There is such a thing as truancy. Pass laws with strict truancy provisions
and keep the leg-biters in school where they belong. Walk into a mall
anywhere in the Metro Manila area on a school day. All you see are
uniforms
in the internet cafes and gaming areas. Rug rats (and I mean that oh so
lovingly) belong in school.
<boracaybill@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1136935888.041499.246370@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> It is reasonable for Government to require some things. For example,
> it is reasonable for Government to require adults to refrain from
> having ***ual relations with or otherwize abusing children (define
> "children" status by an arbitrary age range) -- penalize violating
> adults.
>
> The idea here is that those defined as "children" are presumed to be
> too immature to make a decision about ***ual relations, and coercion by
> an adult into a ***ual relation****p amounts to rape. Also, ***ual
> abuse is not the only sort of abuse which generally fits here. The
> one-size-fits-all age range does not perfectly fit every "child", but
> it fits a high percentage well enough to be serviceable.
>
> Along similar lines, it is reasonable for Government to require
> businesses, especially businesses offering service products aimed at
> child-minded persons (gaming arcades, etc.) not to do business with
> school-age children within school hours (define "school-age children"
> by an age-cap consistent with elementary school or possibly higher,
> depending on where you expect adolescents to develop some degree of
> responsible thinking) (hmmmm.... what age might this be in the RP?) --
> penalize violating businesses; return violating children to either home
> or school; possibly penalize parents of violating children; allow
> schools to internally penalize violating children (after-school
> detention, required schoolground cleanup activities, etc.)
>
> The idea here is similar to the thinking behind the
> anti-rape/anti-abuse thinking. Many/most "children" are too immature to
> reliably make decisions balancing recreational activities which offer
> immidiate emotional payback vs. schooltime activities which offer
> near-term drudgery which may lead to some long-term payback.
> Businesses which exploit this are taking advantage of this immaturitity
> to the detriment of the children involved. Parents are considered by
> society to have some responsibility for development of their
> still-immature children, so it makes sense to (a) inform the parents
> of the child's irresponsible action and (b) penalize the parents in
> some measure. Schools, by the concept of "in loco parentus" (sp?),
> have a measure of delegated parental authority over and responsibility
> for their students, and they need some disciplinary tools.
>
> Having said that, I will add that I think that it is wrong-headed
> except in exceptional cases for Government (other than school
> administrators) to usurp parental authority and to directly discipline
> erring children. I would expect to see this sort of thing here and
> there in the US, and would expect to see it in greater measure in the
> Philippines.
>
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