Not at all surprising. There have always been a limited number of ladies and gentlemen. There have always been lots of louts and sluts. Even at a young age, it is easy to see which is which, and what type of teacher they have.
Don't expect one to pretend they are the other. The downward pull of peer pressure is as powerful as the upward pull of peer pressure, but upwards is done less often than downward. Just stay among ladies and gentlemen.

lee, sterling, us

We live in a so-called child focussed society, in which the wishes of children are paramount. I've seen parents walk straight to the front of the queue for public toilets, stating that young children can't be expected to wait. I take the bus to work every day and it's usual now to see children seated when the elderly or disabled are forced to stand. Their parents are always very robust about refusing to let their children give up their seats. I think government social policies in the last 10 - 15 years have encouraged parents to think of their private family unit as special & more important than wider society. We do everything to ensure that families enjoy a luxury lifestyle - flexible working, tax breaks, child allowances etc - so parents think that as long as they have a big house, loads of stuff, foreign holidays etc, that's all that matters. The days when parents did anything for people outside their immediate family circle are long gone. They are takers, not givers.

Carol, Derby,

Oh please. This anecdote clearly has absolutely nothing to do with health and safety. A teacher recognised that his charges would be less likely to hurt themselves if sitting and sensibly got them onto seats. However, he was too busy or distracted or stupid to realise how this was affecting other passengers. When he was challenged, he fell back on that old standby for the caught-out public servant: blame it on health and safety. Yet neither the HSE nor any health and safety professional would dream of endorsing that teacher's actions.

There is a certain type of conspiracy theorist who believes that everything bad is down to either political correctness or health and safety rules. It is easy for them to prove their argument because they label every individual act of stupidity or thoughtlessness either political correctness or health and safety . But such acts are rarely either of these things. There is no conspiracy. They’re just individual acts of stupidity or thoughtlessness.

John, London,

Old people are usually able to reach the overhead handrails. Small children are not. Of course, an infirm person of any age should be offered a seat, but I do not think courtesy requires a fit person to take the seat of a child who cannot find somewhere to hold on. Even when a child is able to reach a floor mounted handrail, he or she may well be less able to ride a bumpy, jerky tube than an older person. As someone who has reached an age where I am offered a seat sometimes, I would much rather give mine to a small child than vice versa.

In other words, it is a question of fitness not of age.

Andrew, London, UK

"Health & Safety" is a meaningless mantra used as an excuse for anything.

David, Bromley,

We are surrounded by neo-coms now, who have beset us round with the ideology of the communist party (eg. 'free' health service (the worst in europe), 'free' education (one of the worst in the world), 'affordable' housing (sink estates), state permission for change-of-use of property (the most expensive housing in the world). As for Health and Safety: look who the commissioners are. We are now all expected to conduct our behavour in accordance with totally unintelligible state rules, (such as Data Protection and H+S) rather than common sense and good manners.

Philippa Pirie, London, England

It is a pity that you could not 'Name and Shame' the obscenity that was this so-called teacher and the school involved.

BP Vallance, LEFKIMMI, Greece

Nowadays if someone offers their seat to an elderly person on the London Underground you can be pretty sure they a Polish.

James, London,

I often dream of being "king for a day." My wife asks what would I do and after much thought I have come up with my action plan. It is very short. In fact just one law then I would play golf,eat drink and laze about.

I would re-institute the concept of personal responsibility. When somebody trips they would have to explain why they did not see the hazard. If something falls on a person's head they would have to explain why they walked under the hanging object. If they cut themselves they would have to explain why they didn't think that a sharp object could be dangerous.

Only if the person could prove that they had not been "stupid" would I hold anybody else responsible. I would put a very low level on my judgement of stupidity. This would then save institutions a fortune in insurances and the need to gold plate everything and would allow the human race an opportunity to re-engage in the concept of risk.

Anybody fancy a private member's bill?

Colin MacMillan

Colin MacMillan, Redditch, Worcs

When I rushed to get a seat on the underground and my competition, a young woman, stopped and allowed me to have it, I knew it was time to retire.

Claxton, Portishead,

The Health and Safety argument makes no sense at all: if the elderly lady had suffered a fall because a teacher prevented her from sitting down should would be perfectly entitled to sue and much more likely to get a sympathetic hearing than a standing child who grazed a knee.
You teachers are not merely responsible for the safety of your charges! You are responsible for everyone you and they meet.

Rosemary Roberts, Germany,

Yes, Rob D, Health and Safety - but as invoked by teachers terrified of facing legal or disciplinary action if one of their charges so much as grazes a knee or elbow.

Bill, Suzhou, China

An excellent write up,which vividly picturises and portrays the harsh and brutal realities of our changing times...where old, infirm , elders and aged are discarded and at times ostracised , being left alone to fend themselves. This is our Generation Next", with no pejoratives or personal maligning to any one. Gone are the days when social ettiquets and moral values were taught and imbibed among our children, by their parents, teachers and elders. We are living in the age of globalisation and consumerism, which teaches us the importance of selfishness, invidualism and "Me first" approach. But whom should we blame for all this social denigration. Perhaps ourselves as parents, our teachers, mentors, society and even the peer groups, which brings out cult followings. Youngsters love to lead their own life styles, with style icons like Orkut, facebook becoming their commune centres.This creates a sense of social detachment and disrespect for elders.It's an eye opener for all conscious ones

sandy, New Delhi, India

Such selfish and rude children are not the only ones to blame. If their parents don't teach them simple good manners (i.e. to give up a seat to someone of their grandparents' age) then from where are they going to acquire them?
Certainly not from poor quyality teachers like these, whose own grasp of good manners is clearly unacceptably ignorant. They didn't see anything wropng, or apologise.
This tale indicates the continuing decline in the quality of those employed as school teachers, these days.
Had I been there, I would have shouted my objections to these loutish teachers, in the hopes of shaming them to get these children to show some concern for all the elderly adults left standing.

Peter, York, Britain

You really think that it is health and safety or because kids these days are not taught anything different? What’s worse, a kid that is likely to bounce back up or an elderly person breaking a hip if they fell over? Health and safety or just molly coddled rude children with no manners?

Rob D, London,