Destruction's our delight
Delight our greatest sorrow...

The words are over 300 years old but still describe the mind set of the vandal with great precision.

A few weeks ago I watched the obvious joy of Rata's small charges as they tenderly planted out and bedded down young shrubs and trees in the school grounds. Plants later to be uprooted by hands unknown.

Mindless vandalism has been a popular media cliche for ages and it is false. Vandalism is never mindless, vandals pick their targets and they do it to hurt and offend.

Adolescent males (and we instantly assume it is young men) seem to be ruled by the creed that they will either make us love them or hate them but we will not be allowed to ignore them. So often love terrifies them, and perhaps always will, thus they are left with no choice but to be hateful.

I suppose I should feel sorry for such young men but I cannot. I am left wondering about the wisdom of Youth Suicide Prevention programs. Perhaps with some of these cowboys we should be doing the opposite - the sooner they top themselves the better. In the long run that would save both us and them so much heartache and trouble.

And those old words came from the pen of one Nat Tate, and were famously set to music by Henry Purcell in his opera Dido and Aeneas.

A Postscript. I delayed posting this because the damage to the plants was rectified so quickly that I began to doubt my sources. However this and another incident of vandalism was later reported in a P-12 newsletter.