Moral decay

In a week that has seen a plank smash the window of a car when thrown at a funeral courtege and a children's cemetery utterly wasted in an act of gratuitous vandalism, how do we turn round the rising tide of hooliganism and immoral behaviour among our young people?

Is it time to bring back corporal punishment like the birch?  Should we make parenting classes compulsory for people at the age of 16?

[smurfboy]

I don't think corporal punishment is the answer - I think it's barbaric. But I do believe the authorities, from the police to judges to teachers, should be allowed to use the punishments at their disposal. Some teachers are scared to shout a kids for the fear of getting sued.

With parenting classes, who would decide what to teach someone to make them a 'good' parent? Also I don't want children; why should I have to spend my time taking compulsory classes in how to raise them?

I don't think Stocks and Pillary is 'barbaric'.  It's humiliating and wouldn't confer any hero status among peers. 

The thing is that the government has got no idea how to tackle this problem.  I believe that without draconian measures, even if only for a short period, there is no solution.

[loulou]

On last nights news there was three sisters aged 12, 14 and 16 and they all announced at the same time that they were pregnant. Their poor mother.

[Cherry_Ripe]

Their mother, like many people these days, is too quick to blame other people for her own actions / inactions. People need to take responsibility for what they do and teaching that starts at home.

[chocolate chick]

Their mother, like many
people these days, is too quick to blame other people for her own
actions / inactions. People need to take responsibility for what they
do and teaching that starts at home.

Something does need to be done, I agree. And the 'Slap Happy' craze is
appalling. I was on the bus the other day and I was wondering if this
would happen to me?

I sincerely hope not Choccy Chick. 

[smurfboy]

On last nights news there was three sisters aged 12, 14 and 16 and they all announced at the same time that they were pregnant. Their poor mother.

The mother was on the news complaining they hadn't had proper sex education at school. Did it never occur to her to give them any guidance herself?

[chocolate chick]

Sex education is part schooling, part parental and part self learn, in my opinion. 

[oldspice]

I was totally disgusted by the story of children's graves being destroyed. It is completely unbelievable.

As for the mother who blamed the schools and the goverment for her children's pregancies - well perhpas it's HER that needs the sex education.

[goldencup]

Saturday's papers seemed to carry stories like these, one after the other.  I felt quite sick by the time I had read mine.  The happy slapping thing is horrific and there was also that one about the man who was beaten to death on his own doorstep for no reason.  My son's friend was attacked by a gang when he was walking his girlfriend home in the early evening, totally unprovoked and people just stepped round him when he was lying on the pavement covered in blood.  I think maybe the stocks would do some good as people don't like being humiliated.

There might be light at the end of the tunnel in that America seems to have gone through this phase and come out of it, with the aid of boot camps and so on.  Where America goes, we usually follow.

[oldspice]

When I read about such stories my first reaction is to lock them all up and throw away the key - or put them in the stocks with the word "thug" stamped on their heads. In the cold light of day however, I feel it's a problem that goes so deep it is very difficult to solve easily.  

People who do such things don't consider other people's feelings or realise the consequences of their actions. Schemes that bring victims and perpetrators together seem to work well but have to be used with caution. 

Personally I'd say burn them but sh*te doesn't burn.

So, no serious suggestions then other than the stocks and meeting the victims.

What I can't understand is, what motivates someone to vandalise a children's cemetery?  What sort of values have been instilled (or not) in order for someone to commit such an outrageous act?  One thing we have to face is that these sorts of problems including the teenie mothers is very much a British problem.  I'm not saying they never occur in Europe, but not on anything like the same scale.

I think short term Draconian measures are called for NOW.  This means curfews and some sort of corporal punishment.  Not flogging or violent means, but something humiliating like the stocks.

[chocolate chick]

I think the stocks are a good idea. If they don't want to wear them they shouldn't have done the crime in the first place.