Maid carrying his backpack: NSman under fire, Part 2

Some people dismiss the incident as a storm in a teacup, while others are sufficiently peeved to write to the Straits Times Forum.

For instance, today’s Forum highlighted a letter from an army instructor (“NS does not make men, parents do”).

The writer bemoans the “mollycoddling attitude” of parents when they come to fetch their sons with the maid “who packs the recruit’s belongings into the boot of the car”.

Parents treat training facilities “like secondary schools”, and hound instructors “over trivial issues” with some even threatening to complain to their MPs.

A parallel can be seen in our schools where parents display the same bossy and interfering attitude. 

The root of the problem in part lies in the poor school discipline prevailing in our schools. A soft approach to discipline in our schools is breeding generations of spoilt and ill-disciplined students seconded by their parents.

Speaking to a primary school teacher the other day, I learned that poor discipline starts as young as from the lower primary stage!

As long as we don’t address the root of the problem, the issue of mollycoddled national servicemen will not be resolved.