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 .
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