finds his or her child does attend a poorly ranked school how can a change be carried out if, in the bush for example, another school is a hundred miles away?

Low wage earners do not have the choice of paying for their children's education so the list for them is irrelevant. Suggestions that parents take their custom elsewhere is not a luxury they can afford. The Government has made mistakes in allocating resources to schools. Yes they continue to do this. Too much is dished out to schools who then send parents unregulated bills to educate their children. Education is being treated like a business when it shouldn't be. It should be a right irrespective of income. These schools choose students based on their own criteria. A couple took their children to a Catholic School and admitted they were Protestants. They never got any correspondence from this school again. It is rubbish to say parents have a right to choose.

The website will show that schools in disadvantaged communities will be ranked low. You don't have to be an expert to know this. The allocation of money is the problem. It always had been. It is ridiculous to give schools money then allow them to charge as well. Cut all funding to private schools except to those who cater for teaching of rural students who have to live away from home. Cut funding and watch parents move their children out of private schools, ranking or no ranking. The cost of keeping them there will be too high. Let's face it private schools are subsidized by the taxpayer.

Ranking will let parents into the big secret of under-performing schools. And when they know there will be a reaction. The Government will not have to wait long for this. The Government will then try to quietly close the website citing a "technicality", like a review of the ranking system.

The truth is described by Judy Crowe of Melbourne Girls' College. She says that the school spends $20,000 per student which is three times the average spent on students in public schools. Parents who send there children to private schools are not upset by the ranking, because they will see their choice justified - carry on paying and get a first class education subsidized by the state.

Correct the disjointed funding problem. It is skewed toward the rich. Give to the poor.

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