[JohnW]

I really think it is unfair to lump them all together as if they are all exactly the same. As Willow intimates, there are plenty of polite, hard working, good citizens which are part of today's 'young people'. I consider that the 'yobs' are a minority. Unfortunately, I think it is a fast growing minority and may not remain a minority for much longer. It is also unfair to put the whole of the blame on the young people themselves for this state of affairs, although, I do believe the older ones share some responsibility. The majority of blame has to be shouldered by parents. They have neglected to discipline their offsprings when required, and I do not necessarily mean corporal punishment, a whole new thread could be devoted to that. But, discipline, of whatever sort, is what has been missing. I believe the most important lesson schools could introduce, in the last couple of years pupils are in attendance, would be 'parenting'. I think in the past, we learned from our parents. What we thought they did right; we copied, what we thought they did wrong; we omitted. Why this learning process hasn't continued I am at a loss to understand, but it has obviously gone awry somewhere along the line. Parents do not seem to want to take responsibility for their children these days. How often do you see kids of all ages behaving badly when accompanied by adults? Too often I think. The "free spirited" thinking, like 'political correctness' has been taken too far. As I have said before, the problem seems to be much worse in Europe than it is here in America. Government here does seem to be encouraging parents to be more involved in their children's lives. There are many adverts on television to this end. eg. Sometimes at 10 pm an advert comes on, "It's ten o'clock. Do you know where your kids are?" Other ones show parent and teenager having a silent meal, or silently travelling in the car. The overvoice says, "Another opportunity missed to talk to your kids about drugs." Another one says: "Talk to your kids about not smoking and drinking - they'll listen"

Of course, we all know that not every kid is going to take advice from their parents, but if half of them did, think how much better things could be.