Colbert I. King is a well-known collumist of the Washington Post. Here is our answer to his opinion article from last weekend:
When I was reading your Ed today I got some possible solutions to your questions.
Youth crime is a well known problem in Eastern Europe mostly in the unemployed, low income communities. The solutions of the Hungarian government for example are the followings: until the age 16 everyone has to attend school. If the children don’t attend the classes then the parents also face the consequences. Their subsidies can be cut. Also in school where more behavioral problems happen, the leader of the school can ask for school guardians. As I learned in a pedagogy course years ago, the problem in the school is not with the children, it is with the parents.
Another solution is to offer dormitories for those students who attend secondary school studies away from their home village. People behave in a different way in a new environment.
The solution for the unemployed parents is the public work programme. These people have to wake up every day and go to the workplace even if they don’t do so much, they feel important. They earn some money and get used to work. After that they look for better jobs. Also offering them courses can help them to get better jobs.
The community and community leaders like pastors from churches can also help the young people and parents to deal with their problems in a different way and forget about robbing, beating or killing others.
The youth prisons and the law enforcement are late answers. Problems like this should be stopped in the nursery school.
As we say, the way Steve got used to doing things, the same way Steven acts.
Sándor N.Nagy
