Bring back discipline
Fred Battles nailed the underlying cause of our youth crime problem in his letter, "Good parenting prevents crime," Oct. 26. Corporal punishments fell into disrepute in 1975 because of The Mondale Act, Senate Bill #1191, PL 93-247. With little meaningful discipline, more and more children are turning to the terrible antisocial lifestyle of drugs, crime and irresponsible sex.
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Prior to 1975, gangs, drugs and crime had not yet become a problem in the cities. There were no school, parent or drive-by shootings, then, and minor children simply did not kill people!
Spankings don't cause violence. Spankings prevent violence! All you have to do is look at history for proof. For thousands of years adults used corporal punishments with children. Never before in history have juveniles been as out of control as they have been since 1975.
When most adults routinely used corporal punishments with children, a very small percentage always turned to crime. At the other end of the spectrum, a few youngsters always excelled, as they do, today. However, there was a large middle group that might have gone either way. When we used corporal punishments, most of them chose a reasonably honest lifestyle.
Now, many of that same middle group are choosing the antisocial lifestyle, simply because they can. They are also committing crimes that only adults used to commit. Today's kids never experienced strict consequences for unacceptable behavior when they were little, so they do not fear doing something wrong. Nobody ever taught them to respect adults or the law. In fact, they rarely receive any meaningful consequences until the police arrest them for committing a crime.
Permissive parenting is a societal experiment that failed. We must bring back the disciplines to raise well-behaved, respectful children!
Elaine Lehman
Washington Township
You are so right! Lots of kids these days are rude, disrespectful and irresponsible. I got spanked as a kid and I turned out just fine. I work in a department store and many kids have been caught shoplifting through the years. Some of them think its a joke to get busted. One day as I walked past the security office, I noticed there were 2 girls who were caught, and of course they laughed carried on the whole time they were in there. So I walked back and said, "you think it's funny?" Fortunately there was a police officer in the store for another matter. I told him about the girls and he went over to give them a little scare. They were not laughing after that.