Knitting in schools

[breeksy]

I have just heard that the council are meeting (next week I think), and one of the things that is proposed is stopping knitting lessons in schools.

 

First they want to charge for music lessons, then they want to cancel knitting completely. Have they absolutely no interest in shetland heritage at all? It certainly seems that way with their lack of interest in funding two of the main things that makes shetland unique.

 

Apparantly they are proposing to redeploy the knitting teachers elsewhere. I can see two issues with that

 

A) To do what exactly? and

 

Surely that just means paying for the same staff (out of a different budget), so there is no real saving, just a transfer of funds?

 

Anyone else have an issue with this?

[paulb]

that is just stupid. non of my kids is going to be knitting fairisle anytime soon but how much is this going to save if thats the level of cuts lose an education manager. school is ment to be fun as well as learning. and could you imagine if they were to stop something cultural in a galic speaking area. at most its 1/2 an hour a week.

[Marooned in Maywick]

My older two sons were forced to endure knitting during their primary years and absolutely hated it.

[Styles]

I was forced to do knitting at primary school, what a waste of time it was. Things like this and the music should be organised by the parent and not the school.

[MuckleJoannie]

I've had a quick look at the SIC meeting calendar and there are no committee meetings scheduled until next month, so no agendas available to see where this might be going through. Any change like this would have to be approved at a public SIC committee meeting. Still plenty of time to lobby your councillor!

 

The SIC meeting calendar is here

http://www.shetland.gov.uk/coins/calendar.asp

[MJ]

i HATED knitting at school. Wasn't until I moved south I really appricheated (blame nokia spelling) what I'd been taught. My daughter got taught knitting from class 1 (roughly P1 and a half) to help with visualising maths, that and skipping. She loves it, it helps that they're no forced to do shetland knitting any more.

When I did my stint as a parent at my daughter's old school it really helped being able to give some history behind shetland knitting and the boys loved to hear how it was men who were often the best knitters.

It'd be a shame with the new system coming in this year that the SIC would think of cutting something that fits in so well with it's principles.

But tbh I don't have to worry my one's moving up to secondary, they don't do knitting (unlike her old school) let the parents who's kids who'll miss out worry. Problem is once it's gone it'll be harder to reinstate. It's like sewing. My one got taught in nursery - she can sew better than me (we never got hand sewing at school), if it stops being taught at school it'll just be another skill that's left to the old folks and machines.

Ps discovered quite quickly while south that even basic knitting skills could make me about £12 an hour after costs. It's daft what folk'll pay for, even with my very basic school learnt knitting skills.

[Guest Anonymous]

I was forced to do knitting at primary school, what a waste of time it was. Things like this and the music should be organised by the parent and not the school.

to a greater extent i agree, music n knitting always been part of the culture but it all seems to have gone, the young folk dont see it or hear it because most of the parents dont promote it, fair isle jumpers n hand knitting appear to be a source of ridicule rather as a part time income , n by god are the young ones in for a shock if basic survival skills are lost given the political climate. We might all be blide enough to eak our bills wi a bit of hand knitting soon enough

[JordanKZ]

Knitting isn't a particularly vital skill these days considering how easy and cheap it is to buy your own clothes...

 

Sowing might be more useful, but what else do you need outside of being able to patch a hole in something?

[Pleepsie]

^

 

I can knit a cashmere sweater for £65 using the finest wool you can buy. It would cost £250 to £300+ to buy one ready made (I am not talking about the cheap blends of wool and cashmere sweaters that high street shops punt out) - so if you want quality it is cheaper to knit your own.

[khitajrah]

^ I get all my materials from the charity shop, so it's even cheaper. Found some fabulous lilac wool the other day - enough to try making a lace scarf tonight at the craft group.

 

I've made handknit winter hats for as little as 5p.

[mclaffalot]

Knitting isn't a particularly vital skill these days considering how easy and cheap it is to buy your own clothes...

 

Sowing might be more useful, but what else do you need outside of being able to patch a hole in something?

 

Or even Spelling !!!

[Vicky]

I absolutely hated it, but then again my teacher was a nasty bitch with me so that could be why! But seriously though, there are far better things you can be taught in school than knitting...

[Pooks]

I think it would be sad to see it go but if it is anything like when I was at school then the kids hated it.

 

You can't teach a kid something that they hate...simple. They would be better off trying to develop and integrate it into existing classes (such as History) rather than dropping it altogether.

 

The big problem that we had back in Primary School was that some eejit decided that equal opportunities was obviously the next big thing and decided that all the boys should do knitting and all the girls do woodwork.

 

Now they were either very stupid or just plain evil. The girls wanted to knit, the boys wanted to do woodwork. Nonetheless the girls got the better class and the boys detested every minute.

 

Perhaps that is why my woodwork skills today are not the sharpest. My knitting isn't the best either.

[paulb]

our boys loved it. i even ended up teaching myself how to knit just to help them. but yes being made to do it was the worst. we cycled through metalwork/woodwork/cooking and needlecraft the first two were the most interesting the cooking was fine but doing sewing no that was to much.

[MJ]

Knitting isn't a particularly vital skill these days considering how easy and cheap it is to buy your own clothes...

 

Sowing might be more useful, but what else do you need outside of being able to patch a hole in something?

 

Totally it's like cooking, I mean who needs to learn how to cook when you can just throw a ready meal in the microwave? Lets drop any cooking classes too.