Accusing today’s children of lacking moral fibre comes more from misguided nostalgia than reality.
In an interview with the Radio Times actress Joanna Lumley has launched a broadside on the children of today. "We are very slack with our moral codes for children these days. Nowadays, children find it laughably amusing to shoplift and steal. We smile when they download information from the internet and lazily present it as their own work. We allow them to bunk off school and bring in sick notes," she said.
Quite what this opinion is based on is beyond me. It feels like a nostalgic rant based on nothing but isolated experience and hearsay. I completely disagree with it as a sweeping statement, and as a parent would argue that the complete opposite is actually true.
One of my aims for rearing a well-rounded child is that their moral code is higher than mine, plus I think we now get much better support from the school system for things traditionally left solely for parents to deal with.
Educated decisions
Comic actress Joanna makes a comment in the interview that ‘she wasn’t even allowed to drop litter’ presumably assuming that today children are allowed to discard their waste wherever they stand. Not true. As a child my parents drummed into me that we simply didn’t litter, as straightforward as that, an approach that worked, I still pick up stray rubbish today without thinking about it. But my parents didn’t really explain why, and while pollution did get mentioned at school as we got older, today’s younger generation are blessed with song and verse as to why littering is a bad idea right from the get-go.
They make educated decisions for themselves far earlier today.
In fact, as an experiment drop litter in the presence of your children and see what they do. Mine would firstly, and rightly, chastise me and then either get me to pick it up or deal with it himself.
And as for stealing, well, my boy and his friends all know there's nothing absolutely fabulous about that.
Read more
In a piece on Parentdish yesterday, Laura Fraine presented a speedy and reasoned point of view in response to Ms Lumley's interview. The writer has been taken to task in the comments for daring to challenge such an icon. If you ever want to know what our kids are up against as they try and get their heads down and make their way in the world, just read some of the ripostes to Laura's piece.
Other posts you may like
Love Ian Newbold’s post? Read more 
5 Comments
Post a comment
You must be signed in to post to Ready for Ten.
Haven’t registered? It’s really quick and simple.
editor
03 March, 2011
Hi Ian, it never ceases to amaze me how someone however high profile they may be can seize on isolated incidents of something they find disagreeable and portray it as a problem of epidemic proportions. Of course some children have fewer morals than others, as do some adults, but most parents I know are just doing their best to teach their children right from wrong, just like they always have - but that boring reality isn't as worthy of headlines...ho hum.
03 March, 2011
I agree with you completely! and i had to give up reading the comments on the Laura Fraine piece as they made me so angry.
My children and most of their friends seem so far to have much better morals than i or the children i grew up with had.
In my experience parents today spend more time rather than less trying to morally educate themselves and their children, as they no longer just expect the school or society to deal with it.
Joanna Lumley is simply harping on with the same 'Dumbing Down' rhetoric we hear so much of these days... i just hope i don't fall in to the same self-rightous laziness myself in the future.
I think i'll get my children to read her remarks... it will be a good tool for teaching my children that tarring everyone with the same brush, as well as assuming things were automatically better in 'the good old days', is pretty suspect morally. ;)
dad
03 March, 2011
Well said. The whole "it was better in my day" attitude really annoys me. It's seldom true and often based on rose tinted nostalgia than any actual basis in reality.
Social problems have been present throughout the history of humanity, and sadly probably always will be.
dad
04 March, 2011
Linda, I wonder how much she actually does believe this, or indeed if it will spark interest in the latest thing they are doing.
Mamahog, right on the money. Much more effort is spent to today on explaining situations, right from wrong. Parents no longer just dictate behaviour.
Dan, very true. We've had this discussion before, it's just easier, and lazier to bring out the nostalgia rhetoric.
admin
04 March, 2011
I am disappointed by Joanna's comments. This huge sweeping statement is offensive to any parent today, particularly one of a young child.
With regards to banning laptops from schools, what a ridiculous statement to make! In pretty much any job you work in these days you at least need to be computer literate, if not carry out much of your work on a computer. Fast forward ten or so years from now and we imagine how much more of the workplace will be dominated by computers... Many families can't afford computers at home, so school is the only opportunity for children to learn these life skills, that will one day help to support them financially.
I too agree with Mamahog that many parents today (all of those that I know anyway) spend an awful lot of time explaining right from wrong to their children, and in my case this is an area I put a massive amount of effort into, as I believe it will shape the type of people my children will be when they grow up.
Leigh
Ready for Ten Team