Sir, - Kathryn Holmquist's series "The Roots of Crime" prompts me to write.
In my work in giving relationships/sexuality education to children in sixth classes in primary schools there is more and more clear evidence of violence amongst the children. For example: a broken friendship causing jealousy and hurt merits an exchange of nasty notes with filthy language, a kicking bout, paint on the victim's school bag and books, spreading of malicious gossip about one another.
Bullying is found in almost every group but may not be called "bullying" by children who regard it as "messing" or "giving what he/she asked for". Victims get pushed, threatened, jeered as being "smelly" or "spa" (handicapped), ugly, wimpish. Gangslagging is common place. The language of the children can be foul. That is what they believe the peer group expects. Many hear such corrupting language at home.
Low self esteem is usual. Parents give little sense of security, love and peace. Parents are often both absent from home and/or stressed out. There is no time for talking or opening one's heart at home for numbers of children. No school can take the place of dysfunctional parents.
The main source of "Education for Life" comes from soap operas or other TV programmes or videos. The children model the aggression, brutality and lust which they view on a regular basis. Most "sex" they view is adultrous.
Many children are afraid to tell at home about bullying at school. Parents can have counter productive and irresponsible reactions. So things can get worse.
Children are sexualized prematurely, allowed go to discos where they want to be seen to be attractive to the opposite sex. They are taunted about not "going with" anyone or not "getting off" (intimate kissing in the darker corners of the hall). Some are afraid to go but also afraid of being left out. They are not taught how to deal with the conflicts or choices that come at them from the pressures of life. There are no counsellors in the majority of primary schools.
No clear form of worthwhile discipline replaces the corporal punishment we have removed. Moral standards are minimal (in the Gadarene race for a "free world"). Religion, if evident at all, is in a compartment in school and doesn't seem to relate to other realities in the youngsters' lives. Money is God.
Of course there is a rise in crime. And there will be more. More prisons? Parent education is a prior need. Parents should be accountable for the crimes of their children. The new breed of tough, assertive women are evoking violence in men who do not know how to cope. Let's look more constructively at the roots of our problems. They are many. - Yours, etc.,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.