Peril of something-for-nothing society

Published: 9 April, 2010

• YET another teenage stabbing (The danger of knives, April 2).
When will it all end? Another young life extinguished.
Why do we suffer this epidemic of knifings?
Hardly a day passes without reports of another incident, with pupils carrying weapons.
In my schooldays it was common to carry a penknife for sharpening pencils.
Of course, if one so wished, injury could be inflicted on another person, but this generally did not occur. Why? There was a culture of self-discipline encouraged by both parents and teachers.
Now this has disappeared, standards have been turned upside down, and the pupils are actually interviewing the teachers as to their suitability to teach them!
And teachers now seem to be expected to “entertain”the pupils. Surely a culture of discipline and respect for the teachers and the institution should be inculcated into the pupils before they enter school.
Children as young a and what can they be thinking?
If discipline and care has been passed to teachers, they have been left impotent by successive legislation on pupils’ rights rather than focusing on their responsibilities.
A teacher can easily be suspended from work on the simple basis of an allegation, which may be utterly without foundation.
Even the police are expected to employ a “softly-softly” approach in case human rights are violated!
Perhaps we need to look again at this “something-for-nothing” society.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED, W10