I don't want my school system to be a babysitter. I want my school system to teach. I'll handle the discipline myself. If my daughter came home and said that a teacher even touched her I would sue the hell out of the school district. The problem here is not the school system but the parents. Where are the parents? What are the parents teaching their children? Are the parents aware of what their children are doing? Who they are hanging around with? I'm tired of people wanting to have somebody fix a problem for them. Sure there are a lot of things that are beyond our control but not this. Children are the most important treasure a person can be blessed with and it's too bad that there are so many people with children who don't understand that.

I certainly, agree that the parents are to be held to the highest standards of responsibilty for their childs discipline and moral standards.

If you bring a child into this world, you are responsible for his/her welfare and behavior in every sense.

BUT, when you live in a world where goverment REQUIRES parents to send their children to school.  The school does bare "some" responsiblity of your childs welfare while under their supervision.

Also of note... many or most children rebel against authority figures at some point, if not many points along the way of the maturity process.  It is an important step in the maturity process.

yes the parents should take responsibility for their kids, alas here in the uk so many are from single parent families without role models. they seem to treat these vulgar and violent musicians as their role models, hence the "gangster" behavious. also, punishment by the courts in the uk is a joke. its an exscuse to say "oh they are just kids" kids they may well be but they are still using guns and knives and i think they need to be disciplined. their parents/parent should also be disciplined and maybe then things might change. the future is not bright and the over-protective nany state and political correctness has gone mad.

I could not agree more.

I have 2 boys, 19 years old and 15 years old, and they have been taught to be more or less self reliant.

Also, they have been taught that "do unto others as you have would them do unto you" are words to live by.  Political Correctness be damned.

I must add... I could not be a more proud father.  My 2 sons are well eqiupped for what the world throws at them.

I left school with a backside like leather for all the canings I copped... but at the end of the day it did me far more good than harm.  What's more, if I went home bitching that I'd gotten the cane, my old man would gimme another hiding for whining about that which I probably deserved.

Yeah, it's all black or white, isn't it!!!  Fact is, given the hard economic times, both parents HAVING to work full-time to pay the mortgage and bills, a lot of parents are not at home... sometimes up until 7.00pm and gone  I don't suppose a lot of them want to do it, but if they don't they're homeless, without personal transport, unable to adequately feed themselves and families.

It's easy to condemn the parents every time, but sheesh, some of them are forced by financial constraints to neglect their kids, by simply not being there due to work..  And yeah, too many do-gooders and lobbyists have fucked it up for parents, cos you can't smack them; you can't send them to their rooms; you can't ground them; you can't with-hold their pocket/chore money.  No, that's abuse and a violation of their human rights.  What crap!!!

This thread makes one point very clear, as in most things that will happen in our life time there is not proper set of instructions for raising children and the children are smart enough to understand that. 

The problem these days is we have kids raising kids with no life experience whatsoever and no commom sense. Schools should in no way be reposnsible for raising kids...and if someone as a parent can't do that job they need to be sterilized so that can't do it again. Personally....I think you should have to get a permit to have kids and take a test. And we need to get government out of the business of raising kids...that is not what a government is for unless of course you want to control peoples lives.

As far as having a proper set of instructions...if you think you need one you shouldn't be having kids. All it takes is common sense and a decent moral compass...period.

Now that's a plan.  You need to get a Hunting and Fishing, a Marriage and Drivers license.  Any IT person will be happy to explain what they have to go through before that can touch, diagnose and repair a computer.  Yet there is nothing in place that identifies what the responsilities are for having children and require training and being licensed for those who wish to have children.

Yes, I know, spoken like a person who has never had children. 

I have a good moral compass... but it goes haywire when a gorgeous naked woman walks past....

..like somebody stuck a ginormous electro-magnet under it.

In one sentence you state "almost feral kids" then you want schools to beat them a la Charles Dickens. If they're feral, they aren't in school.

Hey, here's an idea: Round them all up and send them to Australia. Somewhere near starkers' house with a head of cabbage (probably better than their heads). Then, let Nature take it's course. "Feral Kids Meet Feral Colon."

The movie rights alone should make you millions.

Give the little shits the prospect of conscription and dying somewhere in a rice paddy....we grew up with that....was quite sobering, too.

Put 'em in with all those sweet, gentle, loving little creatures you have there:

1. The Box Jellyfish

2. Irukandji (A Jellyfish)

3. Salt Water Crocodile

4. Blue Ring Octopus

5. Stone Fish

6. Red Back Spider

7. Brown Snake

8. Tiger Snake

9. Great White Shark

10. Funnel Web Spider

11. The Taipan.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't guns strictly illegal in Great Britain? The liberals here (Washington State, USA) keep preaching about how crime will vanish if we ban all guns. I find my self doubtful of this idea. I like your idea of caning a lot better, but those same liberals say it bruises their young egos, or some such. I've raised 3 boys (now men, 30-35) and found stimulating the gluteus maximus till it hurts works a lot better Coincidentally, all three were taught elementary safety with firearms around age 5 or 6 and fired at targets on a gun range from about age 9 or 10.

Lots of 16 year old boys in 'Nam, as well as school teachers, math professors (couple of the guys who worked in my squad). Conscription ain't a bad thing.

The Army or any service is NOT a punishment... It is a singular honor. One those creatures do not deserve.