Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[Ragged Robin]

The bottom line is.... it is all down to 'Respect'.  Respect for the neighbourhood you live in, the people that live there and ultimately for your place within the community.  To me there is no single place to lay the blame for the "I don't care, so I'll do what I want" syndrome.  People are only considerate if they feel wanted and part of the whole and sadly society is becoming more and more fragmented and it's hard to see how we can rebuild 'Values' that are part of happy communities.

Showing a good example is hard work whilst children are growing up and you have to be around or peer pressure takes over.....it's always been there goading on to see how far children dare to challenge 'Authority', parental or otherwise. However children are not born to throw rubbish in the street or verbally abuse their elders, they learn it from the world that surrounds them and so we have to find new ways to educate and pass on 'Values' that we value and decide what is most important to all of us and actively show where the boundary stops and behaviour is not acceptable.

Funnily enough Ruth got a detention for forgetting her homework this week.  Not lines but she had to write a letter to her parents explaining why she was in detention.  Two copies ... one for the school and one posted to us!  She has resolved to be better organised

It seems an age ago but I remember it as if I was standing there six years old and in trouble - at school that day I had been called into the Head for being cheeky in the playground - it could affect our class  group achievements for that week and let them down - at the same time, behind my back, I was holding the knitted poodle dog, "Gruffy", that was given to the child with the best table manners over one month!  I decided to tell my Mother the bad news first - she was angry and disappointed - then I showed her Gruffy and she was surprised and pleased - I wanted her approval and she gave it, balancing both judgements to come to a conclusion and so she encouraged the achievement and reprimanded the momentary blip and I understood the word "Fair"

[mark smyth]

I got caned on my first day at Grammar along with almost every other boy. Our school wasn't finished so all classes were on the third floor with teachers moving between classes instead of us, The playground was tarmaced but there were still mounds of soil to the side. The boys split in to two groups and had a massive 'fight' hurling clods of soil at each other. The playground was a mess and that's why we got caned.

I also got caned another time for taking a walk along the stream, that ran along one side of the school, to see what wildlife I could find.

I also got slapped many times on the a$$ with OXO the table tennis bat. OXO was written on the bat with chalk and when we got hit on the a$$, trousers up, it left OXO on our trousers for all to see.

[Paddy Tobin]

I never recall being "slapped" or caned while in primary school and attended a post-primary school in the mid sixties where it just never happened.

Paddy

[tonyg]

The bottom line is.... it is all down to 'Respect'.  Respect for the neighbourhood you live in, the people that live there and ultimately for your place within the community.  To me there is no single place to lay the blame for the "I don't care, so I'll do what I want" syndrome.  People are only considerate if they feel wanted and part of the whole and sadly society is becoming more and more fragmented and it's hard to see how we can rebuild 'Values' that are part of happy communities.

Showing a good example is hard work whilst children are growing up and you have to be around or peer pressure takes over.....it's always been there goading on to see how far children dare to challenge 'Authority', parental or otherwise. However children are not born to throw rubbish in the street or verbally abuse their elders, they learn it from the world that surrounds them and so we have to find new ways to educate and pass on 'Values' that we value and decide what is most important to all of us and actively show where the boundary stops and behaviour is not acceptable.

Yes Robin.  You put it very well.  Our girls both go to 'Faith' schools (why is the education minister so much against them?) which come with 'Values' and 'Respect' (for others and for self) 'added' to  the standard curriculum.  There is a strong sense of community in both schools and while no-where is problem free these days, we feel lucky to be invloved.

[Anthony Darby]

Our school has a uniform policy, and it is enforced. Any pupil without a tie is given one for the day. Apart from improving discipline, which it does, it improves security. Any stranger can be immediately identified.

[Martinr]

Whilst I 100% agree that values and respect have to be acquired through both the home and the school I also am 100% against faith schools, partly due to my beliefs but also partly because I think it is socially unacceptable, creating and reinforcing artificial social boundaries. Having been brought up in the West of Scotland, I  have seen how they can reinforce the worst aspects of relations between people of different versions of one faith. We need to develop an inclusive, cohesive society which celebrates mutual respect and diverse beliefs.

I'd better stop now as I've strayed into politics & religion in one post, the two things best avoided!!!!

[mark smyth]

Just caught two young girls breaking off the daffodil flowers outside the garden. I shouted, they jumped, one said "I didn't mean it" and the other laughed

[Michael J Campbell]

I find it difficult to remember a day at school that I didn't get caned, not with a real cane but a stick cut from the hedge. Sometimes I had to go out and cut the the stick for my own punishment. We got caned for talking in class , or getting sums and spellings  wrong. One morning at 9-30am I had got 18 slaps with the cane ,nine on each hand, because one of the girls was throwing grass sods at some children that were going to another school, and I wouldn't tell who it was. As I was the the oldest boy in the school at the time I had to take the punishment.
I still shudder when I think of that school but at least now I am very disciplined, it works.

I also had to walk two and a half miles to and from school each day, no 4 x 4s then.

[Martinr]

We had a woodwork teacher who, if you cut yourself during a class would first patch you up, then give you several strokes of the belt for being stupid. It didn't work, I still cut myself doing DIY jobs.

[Anthony Darby]

 

[tonyg]

We need to develop an inclusive, cohesive society which celebrates mutual respect and diverse beliefs.

I can agree with that Martin ... its what they encourage at our schools. 
Like you I will now exit from debate on religion and politics.

[Martinr]

Only a teacher could find that amusing

[mark smyth]

My uncles always talk about being sent to the hedge to choose their own sally rod. Sally rod is a willow stick

[Anthony Darby]

Only a teacher could find that amusing

Just shows that no amount of corporal punishment can cure stupidity, which is one of the reasons it was rightly outlawed. It never cured my stupidity! Put me off a couple of teachers and prevented me from doing subject I wished I'd done - namely geography!

[Lesley Cox]

Not trying to top yours Michael, but back in 1915 when my mother started school at the age of 7, she had to walk 5 miles by herself, then row a boat across a sometimes very swift river, then walk another two miles and catch a school bus. After school, the whole process in reverse. Her Dad took her in a pony cart on the very wet days, as far as the boat ramp. The year she left primary school to go to a girls' boarding school in Dunedin, the local council built a bridge which cut out all but the bus ride.