Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Ignoring one’s failures” (April 30), and the article, “An education we can do without” (April 30) by JS Rajput. The write-ups took me back to my formative years during 1939-45 at my school in Jaiharikhal in Pauri Garhwal. Any elder, even an unknown one, used to keep an eye on the behaviour of children playing around and would correct any unwanted action and word spoken by the erring children. Parents would support such admonitions.
But it seems the role models of today’s society are people with power and money and devoid of that morality which Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to, and which Mr Rajput quoted. Children learn by examples they find in parents, elder siblings, playmates, school-mates, teachers and the society in general. Things have changed for the worse today. This is sad and must be reversed. We need national icons with morality, and not just material success.