Magic Statistics

Another sign of the end?  Forty percent of British parents want schools to determine their children's bedtimes, according to a poll conducted for the Times Educational Supplement (TES).  One in five parents has already given up asserting parental control over bedtimes, allowing children to stay up as late as they feel like.  It takes a sleep doctor to point out what should be blindingly obvious.

Dr Irshaad Ebrahim, of the London Sleep Centre, said: "It is an abdication of parents' responsibility for them to expect the school to set bedtimes."

Schoolchildren need nine to 10 hours' sleep a night.

Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, tries to be diplomatic: "It's quite bizarre, but on the other hand it could be a cry for help and when schools and parents work together it can be a very effective way of enforcing discipline."

“Cry for help”?  How did parents ever manage when they have five or six kids, instead of today’s one or two? 

I’m afraid that Mr Brookes’s pitch for partnership between parents and teachers in raising children, well-intentioned though it may be, will enable those parents who have given up parenting to cop out of their responsibilities.  Conscientious parents, I would think, are more likely to decline the offer.  A case in point: Times of London columnist Jane Shilling says, "Butt out" "Thanks but no thanks".

[I]f anyone is going to form my son’s character, it ought to be me, rather than some teacher, however benevolent and well qualified.

More troubling findings from the TES survey:

Almost seven in 10 children have a television in their bedroom – and their parents are mostly not worried about what they are watching, a TES survey has found.

Most parents say they are not concerned that their children could be watching programmes with violent scenes, bad language or sexual content, and only a quarter use a parental control filter.

There is more concern about what children might be doing on the internet. More than half of parents (55 per cent) use a parental control filter, the study found.
. . .
Childnet, a charity promoting safe internet use, said it was pleased that most families use control filters. But Stephen Carrick-Davies, chief executive, said filters could lull parents into a false sense of security and that it was “not wise” to let children surf the internet in their bedrooms.

I'm with Mr Carrick-Davies.  At the very least, children should be required to leave their bedroom doors wide open when surfing the 'net and to position computers so the screen is readily visible from the doorway.  (Free advice, FWIW.)

Previous related post: Killing children with kindness

Prayer blog Lent & Beyond is the headquarters of a campaign called ECUSA 40 Days that began yesterday, Thursday, 4 May, forty days before the opening of General Convention 2006 in Columbus, Ohio.  Lent & Beyond co-ordinator Karen B. explains the two-fold focus of ECUSA 40 Days:

1) Praying from Scripture and listening to God from His Word re: what He has to say to us and to our church

2) An “adopt-a-diocesan deputation” effort, encouraging folks to pray by name for the bishops, clergy and lay deputies who will be attending GC06.

What is the goal of this call to intercessory prayer?

Our purpose in this prayer effort can be summed up from the “tagline” at the top of the blog:
“To encourage and provide resources to those who are committed to praying for ECUSA…”

We desire to help mobilize and inform a grassroots effort of intercession throughout ECUSA. This is not the effort of any specific organization, diocese or parish. (Though those of us who post regularly here make no secret of our evangelical stance!) We hope to post news here of many prayer efforts for GC06. To that end, we would really welcome being in contact with parish and diocesan prayer groups, receiving news of any prayer resources you are using, being informed of prayer vigils, and sharing together what we are hearing from the Lord as together we read and pray through the Daily Office Lectionary.

Prayers will be posted every day.  All the prayer posts can be accessed here.  Related resources can be found here.

As the prayer campaign begins, Karen has also posted this devotional from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers:

VICARIOUS INTERCESSION

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Hebrews 10:19

Beware of imagining that intercession means bringing our personal sympathies into the presence of God and demanding that He does what we ask. Our approach to God is due entirely to the vicarious identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

Spiritual stubbornness is the most effectual hindrance to intercession, because it is based on sympathy with that in ourselves and in others that we do not think needs atoning for. We have the notion that there are certain right and virtuous things in us which do not need to be based on the Atonement, and just in the domain of “stodge” that is produced by this idea we cannot intercede. We do not identify ourselves with God’s interests in others, we get petulant with God; we are always ready with our own ideas, and intercession becomes the glorification of our own natural sympathies. We have to realize that the identification of Jesus with sin means the radical alteration of all our sympathies. Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural sympathy with them.

Am I stubborn or substituted? Petted or perfect in my relationship to God? Sulky or spiritual? Determined to have my own way or determined to be identified with Him?

So, apparently, do mass murder, torture, repression, abuse of human rights—that kinda stuff.

Fidel Castro's net worth is estimated at $900 million, according to Forbes magazine.

via Nealenews.

Charles Clarke has been fired as UK home secretary following a deepening scandal over revelations that thousands of foreign criminals released from UK jails were not considered for deportation, although that is supposed to be routine.  One of them is wanted in connection with the killing of a police officer.

Somalian Mustaf Jama was allowed to stay in Britain just months before he was implicated in the murder of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford in November. Jama is still on the run.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to fire Mr Clarke comes the morning after Labour's drubbing in local elections.

Yesterday evening, it emerged that a foreign criminal released without being deported is now a terrorist suspect.  But that's only the beginning.  The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was freed in 1998 after only two years' imprisonment on a five-year sentence for armed robbery.  In November 2003, the man applied for British citizenship, and the following September the Home Office issued him a passport!  David Blunkett was Home Secretary at the time; three months later, he left under a cloud due to sex- and influence-related scandals, whereupon Charles Clarke took over.

Mr Clarke said he disagreed with Mr Blair's decision to remove him as home secretary, insisting he should stay on to clean up the mess that transpired under his charge.  Declining offers of other posts in the government, Mr Clarke returns to the back benches.  He is replaced by former Defence Secretary John Reid.

Previous related post: Violent crime up in the UK