Should National Service be mandatory ?

[Phil1]

Do they still teach R.E in schools these days?
If so, just drop that as a subject and spend those hours teaching kids how to survive warefare, hold a gun, make cool booby traps and the like.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

I’d suggest that people need to look at the reality rather than what is portrayed. I have 2 sons of that age range who would be willing and I’d suggest most of their mates would as well.

Not sure what it is but we seem to be living in a world where people now believe that our youngsters are bone-idle, women-hating, layabouts, when it’s nothing of the sort. The majority do what we did, work hard, have a pint/joint at the weekend, play football on a Sunday, and look for a better life. Yet somehow they’re all portrayed in a bad light.

Personally, I think some need to step away from the internet and stop listening to those that are way past their sell by date, who have no understanding of what our younger generation are challenged with.

I have kids of my own, with plenty of friends, and I’ve seen kids from similar backgrounds, who went to the same schools in the same communities, go on completely different directions.

My concern is that we have lost so much in the last 25 years of electronic media 24/7/365 and the desire to please kids.

I grew up in the “spare the rod, spoil the child” er. I’m not suggesting a return to those days is desirable, but if we could go about 2/3 of the way, it’d be a damned right better.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

My concern is that we have lost so much in the last 25 years of electronic media 24/7/365 and the desire to please kids.

Honestly, I've noticed this one. I've live in Asia for the best part of 15 years and one of the differences I've noticed every time I come back to the UK is how everything has to revolve around the child. I'm talking young children here. I go to my mum's house and if the grandkids are round, the TV will be entirely kids programmes until they leave, even when they're not watching them and haven't asked for them to be on. When we're going for a family meal, it has to be somewhere with soft play because God-forbid the kid goes for a couple of hours without having something specifically tailored to their needs. When I was a kid, we might have occasionally gone to a place with a playground nearby, but 90% of the time, we were expected to amuse ourselves in a normal restaurant or pub. In Asia, it's still like that. Honestly, I feel like it's not even to benefit the kids, but more to give the parents some down time from them. Then again, everyone with kids these days is also working a full time job, so maybe they need it.