Removal of youth crime starts and finishes at home and school

Many years ago I gave up my 10-year smoking habit and I did it through repeating a positive reinforcement mantra every night and morning.

One of my bosses told me to say "Smoking is poison to my body. I will not poison my body. I do not smoke. I will say this three times every night and three times every morning for the next 30 days."

Well would you know it, by day 15, I had stopped smoking. I admit I was further motivated by the a nicotine patch placed too close to my armpit, while I wore a three piece suite, which caused me to sweat profusely, while in a taxi and my tactic of gradually going from a carton of 16 milligrams to a carton of one milligram cigarettes (this included consumption of all other milligram variations in between).

This is an example of how it is possible to eradicate a bad habit forever.

Youth crime is, to put it mildly a bad habit and yes, it must be stamped out.

How can the education system get rid of youth crime? I actually believe that just as I brainwashed myself to stop smoking, if you get people of any age to repeat a good behaviour mantra every morning at the start of classes and every afternoon at the end of school, you are headed in the right direction. The parents can carry out the same tactics in the home, should they be that way inclined.

The school system needs a compulsory decency module, which is carried out in schools from Grade three, through to grade 12. This sort of thing is obvious.

I believe, however, that corporations have commandeered our education system, if you will excuse the military expression. Education is very good at creating a corporate work personality these days. You will be less likely to see idealists roaming around corporations today, even though they were running riot in the 70s. There are reasons for this. If the company shareholders hold an AGM every year, then you cannot have idealists working off five year plans to make the company better. The shareholders need to see this happen in one year. This corporate approach has often been used in medium to large companies.

I have not liked it that for some years schools have run these standardized testing systems. They are, for my mind, designed to weed out idealists, just like me.

My point is that idealists can see a problem and stop it, while realists acknowledge the problem and allow it to continue, but manage it with compliance.

School education is run this way. The realists allow the bad behaviour to continue, but seek to manage the behaviour, so the school can continue to function. Idealists would stop the problem from happening by putting all the right programs in place.

If you really want to stop youth crime, that's where you start.

Australia needs to remove violence from all forms of media, or it needs to make it impossible for people under 18 to consume this material.

It should be possible to sell computer equipment, which has access to material which the Education Department approves, without direct access to the internet.

These are my suggestions to get rid of youth crime ―  Joseph Walz