Jacques Baartman, Rocklands
I come from a generation where I was taught to respect my parents and others and brought up in a community where your child is my child and vice versa.
I live opposite a primary school and what I see is extremely worrying about the next generation of workforce and leaders.
On any given day you will find children from Grade 1 to 7 spitting out such foul language and I ask myself what parents are teaching their kids and this is exactly what they are – kids.
If you try to reprimand them they will retaliate with jou “ma se * **s” as if it is normal.
Some of them will threaten you and even dare go fetch their parents who will in some instances defend their children.
You are lucky if you don’t get verbally abused or assaulted for what is considered doing the right
thing.
Threats of violence against teachers is also an everyday happening. The senseless killing of a teacher in KwaZulu-Natal who was shot by a pupil in cold blood has taken this problem to another level that demands swift and decisive action.
The only sin our teachers have committed is trying to give our children an education in an unbearable situation. How sad that our teachers feel threatened by their pupils and also not safe in their classrooms.
How pathetic that parents can allow their children to accept drug lords and gang leaders as role models and continue the vicious cycle of poverty.
That we are held hostage in our homes and communities
is not a government
and police problem, but a parental problem
as discipline starts at home and parents
need to take responsibility.
In failing to do so you must accept that you have blood on your hands as a willing participant or accomplice in crime or murder.
