Time to Introduce Compulsory Military Service

[dotinthesky]

I could never be a teacher in England. Either I would kill one of the students, get killed by one of them, or kill myself.

Just now, walking down the South Bank, I witnessed a group of teenage boys in green uniform bully their teacher. One of them threw water over the man and ran away, to the cheers and laughter of the other kids. The teacher tried to chase him then gave up. Eventually, when he caught up with the kid, what could he do? Nothing. He didn't even manage to wrestle the bottle of water from his hands. While he stood in the middle of the boys, befuddled and smiling awkwardly (to hide his shame) another boy came up from behind and pulled his coat's hood over his head.

If that wasn't enough, I spotted three other teenagers squatting by the London Tram displayed outside the National Theatre (the Mayor of London wants to re-create a tram line from Euston to Waterloo). The teenagers were graffiting the tram while on the other side a television crew filmed an interview. I wanted to give those kids a swift kick up the arse, but you can guess what I did instead.

I'm turning into a grumpy old man.

Comments

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

From the stories I read in the paper, and the teens I see sometimes, it seems things are worse in London. I don't know about the rest of the country, but I'm guessing it's the same in other big cities like Liverpool and Manchester. Kids even boast of having ASBOs. Makes them look cooler in their group of friends.

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

I think it probably is worse in the big cities, but worryingly when I go home to see my parents in Falmouth in Cornwall, it's got rough round there. I am sure it's a lot worse, it's not just me being older. It actually is scary to walk home at night on a Friday or a Saturday, and I've had thugs push me at the checkout in a Spar shop whilst very visibly pregnant.. I haven't had that happen in London.

I think outside the towns Cornwall is still mostly fine though ;-)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

The whole country is having to deal with them (http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&q=yobs&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn).

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

Yep, and I can't see a solution short of seriously draconian measures being brought in by the government. Compulsorary community service is not a bad idea actually - better than military service. And bring back chain gangs in prison ;-)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Either community services or a major scale boot camp regime (preferably somewhere remote and with harsh climate) would do the trick.

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

Start everyone off with community service, and if you do a crap job, you get sent off on the boot camp! I think everyone should spend a period of time doing community service as it engenders respect for one's local area. You're less likely to trash the place if you're the one tidying it up!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. It could work here in England because local councils already have a certain type of infrastructure to accomodate those programmes - the only thing missing is more government support.