Are we raising a generation of wimps?

RobDavies · March 2018

All local schools and colleges closed this morning because of this:

https://imgur.com/a/tUdva

This is country is truly pathetic at times.

Clashman · March 2018

I have broken my ribs three times in recent years when being as careful as possible
walking on ice, a small slip can kill ...

octatonic · March 2018

The issue is that teachers sometimes travel further than that used to as do students.
If teachers can’t get in then who looks after them?

fields5069 · March 2018

My daughter's school in Newport is closed today. I think it's got more to do with wimpy bus services and litigation culture. Also 3 miles is probably too far to expect some kids to walk if they have to.

57Deluxe · March 2018

Many issues at play here:

1: Risk of School being sued for pkayground injuries due to untreated areas
2: Lazy Teachers - or more typically, not prepared to take on extra care duties
3: Cost of extra cleaning

I remember going to school in shorts in winters like this and playing in the icy playground at breaks and trailing home at the end of th day unattended with my woolen mittens cold and soaking and icicles hanging from my nose cos my hanky had gone solid from being dried out on the class radiators around midday!

ICBM · March 2018

Part of the problem is definitely the litigation culture now. If a headteacher or even the entire education authority don’t close the schools and then something bad happens that’s related to the snow, they can face legal action. If there is a national weather warning in place they really don’t have any choice since it would be clearly seen as failing to take proper heed of the advice.

Teachers and support staff having to travel from further away to get in is also an issue, most schools are operating on the bare minimum numbers already.

There’s probably not far off a foot here in Midlothian now, and it hasn’t stopped yet... given that it won’t last much more than a couple of days it does seem more sensible just to stay at home.

Deadman · March 2018

Yes.

Clashman · March 2018

Taliking about my generation.

BRISTOL86 · March 2018

It’s not the wimpy young uns making these decisions though is it?

As above, it’s basically the ‘sue everyone’ culture that we seem to have massively cultivated.

crunchman · March 2018

octatonic said:

The issue is that teachers sometimes travel further than that used to as do students.
If teachers can’t get in then who looks after them?

I've got a guy in my office who has made it from Kent to Acton this morning. All the main roads are gritted. In the South-East at least, it's not cold enough for the roads to refreeze after they have been gritted.

boogieman · March 2018

Health and Safety innit.

jellyroll · March 2018

I'm on a parents' WhatsApp group. A high number of parents were moaning yesterday that the school was open and should be closed. The deputy head is also a parent in the group and actually left the group apparently because of the hard time she was getting. Today the school is closed.

Octafish · March 2018

To be honest I think we went all wimpy when we stopped making 8 year olds work in factories or go up chimneys

.

A lot of schools closed in my area, but the snow is drifting across and blocking roads and a lot of teachers live out in the sticks, don't think the pic at the top is representative of why many schools are closed. My partner's made it the 8 miles in to the school she works at, but they're now looking at closing early beacuse it's snowing hard again and roads ar getting blocked and like wimps the teachers want to get home tonight.

Think there's also a load of old fantasy bollocks about how everyone used to walk 400 miles to school in the snow in their underpants and never did them any harm. I remember plenty of snow days back in the 80s and speaking to my dad and a friend who went to school in the 50s/60s, they also remember days of school due to snow. Obviously none of this will placate the usual 'I hate teachers' mob or those pissed off that their child's education free child care has been cancelled.

Octafish · March 2018

crunchman said:

octatonic said:

The issue is that teachers sometimes travel further than that used to as do students.
If teachers can’t get in then who looks after them?

I've got a guy in my office who has made it from Kent to Acton this morning. All the main roads are gritted. In the South-East at least, it's not cold enough for the roads to refreeze after they have been gritted.

I'm in North Essex and and it's snowing again, the roads are getting blocked by drift, traffic's backing up several broken down jackkniffed lorries blocking roads.

VimFuego · March 2018

as said, it's not the kids per se, it's the teachers and whether they will be able to get to work. it's not the weather that's the main issue, it's the only just works traffic infrastructure that can't cope with the weather and massive traffic volumes. It doesn't take much to turn an OK journey to a impassible nightmare.

Dominic · March 2018

I'm just upset thinking about all those poor children in Switzerland,Austria,Bavaria,Sweden,Norway etc that have to go without any education for 4 months of the year ........because ,of course, they must close all the schools there

joneve · March 2018

Dominic said:

I'm just upset thinking about all those poor children in Switzerland,Austria,Bavaria,Sweden,Norway etc that have to go without any education for 4 months of the year ........because ,of course, they must close all the schools there

Can't really compare it though can you? They are guaranteed snow every year for those 4 months, and have the infrastructure to deal with it as it's the norm. We get a freak snow storm every ten years, so is pointless spending money on preparing for it. Cheaper to close the school for a couple of days every 10 years.

scrumhalf · March 2018

You can narrow it down to contingency fee litigation. Back in the days when you had to pay a solicitor to handle a claim this sort of speculative stuff didn't happen.

Get rid of contingency fee litigation and apart from a shortage of annoying telly ads the benefits will be huge.

gubble · March 2018

It's not just eh young-uns. Two members of my team (both well over 40) called me this morning saying they didn't want to come in because of the snow.

We have less than an inch of snow here and the roads are gritted and completely clear.

BRISTOL86 · March 2018

joneve said:

Dominic said:

I'm just upset thinking about all those poor children in Switzerland,Austria,Bavaria,Sweden,Norway etc that have to go without any education for 4 months of the year ........because ,of course, they must close all the schools there

Can't really compare it though can you? They are guaranteed snow every year for those 4 months, and have the infrastructure to deal with it as it's the norm. We get a freak snow storm every ten years, so is pointless spending money on preparing for it. Cheaper to close the school for a couple of days every 10 years.

Very much this. You can’t compare it to nations where weather like this is routine.

Octafish · March 2018

VimFuego said:

as said, it's not the kids per se, it's the teachers and whether they will be able to get to work. it's not the weather that's the main issue, it's the only just works traffic infrastructure that can't cope with the weather and massive traffic volumes. It doesn't take much to turn an OK journey to a impassible nightmare.

That and a decision has to be made at about 6am as to whether the school grounds are safe or can be cleared in time. That decision has potential legal consequences should the grounds not be fit and little Jayden slips over and cracks their head open. In the past people were less litigious and the LEA /school could get away with telling the parents/child 'tough shit, deal with it'.

Besides it doesn't happen that often so can't we just let the kids have a snow day and stop being miserable joyless bastards. Considering most kids off school seem to be spending the day out playing the snow, I hardly think anyone can accuse them of being wimpy and wanting to stay in the warm and dry.

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Are we raising a generation of wimps?

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