SIR: May I have one last opportunity to explain to Brian Derbyshire my concern about children today?

I have never said that children do not need discipline, but I believe that using physical violence to correct misbehaviour is teaching a child that violence is acceptable and will result in the child becoming a violent adult. Most of all, children must be taught self discipline. They are away from the contact of well-meaning adults for longer periods than in the past. Indeed, I believe that the 1990s will be looked back on as the decade when children were most neglected by the community as a whole. Children learn self-discipline from many sources including in play with other children. Facilities for safe areas to play are a must.

About 20 years ago, I wrote to the BEN decrying the laid-back attitude by the council to truancy. It is the only letter to you that resulted in telephone calls of abuse from councillors and teachers who believed there was no problem. Now the problem is recognised by many. Two-thirds of criminal offenders used to be truants. A third of car thefts and break-ins are by truants - most in school time. I only know two prisoners but I am confident that neither of them would be in prison if they had been made to go to school.

We owe it to both the children and ourselves to insist they obey the law on school attendance.

We must move with the times. The way we treat children must change as lifestyles and the increasing pace and demand on parents' time is changing so quickly.

George K Brown

Barncroft Road, Farnworth

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