English class—listening comprehension from the ‘Today’ programme
This week’s session follows a similar format as last week’s. You have two exercises
based on a news report, this time from the radio; the first elicits answers to a series of
questions and the second is a ‘fill-the-blanks’ exercise. Try to complete the second even
if it becomes apparent to you that you do not know the vocabulary item at issue i.e. you
should here use dictionaries or thesauruses.
However, this time round, I am asking you to provide full written answers to the first set
of questions. Two or three sentences should be sufficient for you to convey all the
information required, but the grammaticality, concision and idiomatic quality of your
responses will also be important in determining your notional mark.
1. What summary formulations encapsulate the best approach to parenting,
according to the thinktank Demos? (4)
2. What types of parent do better at instilling desirable character qualities into their
children, for the thinktank’s report? (4)
3. According to Richard Reeves, author of the report, what distinguishes successful
parenting from unsuccessful? And which factors, though relevant, are not
essential to this distinction? (4)
4. For Reeves, is parenting purely a private matter? (4)
5. For Camila Batmanghelidjh, the charity worker, what is the main problem with
the report? (4)
6. What practical solution does Batmanghelidjh propose to many children’s
shortfalls in parental care? (4)
Fill in the blanks exercise
7. When you have a child, there is no ______________________ , but there is
plenty of advice (1)
8. _____________ is what they ___________ ; warmth and discipline is what
builds character (2)
9. …what you didn’t say was that that was because they were more likely to
__________ these parenting styles, and actually it does turn out to be the way
you ________ that makes the big difference in how your kids do (2)
10. If you’re ___________________ financially, all your life is going to be more
difficult (1)
11. A braver report would have ________________ that about some 600,000 plus
children really don’t have a ______________ parent (2)
When you have a child, there is no instruction manual, but there is plenty of
advice—and more comes today from the thinktank Demos. Tough love is what they
advocate; warmth and discipline is what builds character. Children of married
parents are more likely to have it, and children in wealthier households as well.
Richard Reeves is co-author of the report, and he’s on the line, Camila
Batmanghelidgh is head of the charity Kids’ Company, and she’s here in the
studio—good morning to you both.
RR & CM: Good morning.
Presenter: So, er, Richard Reeves, you’re saying that there are good parents and that
there are bad parents. It’s rather a brave thing to say?
RR: We’re saying there are some parents that are more effectively creating within their
children these key character traits which are important. And, er, I notice in your
introduction you mention, er, that wealthier families and married couples seem to be
more successful, but, er, what you didn’t say was that that was because they were more
likely to exhibit these parenting styles, and actually it does turn out to be the way you
parent that makes the big difference in how your kids do, not your income, not your
household structure. It is the way you parent. Now, it may be that it is easier to parent
well in certain circumstances, but the key thing we find is that it’s that relational issue—
the relationship between parent and child that matters the most.
Presenter: But that’s the point, isn’t it, that if you’re hard-pressed financially, all your
life is going to be more difficult—we all understand that—but you’re saying that there
is something else at play here?
RR: If you’re on a low income, so you’re struggling financially, but you have a strong
parenting style, then in terms of the development of these character traits that we’ve
identified, you do just as well as wealthier parents. So it’s not income per se but it’s a
set of other characteristics. Now it may well be that there are certain aspects of your life,
for example, being on a low income, that make it harder to parent well, and that means
we have a responsibility, and government has a responsibility, and we have a
responsibility to help those parents to be better parents because that will ensure a better
life-chance for those children. That’s why this is an issue of social justice and equality
of opportunity.
Presenter: Camila Batmanghelidgh?
CM: I really welcome this report because I think that for the first time it’s beginning to
talk about the importance of the emotional life of a child in relation to their ability to
succeed or not succeed, i.e. if you’re going to succeed in education, you need certain
prerequisites, in the emotional ability to control yourself, to apply yourself, and so on.
Presenter: So you don’t argue with what builds character…
CM: No, no…
Presenter: … you accept this definition.
CM: I have a couple of problems with the report. Firstly, I don’t think it’s brave enough,
because the truth is, that there are certain parents who really because of their own
emotional difficulties cannot parent—it’s not something that you can just teach through
skill, it’s something that has to be emotionally acquired; good parenting is experiential;
you can skill people up, but you can’t teach people to love.
Presenter: So what would a braver report have said?
CM: A braver report would have embraced the fact that about some 600,000 plus
children really don’t have a functioning parent, and that we need to start thinking about
substitute reparenting experiences for these children—we don’t have enough
fosterparents, we can’t take them into care, so we need community-level programmes
where extra sets of parenting experiences are provided for the most vulnerable children.