THE best way one can successfully terminate a forest is by destroying the young trees in it. This is because, when the old trees die out, there will be no replacements. This is what is exactly happening when it comes to morals. Our society is slowly but increasingly being taken up by promiscuous behaviours,  disguised as modernity, and our youths are most affected .
These very youths unfortunately hold the hope of the future of our dear society. Paulo Freire, a celebrated Brazilian scholar, argues that education is a powerful tool for social transformation, but for it to cause transformation, it should tinker critical reasoning and thinking.
Education which only concentrates on preparing someone for career employment doesn’t transform them but only reforms them. In this case therefore, education should not be limited to schooling alone.
In fact, one of my professors used to emphasise that education is from womb to tomb. This means that a child’s education starts way back before they even enrol for school. At this early stage the people who lay the strongest foundation for the child are the parents.
Development psychologists have argued that at birth, we are tabula rasa. In other words, at birth we lack any preconceived ideas or goals in life. We are like a blank piece of paper but this ‘blank piece of paper’ (our mind) is filled during the first five years of our development. 
It is imperative for parents to guide their children at this stage of their growth so that they learn to live value-filled lives. Virtues are the early layers where a child’s up-righteousness is rested. Parents have to know that merely telling their children the dos and donts add up to nothing.
Children learn instead by observing and emulating what goes on around them.  With some of today’s youth living recklessly, I am worried of their products. Personally, I feel angered when I see girls dressed with their breasts popping out. I am told that is what the ‘brothers’ want but this is beyond.
What surprises me further is that when the ‘brothers’  take the ‘sisters’ out, the ‘sisters’ sometimes  take their  entire bodies out too. Look at how some dress when they are going out! Honestly, this is not healthy for our society. A true, caring, loving, responsible and sane man can’t cherish a woman who dresses, talks and/or behaves obscenely.
Recently one told me I was backward because I couldn’t agree to their demands of eating while walking. Our society is fast rotting to the marrow. It is not uncommon to hear honest persons being belittled by statements such as “he soft man” and “he nah ready”.
This is very ridiculous. What the youth have failed to know is that these loose morals invading our shores can’t help us to develop. Using technology and media, morally decayed countries are working hard to change our lifestyles so that when our lifestyles are changed to match theirs, we shall appreciate their tastes and purchase from them.
This could also partially explain why they are emphasizing  much on human rights so that our children can grow weirdly, without any sense of critical thinking so that they can continue providing markets by consuming their products unabated. Yes, human rights/freedom are very ideal for our happiness as homo-sapiens, but human rights should not enslave us indirectly.
Doing whatever we want just in the name of human rights, regardless of the effects such actions cause to others, is not being smart and, in fact, it is a violation of others’ rights too.
Parents, I know things are tight and you need to hustle here and there to put food on the table, but you should try to be responsible by: restricting for example the television channels your children watch; the kind of music they listen to; how they dress; the type of words they use in their speeches; and their mode of socialisation can help them to grow into responsible, peaceful, loving and law-abiding citizens.
Apart from home, teachers at school should start tackling social issues in a broad-based manner. A child with a good attendance rate will spend more time with the teachers at school than they do with their parents at home.
Teachers should not say it is not their business to groom these youngsters, because if a child is not well groomed and turns into a thief, everyone in the community can be affected. Teachers should talk to these youngsters, censor the kind of music they listen to and watch on the television, how they sit in the classroom,and how they dress among others.
Most children especially at adolescent stage tend to become unruly and their own bosses. However, teachers have to counteract such characters but with the help of the parents and the schools welfare officers.
Like parents, teachers also need to set precedents to the children in the way they dress, address challenges, talk, sit and go about their business in and outside of school. If a child is not well groomed at school, they will not be productive even at the place of work. How can one expect a child to respect his manager at the place of work when he was not trained to do so while still at school?
Lack of respect doesn’t only affect ones social life but even the economic aspect of it. For example, if you have no respect in how you use your hard-earned dollar, you will make no progress.
I agree in totality that consumption stimulates economic growth of a nation, but this consumption could be counter-productive, since an unhealthy consumption, which affects the health of the populace affects the nation’s wealth.
Remember, health is wealth. I have seen people who sport almost all their paychecks in one day and still complain of “unfair conditions”.  How dare you complain of “unfair conditions” when most of your earnings are spent on liquor, changing women like under wears and all sorts of merrymaking?
Is that being fair to oneself? Although I have no facts at hand, I strongly believe there is a correlation between morality and critical thinking/reasoning. I have attended a number of CTA meetings and what I have so far noted is that children who treat education (which of course takes a great chunk of the national budget) with disdain hold no respect for the authorities. As a result, many have become serial truants.
Youth, learn to listen to the counsel of your teachers at school, parents at home and elders in the community. Parents and teachers, let’s work together to build the nation by bolstering the morals of our children.