SPOILED PARENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 75, Issue 6406, 8 August 1947, Page 6

SPOILED PARENTS

“SHOULD BE RETURNED TO SCHOOL” NEGLECT OF RESPONSIBILITIES “Child delinquency emanates 'rom adult delinquency, from irresponsible parents,” said the vicar of Holy Trinity, Stratford, the Rev. H- W. Heaslip, at the fifth annual service for teachers of the Stratford Technical High School and primary schools in the Stratford district. “I believe,” he said, “that the time has come when we ought to build schools for spoiled parents.” Some parents, he considered, would look at their responsibilities should they be committed to such schools for a period of instruction. They would at least feel their responsibilities when their children got into trouble.

“If there is child delinquency, and there is a great deal, the teachers cannot be blamed because they receive little if any assistance from many parents,” continued Mr Heaslip. “Nearly all child delinquency is attributable to home conditions.”

In speaking of religion in education Mr Heaslip expressed the view that it was difficult to understand why so much eduction failed to recognise God in the moral sphere, and said that as a consequence, many children were growing up to-day without shame or restraint because they had no standard outside themselves to look up to. Dealing With Cause

“Teachers and others must endeavour to get at the cause of misbehaviour as well as give consideration to the external symptoms” said Mr Heaslip. “Every behaviour has a cause and punishment is often no more a remedy for an emotional ailment than for a physical one. To get at the cause of misbehaviour is more important than treatment of the external symptoms.” The subject was mentioned to a Hamilton man interested in child delinquencies and he remarked: “Something like that would certainly be a reminder to parents of their responsibilities.” He added that many parents allowed their children to “roam about the streets at all hours of the evening and night without any inquiry as to their whereabouts or doings.” It was little wonder that some youngsters got into trouble. In conversation with another man who also had had some experience of young people in trouble it was remarked that all too often the plea was made that the lad “came from a respectable family” but it was open to question whether that was a valid excuse for the negligence of the parents.