There is no gainsaying that society is losing control of its younger ones. Generally, children of nowadays appear to have control over their parents and guardians. The attitude that characterises their behaviour leaves no doubt in me that approximate what I essentially view as a complete loss of discipline and moral training of today's children by parents. This increasingly weird and gross indiscipline among the children of present day is attributable to lack of parental care and peer influence.
Increasingly, children from Nandom were noted for discipline, respect, hardwork and honesty. But today, can that be said about the children of Nandom? Of course, some will say yes, others will say no. If this question was asked those days, the answer would be in the affirmative. The only thing that can give you a clear-cut dichotomy between complete and finished is marriage. If you marry a good woman, you are complete but if you marry a bad woman, you are finished. So people who married women from Nandom were always certain that they would be complete and not finished. This assurance was invariably associated with ladies from Nandom. Can we say the same about children of Nandom today?
Again, the competency of any recruited person from Nandom has never been questioned. Commitment, honesty and hardwork were their hallmarks. It was so because parents, guardians and every elderly person were responsible in society. Elderly persons played the role of a parent or guardian to every child in the community. Children of today are not guided or trained by every elder in the community, but only those who gave birth to them. But of course, there are still some parents and children who are responsible and disciplined. That notwithstanding, majority of the children are grossly indisciplined.
The seemingly loss of control of the children of recent times has reached its crescendo and urgent mitigation measures to undo it are seriously required. The rippling effects of this canker is so glaring in the academic performance of these children in their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) of recent times.
In similar vein, the negative outcomes of indiscipline are being felt by society as a whole. Those days, a well cultured and properly trained child would never sit down and watch the elderly carry load. A well nurtured child brought up from a good background, would never sit on a seat while an elder stood. Even parking a bicycle was never done by the elderly in the presence of the young ones. These elements of good upbringing were traceable to persons coming from Nandom. As of now, the only thing we take solace in is the fact that some disciplined parents and elders still exist and the propensity of this seemingly insurmountable devil being cast out is possible and will happen in a no distant future.
The repercussions of this devil (indiscipline) and its destructive agents are drawing the development of Nandom backward. As it stands now, most of the children are engaged in smoking and sniffing hard drugs. Some of them take the contract of excessive drinking of alcohol, excessive womanising inter alia. These acts give birth to unnecessary attacks and fights among friends and even relatives. They also lead to avoidable deaths emanating from motor accidents.
Armed robbery that was alien in Nandom has reared its ugly head and it is now gaining notoriety. Teenage pregnancy is on the ascendency at a super-sonic speed.
The way forward to curtailing this menace is that parents and guardians should exercise their responsibilities as such. Collective efforts by society will help to restore discipline back into our system. Our moral values should be reintroduced to bring sanity and hope in the lives of the children.
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