Pat Newman. Photo / File
Your front page article on April 4, under the headline 'Teachers told to call cops,' gave a window into a sad - and growing- reality in modern society manifesting even at a tender age as young as five.
Pat Newman went on to speak about out-of-control children in our schools:
"Children threatening teachers with weapons, throwing chairs around the classroom and attacking other kids ... These are five-to-10 year-olds I'm talking about." True, a minority, but have we ever known the like before? And it's growing.
I was, and am, truly riled. This is the product of decades of the undermining of the pillars of society by trendy academics, educators and the entertainment industry (aided by a laissez faire general public), plus politicians eager to jump on the bandwagon and insist they know best.
Take marriage for starters. I recently listened to a young husband and father make the observation that New Zealand is becoming a society of broken relationships. Some of the causes are not hard to figure out.
I am 83 years old, have been involved in education for much of my life, and have watched the trends with much sadness. The foundations that my wife and I were blessed with - and have clung to since childhood - have helped us enjoy over 61 years of happy marriage and family life, and are now a blessing to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And yet they are lampooned by the popular culture of the day as reflected in the media.
