General Chat

With all the talk of yob culture all over the news at the moment I wonder if any others may hold the same opinion as myself, I feel that we are now three generations down from national service where respect and discipline were a way of life. So should national service be brought back??

I think it wouldn't be a bad idea actually, for various reasons.

respect and discipline should be taught by the parents. i got brought up to respect my elders, be polite to people and basically treat others as i would want them to treat me. i do not need some national service to teach me right from wrong as that was my parents job. I am a parent now myself and although she is only 1(well nearly) i have started the way i mean to go on,and will continue to do so as she grows. annie (22 by the way)

They still have conscription here in Germany where it is compulsary for them to do 2 years service at the age of 16 if they are not in full time education!! I often think they should bring it back to U.K it may solve some issues but not all!! Susie xx

I liked the German idea that people who object to national service on conscientious grounds have to work in the fire service instead.

ive been thinking this was a good idea,for the past ten years. something needs to be done. bryan.

I agree with you Annie - as your mother I brought you and your brother up to respect other peoples property and feelings. That is why when the two of you were growing up all the elderly neighbours adored the pair of you. Its also since they were stopped giving children discipline in schools too

Alot of things have started to go down hill with all this Human Rights Legislation . The teachers in schools and others jobs of authority elsewhere have more or less got their hands tied behind their backs now they are not even allowed to phsically comfort a child when they are upset or hurt..What is that all about!! Susie xx

Something definately needs to be done, if the parents cant be asked to teach their children some manners and respect then the government should bring back National Service, you can't blame the kids when you hear some parents swearing and being really disrespectful to their beautiful children. Children learn by example and when kids started having kids and 35 year old grannies are out partying then the family values/structure will just break down. I don't mean to generalise or cause offence to the excellent young mothers out there,

Anne - I know - my two were taught manners and respect cost nothing and went a long way. I can now sit back and look at them both and think - good people - and both are teaching their own children the same values - its never too early to start. She feeling very proud of her two :-)

Me too Sheila, l'm very proud of my children's manners, and as you say they cost nothing, big pat on the back for us lol Roxanne l'll hold them down and you beat them yeah Anne

I agree totally that respect and manners etc. should be taught at home and indeed our two have excellent manners and respect other people, trouble is that some parents are simply not willing to teach this as they were not taught it by their own parents. Schools do their best but as staff are getting younger the old school is slowly disappearing, some staff in secondary schools are only four years older than the sixth formers. xxhugxx

Dont Know if THAT would work, it appears that drill sergeants are not allowed to make the recruits feel inferior any more.. Bob Roxanne? again!!

It isn't just National Service that has gone,it is the whole framework of discipline-both self discipline and adminstered. We now have a situation in this country where parents are afraid to smack their child and a child grows up knowing this.The retort so often heard now when a child is told off is 'what you going to do about it' My son clipped two youngsters for vandalising his car in his own drive.The Police called on him and told him off.The kids were hiding up the street behind bushes laughing. The pendulum has to swing back and it will.Our society is reaping the results of thirty years of wishy -washy liberal attitudes.

Well done Annie,just read your thread. Rose

It's perfectly possible to instill discipline into children without hitting them. The majority of young people are lovely, polite, helpful and kind. There are a minority who cause problems and it is their parents who are to blame. A lot of diffficult children that I have taught have had plenty of thrashings from their parents but precious little of their time. So violence is not the answer. Respect is learned at home. If parents show no respect for each other or to others inside or outside the family then children are not going to learn from them. Maybe national service for those not in further education might be a good idea but not necessarily in the armed services. Gwynne

Two points I'd like to add 1. Earlier in the thread, Susie posted 'The teachers in schools and others jobs of authority elsewhere have more or less got their hands tied behind their backs now they are not even allowed to phsically comfort a child when they are upset or hurt' In our school, we are allowed to touch children. there is no prohibition about touching children, it just has to be appropriate. So we don't smack them, but we would restrain them physically if they were going to hurt themselves, others, or damage property. We also comfort upset children by putting our arms round their shoulders, etc. All this is of course always in a building where there are plenty of other people around. Yesterday, when we took the children to a museum I held hands with several of them for safety and comfort reasons. 2. Respect isn't just a matter of getting rid of yobbish behaviour. How can children learn to respect authority when many public figures are openly found to have lied and yet stay in office? When I was a child members of the government resigned when they'd been caught out. not so nowadays. nell

Many younger people have no Respect for themselves, so what chance have the rest of society. Pat

With talk about National Service it seems to me that we have the idea that the young male population are the ones we need to 'train' to have respect......but what about the young women.....it seems that they are becoming almost as bad and there is no National Service for them. It must be down to parents...discipline and respect must start at home...and parents can't demand respect it goes both ways...if you raise your voice and swear at a child they will do the same back because that is what adults do and a child wants to be 'grown-up'. Children ALWAYS learn by example. Why rely on the State to disipline our children - they are ours and we are responsible....I feel that I made many mistakes with my child and there are a lot of things I would have done differently....but he is a hardworking member of society with his own home and partner....so somewhere along the line I must have done something right

Teaching respect and discipline starts with the parents , and they need role models to set an example early in childhood. But sadly for some children they come from a one parent family where they don't know who their father was ? mother probably on the game. What chance do they have ?