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Education begins at home Could someone fully explain to me why it was assumed, and still is, that the majority of children who attended Grammar schools came from wealthy or “privileged” backgrounds? My older brother and most of his friends who passed their Eleven Plus and went on to attend Ilkeston Grammar School did not come from such families. After he had left the Navy at the end of the Second World War our dad worked as a milkman for the Co-op, he shovelled scrap on the furnaces at Stanton, eventually working his way up to foreman. Our mum, like so many other local women, worked most of her life in local hosiery factories, even operating a knitting machine in the front room of our two-up two-down terraced house on Hobson Drive to make ends meet.
grasp of where food comes from? And so to my latest gripe. How many of us see young parents on the streets, in cafes, on buses, glued to their i-pods, i-pads, i-phones, or whatever fatuous piece of modern itechnology that comes to hand, often with earphones firmly wedged into the sides of their heads taking not a blind bit of notice as to whether their child is asking them something, trying to attract their attention or even attempting to make eye contact. I witnessed a child on board a bus asking his mother “what’s that water”, referring to the River Trent. “No idea mate,” replied the mother! And that was that. Not “I’ll find out” or “let’s Google it”. No, her mother was far too busy texting someone to be bothered with such a trivial question. And now we have teachers claiming that children are starting school with little or no communication skills, unable to see further than their arms length (of course the distance the child has held the i-pad it was given on its first birthday) unable to balance properly unless staring at a tiny screen. Poor backgrounds? Under privileged? Don’t make me laugh. I used to work at the museum in Ilkeston. One day one of our regular young visitors popped in. Pale waxy skinned, red eyed, lank dirty hair, clothes clearly unwashed for days, in fact you could almost smell the malnutrition. But what did she have to show me? Her nice new mobile phone which her mum had just bought her. Price £75! If only political correctness could be put aside for just once then our teachers, politicians and numerous tax funded educational experts would have the courage to speak the truth. That education and the ability to learn and advance ourselves begins at the very start of our lives and more often than not has hardly anything to do with class, wealth or privilege. Those parents who find they can’t be bothered to talk or read to their children because they’ve got incoming texts or emails or back to back soaps and chat shows to watch will often blame the schools, or claim their children have one or more of the multitudes of syndromes going the rounds at the moment before they will realise let alone admit, it was they who let their children down and condemned them to a poor start and a life of missed opportunities and to make the same mistake when their turn comes around to have children.
We also often hear talk of children from poorer backgrounds not being given the same opportunities as those from better off families or of children not being able to reach their full potential. To me much of this is utter twaddle and I suspect the politicians, academics and general tree huggers know the truth but dare not speak it. Most children are born with a brain which is an empty void or palette as one might say, save for its natural instincts of course. When we had our first child my mum advised us that the first four years of a child’s life are probably the most important time because it is during that first four years that parents have a chance to fill that child’s head with as much information as possible. Talk to them, read to them and communicate with them; however young they seem their minds are absorbing information almost from day one. This is the same advice I gave my own daughter when she gave birth a few months ago and already the results are noticeable. By the age of two our son could recognise and pronounce every letter of the alphabet! I used to ask my daughter to tell me what colour each car was that went by (though admittedly it was invariably yellow). We would walk around a supermarket asking our children to point out and identify fruit and vegetables, where the bread was, which meat we were buying and so on. Much to the puzzlement of many who probably thought “what’s the point of that, a tiny child can’t possibly know the difference between an apple and an orange”. Ah but it was a start. Stephen Flinders (Even More Annoyed of Sandiacre) Perhaps why some children today have no
In defence of older people
are the ones who have paid in everything, no handout in those days. The population hasn’t grown bigger all because some old people have lived longer. There must be a lot of older people out there We have got lots of teenagers having chilwho are sick and tired of hearing whenever dren these days, not to mention millions of there is a crisis in the NHS or whatever, that immigrants living here, all adding to the population. So please don’t keep going on it is the older people living longer who are about the older generation living longer, creating the growing population. making them feel a burden, which they are We older generation are the ones who really not. worked hard in the 1960s and after, putting in very long hours for very little money. We ‘Oldie’, Ilkeston
4 Ilkeston Life, November 2016
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Headmaster’s death at sea Dear Sir, I can assure T Carr (whose letter appeared in October Ilkeston Life) that Mr A D Nash was headmaster of Hallcroft School. I was there from 1947 to 1951 and if your correspondent, T, is as I suspect Tony Carr, he was a year or so senior to me.
advised that, tragically, Mr Nash had died following a heart attack. Unable to contact next of kin Mr Nash My son David, at Hallcroft in the seventies, or other relatives, the decitook part in an educational cruise of areas of sion was taken to bury the former headmashistorical/geographical interest. From ter at sea. So Mr A D Nash was committed memory, David thinks in was 1978. to the deep off Gallipoli. After retirement, Mr Nash obviously maintained contact with his former employers and The memorial ceremony was witnessed by pupils and staff of his beloved school. accompanied staff and pupils on the cruise. The Hallcroft contingent’s flight from Eng- As a point of interest, SS Uganda was commandeered as a troop carrier during the Falkland was delayed owing to fog, and consequently they boarded SS Uganda a day or so land Islands War of 1982. Yours faithfully, after the scheduled departure from Naples. Shortly after setting sail, the children were Michael Draper, Ilkeston
Lincoln Castle - an unlikely place for wheelchairs After reading about the accessibility of Lincoln Castle on the excellent website www.lincolncastle.com, and being hooked on history, I decided to put it to a rigorous test in my trusty electrical wheelchair one very windy day in September.
ways, that is exactly what I found myself doing! Albeit, I could not traverse the whole wall but it was the best bit with spectacular views of the cathedral and ancient town. Most of the Victorian prison is accessible including many cells but careful driving is needed as the prison authorities weren't There is no car park within the castle boundaries but there are two handy council known for providing spacious containment! The prison chapel is not accessible but a car parks adjacent to the castle walls balcony overlooking the room is accessed (beware - disabled badge holders have to via yet another lift, although my only critipay but are allowed extra time free of cism was that no information panels were charge). provided on the balcony as they were in the Lincoln town has many cobbled streets but, chapel itself. hey, it has been around since before Roman times and is beautiful so we wheelchair us- The wondrous Magna Carta (actually three ers can put up with some teeth rattling, alt- documents) is housed in an up to date vault, hough in the square between the castle and which is reached via a steel bridge and lift. The lift stops at three floors which includes the cathedral a smooth pathway has been a short information film. In all I counted very thoughtfully provided across the cobbles. After paying for our tickets (carers go four lifts throughout the castle (one was a free) in the tempting shop and after studying platform lift) which is amazing for a building built in 1068 and the castle authe thought provoking "time machine", we had a meal in the cafe which is spacious and thorities deserve much praise. All well worth the £22m restoration. has wheelchair friendly tables. I urge everyone, not just disabled people to I was very impressed by the obvious thought which has gone into making such an visit Lincoln Castle but if you are disabled you can look forward to an exciting day and ancient building disabled friendly. I never do something adventurous - not just a visit believed that one day I would be able to drive my wheelchair along the top of a cas- to the shop/cafe/toilet as some tourist attractions seem only to offer those less mobile! tle wall but with the provision of a lift and the widening of the pathway via steel walk- Esther Collington, Kirk Hallam