by Ellie 94 Replies latest jw friends
I used to be one of those kids calling goodwilled teachers names.
I hope you contacted your teachers and apologised for your antisocial behaviour as a child. I have known many teachers have nervous breakdowns or go home crying regularly, have marriage break ups and health problems because of the stress of the daily sustained barage of abuse they recieved from children ' who didnt really mean it'.
Ellie
I don't think there's anything wrong with claiming child benefit, but nor am I judging others that claim other forms of social security benefit. No one is forcing you to take money from the state to support your children and I know of families that feel that if they don't need the child benefit they shouldn't draw it. It's their choice and I'm sure they wouldn't judge you for drawing it. I know some teenage mothers and am well aware of how the system can be worked but see a minority exploiting it (babies for council houses) but I also see what depressing conditions they live in and how stressed and unhappy they are. Maybe the council homes on offer in Wales are palatial, but here they are high rise or sink estates and not even a Burberry cap can compensate. Better education, not national service, would have made a big difference to them. Better funding of teachers like KK, smaller class sizes and better school buildings.
Paul
Yobs? Have you never seen squaddies out to play? The army is not renowned for it's fine manners and etiquette in the lower ranks, so would National Service produce these fine upstanding citizens that we are all fine examples of? Remind me of the unemployment rate? Is it a vast swathe of the population that we are supporting? Having this "privileged" class of lay abouts is indicative of how rich we are, just as the vast sums we splash out of football players is. We will continue to have a minority that exploits the tax paying population until such a time as our debt burden crashes on us all and we have to live hand-to-mouth as Derek describes.
The army is not renowned for it's fine manners and etiquette in the lower ranks, so would National Service produce these fine upstanding citizens that we are all fine examples of?
Yes, but there are made responsible for their actions, unlike the deliquents on the street.
We will continue to have a minority that exploits the tax paying population until such a time as our debt burden crashes on us all and we have to live hand-to-mouth as Derek describes.
So we just sit, wait and do nothing then? Or do we think of ways to curb it? Is the glass always half-empty for you or something?
Better education, not national service, would have made a big difference to them. Better funding of teachers like KK, smaller class sizes and better school buildings.
I dream about smaller classes. 30 is too many. No-one gets any proper attention. BUT in my school we have a referral unit where damaged children can get 1 to 1 tuition, and I have to say this only slows the process of expelling them. They punch their personal tutors, and refuse to work, they tear up their books and snap their pencils. We have an ex policeman working as a one to one tutor, and I have watched this excellent resource be abused and ignored by those it has been provided for.
There is something more going on here than just a lack of help and resources.
At my school we have at least 30 FREE after school clubs, all non academic - from drama, music, to videoing, editing, break dancing, DJ'ing, every kind of sport. All provided on a voluntary basis by the teachers - not by specially paid after school teachers. The teachers dont get paid extra, they just do it at the end of the day out of their free time.
School is so different to when I went - people may not realise what opportunities there are now for any kid who can be bothered. But the apathy from the kids is so utterly disappointing. They honestly cant be bothered. Most clubs have packed up by the end of Autumn term due to lack of attendance.
Scotsman, I really can't see how a couple of years of military service could make things any worse, if a girl is going to get pregnant at 16 just because she has finished school and doesn't know what else to do and wants a council house to get away from a bad home, then why not send her to the army as an alternative.
While there she might learn a trade and realise there are other options, it wasn't just a myth made up by her form tutor.
I can understand that there are genuine people who have no choice other than to claim, but when I look around I see a lot of fit young people who are just too lazy.
Young offenders are getting sent to maximum security adult prisons, they are doing nothing there except taking smuggled in drugs and feeling ever more angry with the world, is it really the only option?
KK
I appreciate what you are saying which is why smaller class sizes from year one would make a difference. One on one by the time a child is being excluded is more often than not too late.
Paul.
I don't believe that we can achieve a perfect, crime free society and I wouldn't want one. Is that a glass half empty or a move away from the Judeo/Christian/Enlightenment/new Labour belief that things can only get better?
Ellie
So national service comes with compulsory but temporary sterilisation? And if they refuse to behave, prison? More prison may provide more jobs I guess.
I don't think society is perfect, but I don't think punitive measures (which is what we are veering towards) is the appropriate solution. But we are free to disagree.
Ellie
If it doesn't make anything worse or better, is it worth it? surely that's the quartet playing as the ship goes down.
How about if we called it 'school' instead of 'national service'? How about boarding school?
Except they have to take more responsibility for their own actions. For instance if they spit or swear or break things or act violently they have to do 20 pressups then scrub the canteen floor. Its not gonna hurt them is it?
While they are at 'boarding school for the responsibly challenged' they can learn either academic or technical subjects. They can learn both traditional subjects, and also how to drive a car, train, plane, bike and lorry, how to strip and build an engine, how to do their own tax returns, how to use their manners, how to clean up community areas and paint old peoples homes, how to build sports pavillions in run down areas, and how to pick up litter. They can learn animal care and child care, they can learn how to say please and thank you in Iraqi and Afganistan, they can do anger management courses along with meditation, cultural awareness and social responsibility.
Its just a thought.
KK
Nice idea. Hogwarts Borstal?
But if they refuse to do the press ups, what then?
Has anyone ever read "Starship Troopers", by Robert A. Heinlein? In the future society portrayed in it, you didn't even get the right to vote until you had completed your national service. It was somewhat based on the old Roman idea that you could earn citizenship by coming up through the ranks of military service. In the book, you didn't even get to be called a Citizen unless you had served.
I'm not so sure this is such a bad idea.
Brandon
