This letter is in response to Maurice Wilks' 'Holness hits wrong spot' of November 6. No one person, not even the minister of education, can solve the problem of indiscipline in schools and it is highly unfair to expect that of him.

We can only talk about the 'good old days' because they are gone. We cannot bring back the whip and the cane and expect the same results we used to have. Though I disagree that the results were always good, using corporal punishment today would not have the same effect, as the environment has changed so drastically.

Graphic displays of violence

The youngest children today are exposed to so much graphic displays of violence on television, the Internet and games, as well as graphic sexual entertainment, that they can not be the same as children from the 1970s and before. Attempts to constrain these children with the use of violence perhaps will only bring further rebellion.

I do agree with Mr Wilks, however, that there must be intelligent measures put in to replace the use of corporal punishment. Parents today cannot monitor every minute of a child's day, nor do we have the right to tear down billboards, burn magazines, shut down sleazy businesses, and we can only censor the airwaves that we control. However, a discipline plan has to be implemented.

'Void' of control

How do weapons get into the hands of the students? There is a 'void' of control right there. How do young people even reach the point where they are engaging in sex on a school bus or on the playground? First, it starts in the mind of these young people that what they're doing is okay. They don't see anything wrong with it. They have a void in their religious upbringing. How does a young person even come to believe he has a right to arm himself to injure another person? It is from a serious void of moral education from the earliest years.

Until we lock up the bad environment - drugs, vulgarity, nudity and lewdness - there is no point in locking up parents, except for gross abuse, absolutely no point.

I am, etc.

A. M. TONSINGH-ANSARI

stop1998@aol.com