Although it is none of my business, it has piqued my curiosity! I know it is not a holiday because both my children have gone to school. Have they complained to their working parents that they are not feeling well, then when the house has emptied, got up and gone out to look for some fun? That’s what I used to do.

I was younger at the time, 10 or 11, but there was a period when I was a child in South Africa, and I would regularly complain to my mother of stomach pains in the morning then once she had gone to work, laze around the garden all day. My school was only two blocks away so my friends would come and hang out with me at lunchtime. I took care not to leave the property before school hours were done.

So I’m not much of an example. I am lucky that my two are both in their own different ways motivated to get something from their time at school, even though they don’t like it very much. So once in a while I will give them the day off, knowing full well that they are not really that unwell. I like to think that they are proactive enough when they are at school to justify this. Certainly my daughters GCSE results last year bear that out.

It is one of the benefits of being self-employed, that as long as the job gets done well and in time, it doesn’t matter how or when. If we can instil in our children a healthy desire to ‘get the job done’, and trust them to manage their time accordingly, I believe they will reward our faith in them.

But as I mentioned before, I am one of the lucky parents. I cannot imagine what I would do if a child of mine consistently missed school. I want to say I would talk to them and explain the importance of education and the work ethic. But it is in the nature of teenagers to have a dwindling interest in their parents opinions. It often seems as if they are hot-wired to directly oppose them.

What children, indeed all of us, need is inspiration. It is easy to point the finger at poor schools and lacklustre teaching, and this is a real problem. More difficult is for parents to accept fully the responsibility they have, almost from birth, to stimulate and feed their children’s inherent curiosity.  In our present day world of working parents, this is not easy. TV, internet and digital games only require passive involvement, and are no substitute for time spent with your mum or dad.

Still it is never too late. With enough care and attention, the most seemingly disaffected can be sufficiently encouraged to take pride in themselves and their achievements. No single person wants to let themselves down.

Originating post: truants

This has to be the last word in senseless, prejudiced generalisation. The hoody is a very practical, affordable, modern garment. Large numbers of teenage boys wear them. Some of these boys find themselves going through an antisocial phase. Duh! Teenage boys have found it hard to stomach society ever since there’s been a society. Does this mean that anyone who wears a hoody should be treated as a dangerous criminal? Most of these ‘disaffected youth’ also wear trousers, have teeth, and sleep with their eyes closed. Are these characteristics we should view with more suspicion?

I have seen middle aged white people on a New York subway, cringe in fear when a group of black school children boarded the train. Was it because they were children, or because they go to school, or because they were black, do you think? This ‘hoody’ nonsense is the same brand of lunacy.

I’d like to see some of our public figures appear in hoodies, as an identifying gesture. Were Gordon Brown, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Prince Philip, and say, Anne Widdecombe to be photographed wearing hoodies and loitering beside a cash machine, wouldn’t this send out a consoling message to all the fraught and concerned citizens trembling in the suburbs?

Or perhaps enforced hoody-wearing could be used as some kind of punishment. I’d like to start at the top. For crimes against humanity, and gross misuse of power, lets begin with Tony Blair, George Bush Jr. and Simon Cowell. I envisage a UN Special Services squad kidnapping all three of them and throwing them out of the back of a van in downtown Lagos, wearing nothing but boxer shorts and a pink hoody.

Originating post: whats in a hoody?