Pynchme,

I once heard a neighbour say to her 13 year old daughter.

"Watch your f###ing language".

Are kids getting worse, or parents getting worse? Funny thing, I didn't hear what the girl said.

>>> Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.

Socrates
Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC) <<<<

From personal experience, I was caned at school for something I didn't do. As a child who was never physically punished at home (I was certainly told my boundaries) the shock was worse than the unwarranted pain administered by the teacher. My lack of respect for any authority continues at odds with my fear of authority to this day.

Corporal punishment has never worked, does not work and in no way will contribute towards a peaceful society.

One clear fact that is overlooked is that many young boys now grow up without a father or with a step father. This is a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately it is not pc to show that those without a dad are far more likely in end up in trouble and prison. Some step fathers do a great job however having a natural mum and dad produces by far the best outcome.

Pynchme

You make some very good points and I was virtually in love until your horrible twist at the tend with Dr Porter. I am not a fan. I believe your most important suggestion was rightly placed at number one:

”1. That workplaces be more family friendly; and that parents have more flexible hours and arrangements (such as doing work at home some of the time.)”

Unfortunately implementing a relationships course at school will probably just bastardise into some political propaganda exercise which doesn't even resemble anything you might have in mind and parenting courses are only as good as the people who design them. Its not that the ideas aren’t good it is just that I am too cynical to think that it will work in our society.

For books on parenting child psychologist Dr James Dobson would be an author I would be more inclined to recommend.

I believe that it is oversimplistic to suggest that punishments and rewards necessarily lead to an external locus of control. Good behaviour doesn’t preclude good intentions. Children can have both.

That said discipline isn’t everything and developing an internal locus of control and suitable bonding with their father and mother, teaching boundaries and respect, and the need to work within rules when appropriate are all elements that contribute to a well functioning child. Dr Porter doesn’t neglect all of these elements. The main problem is that taking on board her less meritorious ideas without a strong implementation of the more meritorious ideas would just make things worse. You wouldn’t get that problem with Dobson.

Good stuff Pynchme.
Its very hard to know what to do.

I think the first step is wanting to change the way things are in our schools.

For that governments and people must slow down... and catch up with all of our civilisations anomolies.

What are we building and building and building all the time for, if inside the civilisation be build, we are falling into decay and crime.
Children must be taught respect for adults or they grow up that way as young ferals destructive to society.

Im sure christians pray for answers. Prayer changes things. As a christian I know it to be true.

Yet as we christians pray governments must do their part and forget about this great, glorious golden technological age development... and start to look at whats happening.
We are closer to Romes end than we think.

I once heard a teacher say that the cane was only useful on kids that were usually good. The bad kids had competitions to see who could get the most canes, and getting the cane was only an acheivement for them. Punishments need to be varied to suit the nature of the child. Some parents find sending their children to their bedroom a suitable punishment, others find that useless because the kids just play with their toys.

I favour punishments such as picking up rubbish or weeding the oval in lunch hours for the bad kids rather than the cane, but I don't know if this is still allowed either. Suspension is the most useless punishment. This just gives the child a holiday.