Drink and drug abuse widespread among pupils

[Callisto]

Tim Loughton, Conservative Party spokesman on children, said: "These findings are more evidence of our broken society."

I find reports like this very worrying. especially how young some of these children are. On top of various other reports recently (most unhappy children in Europe, most unhealthy children in Europe, breakdown of the family etc etc) plus the seemingly high levels of violence among children, do you agree that our society is 'broken'?

And if so how would you fix it?

It often seems to me that, as a society, we don't offer children anything more than a materialistic/celebrity-driven future. We make it seem as though all that matters is making money to buy more stuff or getting on television.

That's one reason why, despite some real doubts, I continue to take my daughter to church, just to show her that there's more to life. Others may have different ways of showing this.

It annoys me when I hear ministers and some teachers saying that school is about preparing children for the world of work. While I don't doubt this is important, education is also about giving people the tools they need to lead fulfilling lives: interesting them in music or art or books or woodwork, for example.

The happiest people seem to be those with passionate interests and hobbies. I think if you bring up a child to have a passion for somethinganythingyou're giving them the best armour against unhappiness.

Our celeb obsessed culture revolts me and the materialism of people is unreal. Good for you on going to church with your daughter - the wider the horizons that you can give a child the better imo. School just seems to narrow focus on results and tests and is not healthy. What ever happened to schools striving to produce well-rounded individuals who could communicate effectively?

Thanks, Callisto! Sometimes I feel like a bit of a nut, dragging her out on cold Sunday mornings when we could be hanging around at home.

Eliza2 I totally agree with you, can't manage church as i hated going as a child but I understand why it is important to you.
Callisto do you think this is why so many families want to live abroad and maybe idealise it.

I sometimes hang around on the British Expats discussion boards and I would say that very many people are emigrating to countries (in particular NZ, Oz and Canada) that are perceived to be more 'wholesome' to give their children a better childhood. Of course, no where is perfect, but the UK seems to be particularly unpleasant at the moment. I also think that people are looking at the long term and see that massive over-population coupled with lack of self-sufficiency in power and food production does not make this country a very good prospect.

The media celebrate the negative, Brtian is the worst at everything! Lets shout it from the roof tops.

When was the last time you saw a newspaper healine

Britain is the best at this and that, we are the best at a lot of things but the media does want to keep this a secret.

Broken Britain - break the negative media mould and we may find that Great goes back into Britain.

We are a very friendly nation, We cook the best Yorkshire puddings in the whole world, as a nation we care so much about our children and young people. We have a real interest in justice and moral right from wrong. We developed DNA, we have some of the most talented scientists, we have wonderful charity workers and per person in britain do you know we raise more money for charity than any other European nation......

Think on our country is wonderful and never forget that

I agree with you about all those things, ivykaty, and could add to the list. But the over-population and food and WATER thing does worry me.

Actually I think that British things are celebrated, certainly by the Torygraph (recently the opening of St Pancras etc had a whole supplement dedicated to it), although I do agree that papers exist to sell papers and doom and gloom sells better than happy flowery things. However, several reports by highly respected organisations have highlighted that British children are the unhappiest in the Western world. I'm not sure I agree about how friendly we are as a nation and I disagree that we are child orientated.

I completely agree. I blame the disintegration of the family. Children are raised by people who aren't their family. Familys don't make time to eat together any more. There is no proper guidence. Schools should be able to provide some of this but its mostly down to parents to be honest. Parents need to take more responsibilty for their own children.