Letter: Put parenting on the curriculum

Simon Woodrow
Sunday 14 March 1993 00:02 GMT
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I AM a serving police sergeant who has been on patrol and working shifts for 19 years.

Most families who involve the police with their domestic trouble and offending offspring appear to have one common factor: an inability to conquer their own problems. Generally these are of finance, childcare, rights and entitlements, and interaction with others.

Should the national curriculum include a large input on family finance, home management and child psychology? Enabling people to have confidence and ability to manage their lives would have a tremendous 'knock on' effect on domestic and crime problems.

Most problem children come from homes where the parents are quick to abdicate responsibility and blame police, schools and the social services for lack of care and discipline. Police officers, teachers, and social workers can only build on or reinforce good values and attitudes instilled by parents. We are not able to change people's basic character.

We must stop the fashionable apportioning of blame. As parents we can be wholly responsible for our children and not make excuses for our failures. As public servants let us educate our children to become responsible for their own lives and their children's in adulthood.

Simon Woodrow

Milton Keynes, Bucks

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