[Vivienne]

What would you like to see re-introduced in our schools/colleges today? Or started up as a completely new subject?

I would like Latin brought back into our schools.

[Bonanzoid]

Corporal punishment.

[Yudster]

Driving.

[MK Chris]

I'm really very pleased we didn't have to learn Latin.

I think the completely inadequate "PSHE" lessons need to be revamped. I don't know in what way, but they were * useless when I was at school.

[Yudster]

I think there's a case for making Latin and Greek (which is possibly even more linguistically significant than Latin) more easily accessible options for people with an interest or requirement for them (whoever they might be!), but I can't see any benefit to making them part of the curriculum across the board.

[Ezza]

Corporal punishment.

i keep telling my teachers that the only way to deal with the annoying chavs at my school is to rap their knuckles with a ruler. They don't appear to listen to my great suggestion.

[catherine]

Well my college is having stupid cut backs. I enroled in Science and i said i'm enroling on a GCSE Maths course to, he said no point doing that we are running GCSEs English and Maths along side this course anyway. Now they are saying 'the higher people' won't let us do GCSEs and my Maths teacher is only doing Key skills level 1 which is useless for me because the grade equivalents to the grade i already have. Also they aren't paying for any Food and Hygiene certificates so i don't know how they are getting round that one in the cooking courses, i'll find out on Monday.

They should sort the stupid courses they are offering now before adding more. Rant over.

[Bruvva]

For those who haven't been to school since 1990, could you explain what PSHE is?

As for what should be introduced to schools, less emphasis on passing exams and league tables and more emphasis on the actual understanding of things.

[Ezza]

we didn't even get that in our PSHE lessons. we got what is a homeless person, why would they be homeless, and the occasional person coming in to tell us to have safe sex.

[Bonanzoid]

Corporal punishment.

i keep telling my teachers that the only way to deal with the annoying chavs at my school is to rap their knuckles with a ruler. They don't appear to listen to my great suggestion.

Rap their knuckles? Why not just make them bleed with a tawse?

[Andy B]

we didn't even get that in our PSHE lessons. we got what is a homeless person, why would they be homeless, and the occasional person coming in to tell us to have safe sex.

In my school the sex education consisted of one of our techers telling us "If you get her up the duff it's your own fault and you have to pay for it for the rest of your life and if you catch crabs then your an idiot for sleeping with the local bike"

Worked wonders for me!

Oh and bring back national service, that'd straighten them out! - No i'm being serious.

[Ezza]

Corporal punishment.

i keep telling my teachers that the only way to deal with the annoying chavs at my school is to rap their knuckles with a ruler. They don't appear to listen to my great suggestion.

Rap their knuckles? Why not just make them bleed with a tawse?

what is a tawse?

[foot-loose]

You are wise beyond your years young charlalalala.

[Yudster]

we didn't even get that in our PSHE lessons. we got what is a homeless person, why would they be homeless, and the occasional person coming in to tell us to have safe sex.

The most telling part of that post is "tell us to have safe sex". Which is exactly what they've been doing for 15 years. And, as there's actually no such thing as safe sex, it's no surprise that std's are at an all time high, HIV infection is increasing more rapidly than in any other western culture, abortion rates are the highest in Europe (and before you ask yes I am pro-life, but I am most certainly NOT anti-abortion) and more and more children are being brought up by incompetent parents because their mum's and dads are still kids themselves. Rather than "tell us to have safe sex" I do think somoene ought to be explaining that actually not having sex is also an option.

[kendra k]

i tried to write the sex column for my school newspaper with a chastity/abstinence bent, and they rejected it! they said it wasn't believable, but lots of kids aren't doing it or are only doing so because they think they have to due to societal pressures. what would i know.

kids these days.

[Andy B]

Yeah, it's the drink that made Van Gogh cut off his ear.

[Andy B]

Drunk Twister, not played that since I was a kid....You need to be quite flexible to win at that game. Mr Lalottie must be a very happy man!

