Tuesday 22 December 2015

Check your facts before opening your mouth.

Dear education minister,
Check your facts before opening your mouth.
From me.

Why? I hear you ask.
One of today's lead news stories is reporting that the education minister wants schools to put filters in place on pupil internet access to prevent them becoming "radicalised".
If he bothered to check first, he would have found that schools have very stringent filters on their internet.....that's point one.   The computers in many schools are getting old, and subsequently are slow, pages can take up to 15 minutes to load....point two.  You average teenager likes to have access to information quickly....so is frustrated by my point two, and moves on.......point three.  Large swathes of printed information seems to lose the attention of any but the very intelligent, or very determined, teenager......point four.  Most teenagers have home internet access, which is faster than school connections, with more up to date equipment......parents can put filters in place,  but pc savvy teenagers could easily get around them.  In many cases the teenager is the one who has set up the home system.......point five.
So, Mr education minister, get your facts right, and look at problems from ALL sides. I have listed five reasons why schools are probably not responsible for "radicalisation" of teenagers.
I will point out that I do think things should be done to help prevent it, however, his idea is like offering a person with a broken leg a sticking plaster and a paracetamol, telling them to go away, everything will be OK.
Here's a "radical" idea!  How about stop making this country a more difficult place to live in, unless you have plenty of money.  Start treating the bulk of the people with the respect they deserve, and perhaps people will stop looking for a better life.
I know that I have gone off at a tangent a little here, but things are never as clear cut as politicians would like us to believe.

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