Are British standards of behaviour getting worse?

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers is the latest organisation to reflect a decline in standards of both childrens behaviour with a quarter of teachers reporting that they had been attacked to some degree by a pupil and, even worse, nearly 40% reported that they had been attacked by a parent.

There were reports of six year olds 'losing it', becoming so violent that they trashed a computer and cases of six year olds attacking teachers with scissors. Many teachers said they had lost confidence as a result and, in some cases, were seeking to retrain in other professions.

I know there have been violent children down the ages, but surely not on this scale. What is happening and why? Are we simply seeing the products of a parental generation which had no respect for authority either? I used to be a governor of an inner city Birmingham school which was one of the first to install a metal grille in front of the entry door to keep out violent parents. Dreadful situation.

Are we generally declining in terms of behavioural standards in this country? You look around at almost every part of the social fabric and its hard to argue. TV entertainers don't understand boundaries. Look at Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand and the despicable performance over Andrew Sachs's grand-daughter. Drive on Birmingham's roads and watch the idiotic performance of young drivers who think it's clever to weave in and out of lanes almost shaving your wing off, then respond with a finger or worse if you hoot in protest. I've seen two young men get out of a car and kick a guy's headlights in because he hooted a protest at their illegal overtaking. Kids carrying knives and this week two young boys, 9 and 10, seriously injured with knives carried by others of a similar age. And these are just a few examples of situations I don't believe would have happened 15 or 20 years ago.



These things are always tricky. I suppose the first question is...is my assumption true? Are we simply getting an impression from the media that society has become less tolerant and more violent? I would suspect there is enough evidence to prove things are worsening.

Maybe faith has a part to play in this. I'm not religious but I can readily understand that in times gone by religion provided a creed to live by which seems to have been eroded as we become more and more godless a society. So what can we do? It's certainly not an issue that can be dealt with through legislation, but maybe there are initiatives that could be launched in communities to try and get people to calm down. As a society we seem to be living on a dangerous edge and if the present situation continues, will the country be worth living in in ten or fifteen years time?