Start inculcating good values from young

FURTHER to the good suggestion by Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, “Spread the word on the right way to display flags” (The Star, Dec 4), that more awareness campaigns be carried out in our educational institutions and communities to educate the people on the significance of our national and state flags and why they must be treated with the highest respect, I am reminded of the importance as well as the urgency of laying the desired foundations during the early formative years of a child.

It is imperative for us, educators and parents, to instil a good foundation of values in our children when they are still young. Surely, we don’t want them to grow up to be “monsters” who are self-centred, uncaring and unloving souls without a conscience and with no respect for the institutions of the land, law and order, people or even life itself. We must wake up to the fact that academic brilliance (the focus of our society today) is no substitute for poverty of character.