[kendra k]

i remember one night when i drank a bunch of absinthe in college. i ended up setting fire to my pants and a couch, getting stranded from all of my mates, wandering around the streets of berkeley hallucinating, and somehow my neighbour found me in an all-night noodle house. he took me back to my room and got me drunker before i puked on his play station.

ahh, to be 19 again.

[Yudster]

i tried to write the sex column for my school newspaper with a chastity/abstinence bent, and they rejected it! they said it wasn't believable, but lots of kids aren't doing it or are only doing so because they think they have to due to societal pressures. what would i know.

kids these days.

I just think that part of the reason people are having so much sex so young and then having to live with consequences they didn't want is because there is no real rational (ie non-religion/morality/legalistic) argument being made for not doing it. Of course people will still have casual sex, but many who do genuinely don't understand that its actually ok not to, and sometimes (I want to say mostly, but I don't know that it's true), better not to. And with them continuing to pop out zillions of unwanted, unloved and subsequently neglected babies all over the place, you have to fear for the potential demographic of the future generation.

[claradooblue]

That's just a tad presumptious. Lots of young mothers are able and loving as parents. Maturity comes to different people at different ages. I was in my early twenties when i had my daughter, but, with the benefit of hindsight; i was way too young for such a responsiblity and subsequently, made many avoidable mistakes.
As for this perceived "breaking - down of society's morals", it's one of the longest break downs in history. Maybe we should all go "back to basics" and embrace the traditional nuclear family. Oh, i think thats been said before.

[MK Chris]

My mum had me when she was 20, but by that time she had been married a couple of years. That was 24 years ago, too.

[Yudster]

A certain level of presumption is inevitable when speaking in general terms. Also, I specified that what I was saying was not linked to any perceived "moral" issues or standards, merely practical ones (you put that part in quotes, but I'm not sure who you were quoting - it wasn't me anyway).

I'm well aware that there are young parents doing an excellent job, but realistically they are the minority (of the group I know about and am thinking of), and even they might possibly (probably) wish that they had waited, given hindsight.

However, my thoughts were less about teenage pregnancy and the perceived collapse of what passes for family life these days (which is debatable at least), they were to do with bringing into the mainstream the idea (particularly for very young people) that being in a relationship with someone does not necessarily mean that you have to have sex with them. As long as the knee-jerk response to this issue is "but of course they will, everyone does", then that will be the reality.

[Yudster]

I just feel that really sex has become such an important part of our culture that you feel inadequate if you're not experiencing it. I mean it's everywhere. In books, tv, films even adverts. It's hard to get away from. That said it's jolly fun.

I agree with every part of that charlalalalalalala.

[claradooblue]

I think teenagers today are actually more mature regarding their outlook on sex then they have been in the past. This might be down to better education, or it could be a fashion thing. Whe i was fifteen it was considered almost a rite of passage to take so many drugs, and drink so much alchohol that you became unaware of what you were doing and then get practically raped in a smelly car somewhere. Every weekend. There's a lot less seediness about now, i think and a lot less braincell-destroying activity.

[Boboff]

How interesting, personally I think this is a debate that is timeless, with each generation decrying the last, and next and so on. My parents were teens when they married and had us, they lived in a council house, and were the Chavs of the Day, but they grow up, and change, and then look back at the youngsters of the day safe in the insular knowledge of their own superiority over those of todays generation. Well frankly that is Tosh.

Go back to the Edwardian, Georgian and even closetely(sp) the Victorian era, and you will find sex, STD's, pregnancies, abortions, Bastard Children and the like, all without modern education and health care, also Social security. Basically men and ladies like to play poke the pore and have done for years.

Celibate and monogamous relationships are really very unnatural.

You only have to watch High School Musical to see a Sea change in attitudes to relationships and sex, compare it to Greece. I like todays young generations attitude towards relationships and sex in general, there is a choice, and they make it, they understand themselves, and are generally happy with themselves, this is in stark contrast to the majority of the people that went through their teens in the 80's as I did.

So Yuds, we must guard against sitting in our Avery Towers ( buying stationery) and support as we do through our own support to the "younguns" that the more caring and mature approach to life that they possess, must be cherished, and with that as a basis for their own parenting, our society in time will change and improve.