My early days were very much like yours, Stevie. I agree wholeheartedly with the premise that we need that combination of punishment/encouragement. What I find it doesn't address is the yobs who DO have a male presense and that the role model created by that male presense is exactly the boorish behavior that the offspring inherits:-(

You see it all the time, unfortunately. We even had a neighbor who threatened his sons teachers with violence because they punished the son! What kind of adult is that kid going to grow up into when he sees his Dad using violence as an answer for everything? In my day, and I suspect yours, If I got home from school and said the teachers had punished me for wrongdoing I would get it in the ear from my Dad as well!

Eeeeeh - Them were the days;-) To bring a little folkiness into it I love the song with the chorus -

When I were a lad, things they were bad
But they weren't half as bad as whn my Dad were a lad
And when my Dad were a lad, things weren't half as bad#
As when my Dad's dad was a lad...

Perhaps in forty years time the yob in the baseball cap who just put a litter bin through the bus shelter window will look back on how well behaved he was:-)

Cheers

Dave the Gnome