Plan B Forum

British children are being raised without morals and could learn something from young workers in the Third World, according to Joanna Lumley.

The actress and campaigner said that today's youth "find it laughably amusing to shoplift and steal" and took little responsibility for their actions. In Africa, by contrast, children as young as seven are sent out to work and have responsibility for their family's livelihood.

Lumley, 64, said society had changed for the worse since she was a child.

"There was one 'crime' during the whole time I was at school, when a fountain pen went missing. Stealing just didn't happen. I was taught not to shoplift, not to steal, not to behave badly. We weren't even allowed to drop litter," she said.

"We are very slack with our moral codes for children these days. Nowadays, children find it laughably amusing to shoplift and steal. We smile when they download information from the internet and lazily present it as their own work. We allow them to bunk off school and bring in sick notes.

"I have had the good fortune to travel widely, doing programs all over the world, and I have seen quite small children take on huge responsibilities.

"So in Ethiopia, for example, you might find a seven-year-old expected to take 15 goats out into the fields for the whole day with only a chapati to eat and his whistle. Why are we so afraid to give our children responsibilities like this?"

The Absolutely Fabulous actress has a son, Jamie, born in 1967, and two grandchildren. Speaking to Radio Times, she also lamented the decline in educational standards over recent decades.

"We have taken our foot off the education pedal, and I don't think it makes anyone happy," said Lumley.

"We don't respect education. Not at all. Not like in Africa or China, where it is hugely respected."

Last week, the UK's chief executive of the qualifications regulator Ofqual suggested that school exams should be taken on computers because young people no longer used pen and ink for their studies.

Lumley, however, said laptops should be banned in schools.

"Until you can prove you can add up on your fingers or think independently in your head, you have learnt nothing. I think we're leading our children into a false paradise.

"We're not teaching them how to apply themselves and be present, how to accomplish a job and finish it, how to learn other languages and actually achieve a trade.

"What are we doing with our education policies? Running from one side to the other, with no notion of where we are going."

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In Africa, by contrast, children as young as seven are sent out to work and have responsibility for their family's livelihood.

dgs49 wrote:I don't know who Joanna Lumley is, but she definitely has a point.

It's not entirely unrelated to the attitude - expressed quite emphatically here on this BBS - that, "Oh, I won't teach any religion to my kids, I'll just let them decide for themselves when their old enough."

Right.