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Brushing teeth

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 icnoble 22 Oct 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29712453

This is not a job to saddle teachers with.


 Indy 22 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:

Maybe not teachers but someone within the school environment surely?
 marsbar 22 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:
In the early years I really don't see why not. We teach kids all kinds of stuff that isn't directly academic. This is important.

Fwiw I have had kids much older that needed guidance about washing regularly and brushing teeth and using deodorant. We already do stuff like this as part of form time and whatever we call health education these days.
Post edited at 19:07
 gethin_allen 22 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:
In an ideal society this is a job for parents, but this appears to be failing. If things continue at some point in the future, children will be removed from their parents shortly after birth to be brought up entirely by some strange uber- school.
 The Potato 22 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:

a lot of schools near me have a dental health educator that comes around to supervise and educate on occasions and then the kids brush in school every day.

What more important things should a school teach but mental and physical health first, before going on to teach about numeracy and literacy?
In reply to icnoble:

What's wrong with parents teaching kids to brush their teeth -- or has parenting got so bad that teachers need to teach kids how to brush their teeth so that the kids can teach their feckless parents!

I know a number of primary school teachers who report that some kids are presenting at reception class unable to do basic things like fasten their shoes, do up buttons, or are even toilet trained!

Parenting is not easy and does not come all that naturally, but when kids of uneducated kids are having kids what chance do the new generation have.

Dont get me started!
 GarethSL 23 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:

I distinctively remember being taught how to brush teeth at school and being told daily to brush properly for at least two minutes in small circles by a visiting dentists, the school nurse and then by our biology teacher...

20 years on, 6 teeth removals and 4 fillings later I feel they should have done a better job. (You can read that with great sarcasm).

Quite frankly personal health and hygiene is something that should be highlighted to children not only by their parents but also at the start of school and continually throughout.

School provides the perfect medium for teaching/ informing children of the necessary requirements for good health and well being when they are at the correct age. PSHE is probably one of the most important subjects there is.

In a similar vein, I wish to an extent someone had shown me how to shave... or at least given me some idea. This would have saved much pain and embarrassment when confronted with an ex para acf sergent at the wee age of 13, waving a used bic razor in my face ordering me to 'scrape off that caterpillar'. Needless to say this resulted in the hematological contents of my upper lip being spread around the parade hall during the obligatory post inspection beasting.
cap'nChino 23 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:


> This is not a job to saddle teachers with.

I saw this the other day and was a little gob smacked. It seems that parents simply want to pass responsibility for their kids upbringing on to the school, then they bitch at the teachers for not doing it correctly.

If teachers were just left to teach and not waste their time on potty and toot brush training then maybe the kids will be given a better education on real subject.

The only case I think is slightly different is Sex Education. They may have had the speech with their parents but a little balance from trained professionals could help avoid future problems like unwanted pregnancy and STI/D's

 Martin Hore 23 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:

Agreed

Ten years down the line we'll be blaming teachers for the nation's poor dental hygiene. Perhaps we should be blaming dentists for poor standards of literacy and numeracy. (Slightly tongue in cheek).

Martin
 ByEek 23 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:

> This is not a job to saddle teachers with.

Why not? All the kids at our nursery had a toothbrush that they used to use. I remember as a kid going to assemblies where the local dentist would come in and do a workshop with those tablets that turn plaque pink on your teeth.
In reply to marsbar:

You lump together personal hygiene and deodorant as though they are equally important. Personal hygiene is important, whereas deodorant is cosmetic. People who are fit (and therefore not sweating foully) and washed don't really need deodorant.
 Hooo 23 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:

> This is not a job to saddle teachers with.

Who else is going to do it then? It's all very well to say that it's the parents job ( which it is of course ), but the fact is that some parents are shite. This is about breaking the cycle of shite parents bringing up kids to be shite parents in turn.
In reply to Hooo:

> This is about breaking the cycle of shite parents bringing up kids to be shite parents in turn.

I don't know about that. If the school takes over the jobs that the parents should be doing, then won't the children learn that "it's the school's job, innit?" for all those jobs, rather than the parents'?

So you end up reinforcing the cycle of shite parenting...
 wintertree 23 Oct 2014
In reply to John Stainforth:
> People who are fit (and therefore not sweating foully) and washed don't really need deodorant

I thought the teaching about deodorant was perhaps "when not to wear deodorant" - the answer being whenever you are going to be in close proximity to many other people who don't want to choke on the cheap chemical shit you've just sprayed all over yourself. It's very rare that someone smells so offensive that I would rather suffer the smell of a can of Lynx.

Elect me as world president and I will ban the use of anything but odourless anti perspirants and odourless deodorants by people going into any confined space containing other people.
Post edited at 22:06
 Hooo 23 Oct 2014
In reply to captain paranoia:

I don't think children at primary school will analyse it that deeply. They will simply learn that brushing their teeth is a good idea, and hopefully pass that on to their own kids. School is the best place we have to reach poorly brought up children and teach them to be better than their parents.
Donnie 23 Oct 2014
In reply to marsbar:

deoderent's really not needed for most people that wash regularly
 marsbar 23 Oct 2014
In reply to marsbar:

Mainly we teach them to use it after a shower, not instead of a shower.

I'm all for natural, but when I'm stuck in a classroom full of stinky teenagers then I would rather they washed occasionally and wore clean socks. Possibly employers might agree.
 marsbar 23 Oct 2014
In reply to Donnie:

By the end of a warm day wearing poly cotton shirts they need deodorant.

They would have to wash several times a day not to.
 marsbar 24 Oct 2014
In reply to icnoble:

Montessori is a teaching method, for early years teaching usually. It is and has been part of their curriculum for many years.
 richprideaux 24 Oct 2014
In reply to John Stainforth:

>People who are fit (and therefore not sweating foully)

Fit people don't sweat?


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