There is a general belief that the behavior of school students is deteriorating, but the reasons given for this and the solutions suggested vary considerably. I shall look briefly at two aspects in this essay.

I think that one of the key reasons is a lack of discipline, both at school and at home. There seems to be more time and energy devoted to explaining poor behavior than to dealing with it. As a result, the poor behavior of students is tolerated and not corrected. Using discipline does not mean using physical punishment, though this might prove necessary in certain cases. Punishments should be given as immediately as possible and not “reduced” because of “special" circumstances. Parents and teachers are far too quick to blame social ills for poor behavior rather than the student. This can lead to situations where the poor behavior becomes secondary to other considerations.

I think that another reason for poor student behavior is a lack of attention. It seems that the modern world encourages poor attention spans. The lack of attention (and even thought) required outside the classroom can conflict with the requirements of a class, where students might have to sit through two hours of information. I think that society in general needs to consider the effects of short attention spans, but teachers could also consider new ways of presenting lessons - perhaps using multimedia and increasing student participation.

To summarize, I believe that there are other possible reasons for the deterioration of student behavior, but that these are the main two, in my opinion at least. I also believe that reversing the trend is possible without major cost.

(275 words)