People need to stand up, take care of themselves

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Re: The entitled ones.

Grrrrrr, three nights ago it was “school stepping in to help students in poor housing”. On Thursday it was “poor students need a free bus”. Get real!

It’s not houses that are making kids sick, it is poor parenting and poor diet.

Let’s face it, at least five generations of Kiwis have been raised, grown and thrived before insulation was even heard of. Before that Maori had grass skirts.

What we did have was good, unadulterated food and most had parents who really cared for us — things that are missing most in the handout mentality community.

It’s not up to the rest of the country to provide these people with an out. They need to stand up and take care of themselves for a change.

When I was at high school I had to bike 5km to school every day, as did most other kids. In the whole of my secondary schooling, I don’t think I missed a day — rain, hail, fog and sun. What’s more, we still managed to do our homework.

The 4.8km rule applies to the whole of the country. Inside that, everybody has to get their own way to school. Full stop.

Don’t people realise that education is worth effort? In fact, there is no reward without effort — so why is the current establishment taking all the challenges away from kids? Such as no real exams, because it may stress them. What do they think a surgeon goes through before a major operation, and an engineer when a bridge is built?

I thought school was to prepare kids for life. All we currently do is wrap them in cotton wool. Kids overseas walk miles and miles for far less of an education than is offered by our schools.

We wonder why we end up with the women seen the other night on TV wringing their hands over the pig-sties they live in, too lazy to tidy up and scrub the mould from the roof because somebody else should do it. What is the country coming to when they get all the media attention?

P.J. Roberts