One man’s war on the scourge of sodcasting

Readers respond to an article about learning from Japan on curbing ‘loudcasting’ and antisocial behaviour

Emily Bratt missed out one way of addressing antisocial behaviour – on buses or elsewhere – which is to address the problem oneself rather than waiting for official enforcement (Fine ‘headphone dodgers’ if you will, but to really tackle antisocial behaviour, Britain should look to Japan, 24 October). I give sodcasters on the bus a minute or so and then ask them to use headphones or turn off the sound. It doesn’t always work, but the offenders don’t like it, and the less they like the response they get, the less they will do it. Donald Smith Haddington, East Lothian

I’m all for banning “loudcasting” – because I’m a retired bus driver and I will not be the one charged with enforcing it. Heaven help the poor sods who will. Jenny Eldershaw Buxton, Derbyshire

It’s not only in Japan that children are taught to be socially responsible. When my eight-year-old daughter visited her new UK primary school on return from her early school years in rural Zimbabwe, she didn’t understand when the teacher apologised for the state of the classroom because the cleaners were on strike. She also asked: “Which day does our class clean the toilets?” Anne Spargo Upper Colwall, Herefordshire

Re Emily Bratt’s suggestion that schoolchildren should help with “caring” for their school, when I was at Dartington Hall – a progressive co-educational boarding school – in the 1960s we did what was called “useful work” before classes. It involved us in the processes of running the school. Among other things, I tidied the library, thus learning the Dewey classification system; was printer’s devil to the bookbinder, Eric McNally, producing play programmes and the school prospectus; spent two terms in my O-level year setting up chemistry lab equipment for A-level classes; and was filing clerk for the careers advice department.

Responsibility was a key word at Dartington, it being well understood that freedom is not free – it comes at a price – and that consideration for others and support for the community are essential. Ruth Gilbert Marsden, West Yorkshire