Education system causing a breakdown in society?

Hi,

I'm a high school English teacher in the UK and am starting to have major concerns about the way in which our profession - through no fault of our own - is contributing to the breakdown of what one may call 'civilised society.'

Let's for moment think about the way things are here in Britain.

- People are scared to leave their houses at night
- Young people roam in groups looking for trouble
- Many young people in many areas have no ambition or desire to acheive
- They get very light sentences when they do get caught committing a crime
- The average citizen cannot risk confronting these people for fear of being stabbed.

Therefore, a form of underclass, appears to taking over our country.

Now before people start saying that these kids/youngsters are in the minority, I must confess that I do teach some lovely students and not all youngsters are like this. BUT, a lot are and their behaviour and attitude is getting poorer, younger.

It is my opinion that the education system in the UK is responsible for this.

Pupils have rights, rights and more rights. Admittedly, alongside those rights come responsibilities, which we do try to drum in to the pupils to no effect. Why does this have no effect? Because there are no serious sanctions.

Schools are reluctant to exclude pupils because it costs them money. Instead, they are allowed to spend a few days in a behavioural unit which they see as an easy option, as they are out of classes, doing easy work.
They system tries to avoid 'blaming' pupils for their actions. If I mess up at work - it's my fault - end of story. I can't turn around and say that someone wound me up so I took it out on a child and hit them, can I?
Instead, we have to put up with verbal and physical abuse knowing that nothing will be done 90% of the time. Would that be tolerated in the NHS? All we want to do is teach, and we are not being allowed to do that. We spend a lot of our time playing 'crowd control.'

This 'no blame' culture allows youngsters to think they don't have to accept responsibilty for their actions. It's time to make them realise they do, because what we've been seeing in schools for years - the dark side of young people who think they can get away with anything (and have done in schools that will not involve the police - even when criminal activity has taken place) - has started to spill onto the streets.

Unfortunately, the police and courts are being just as soft as the education bigwigs, and the youngsters no have the message that they can do whatever they like, with minimal risk of consequences.

I don't have the answers, I'm just offering my view on what's going on at the moment.

Am I wrong? Am I being too harsh on the youngsters? If so, why? It's clear that this 'touchy-feely' culture isn't working and I shudder to think what it will be like in 15 years when this generation have spawned offspring.

I know I sound like a grumpy old man, but I'm actually a very worried twenty-something, who has had enough of idiots ruining my country.

Discuss. LOL.

I cannot believe anyone has nothing to say on this??????????????

I've read several articles on this phenomenon in UK newspapers, and I can assure you that I don't think this is only happening in your country. As an American I can definitely tell you that school has gotten worse for teachers (and for pupils who actually do wish to learn) during the time I was enrolled. I graduaged highschool in 02 and I can remember how bad it was then, so I can imagine how horrible it is now. The only thing that was redeeming was the fact that I was in all honors and AP classes, so it was mostly the same small group of people in every class and we all cared about being there.

Part of me wants to just say 'let them go if they don't want to be there.' Let's ditch welfare and just let them end up starving in the gutter...but the problem with that is that no one would ever want people to be forced to take responsibility for themselves, and pretty soon the ignorant criminals would outnumber the regular people and we'd be living in perpetual fear of being robbed or killed.

The only thing that can stop this is discipline, consequences, and more discipline.

p.s. I live in Canada now, and let me tell you, the school system here makes the educational system in the rural southern US where I grew up (which is mediocre) look like a well oiled, efficient education machine. Half the people who work regular jobs here can barely read. Hell, even people on this forum who seem intelligent can't tell the difference between their, there, and they're, as evidenced in their posts. 50% is a passing grade here! What kind of education is that??