john,

in the short term it would be expensive, of course, but how expensive is it compared to increased policing, legal and prison costs when all these 'ferral kids' start hitting the real legal system and then them having kids brought up badly too?

i forgot to add that a real sex education and parenting class should be added to the national curriculum in schools so hopefully the free classes would only be applicable to the current generation of parents - also if kids are taught how they should be treated by parents then hopefully they can become part of the solution too.

there seems to be a real lack of knowledge when it comes to how to deal with a child that misbehaves (and even one that is well behaved). i'm lucky my mother is a trained nursery nurse so i have someone to turn to when i experience problems and need advice but most aren;t so fortunate.

my daughter just turned 8 and is already starting to ask difficult questions - for example 'what does gay mean?' - she heard this in the playground - someone had used it as an insult to someone else. so it's already starting. i just ducked the issue and told her that she was too young for it to be explained properly and for her to ask again when she was 11. she's pretty sensible and accepted this but to be honest i partially feel that if she's old enough to ask she's old enough to know the answer.... but at 8?

to tie this in with my 'solution' in the other thread. being a parent is probably the hardest and most important job any of us do, it's not regulated and we recieve no training for it other than what we learn from OUR parents. regulation is anathema to any govornment (as most people react negatively to it instinctively). therfore it seems to me that education is the obvious answer. also it should be ongoing (with retests every 5 years which match the childs age) and tied into the benefits system as there are a lot of lazy parents who wouldn;t attend or attempt to pass otherwise.

cheers

julian