I LIKE many of your readers was shocked to read the article about the seal who was having stones thrown at it by some "delightful" children.

Compare this to the picture earlier of the curious seal coming over to look at the youngsters in their rubber dinghy.

I think the difference in children's behaviour can be demonstrated by a recent experience on the Dover to Calais crossing back in July I encountered.

Hoping for a quiet seat to sit and read, the area was suddenly descended upon by a lot of noisy secondary schoolchildren, screaming and shouting and running about.

This disruption must have antagonised several other passengers, as over the ship's speaker system came the request, 'Will the schoolchildren from (named town) please sit down and refrain from shouting and running about and being a nuisance to other passengers.'

On the return journey several hours later there was a party of French schoolchildren roughly the same age, they sat quietly reading, chatting to their friends, and were at least three times better behaved than their English ones.

I think this can be summed up as showing that some young people have no idea how to behave towards their fellow human beings let alone defenceless animals.

If you think about it, 50 years ago if the local policeman had caught them throwing stones he would have given them a clip round the ear, whereas nowadays he would be charged with assault, and the relevant school would have humiliated them in front of the whole school, which is what I witnessed over 40 years ago at a local secondary school after a nasty incident with another local school.

GRAHAM POTTER Fletcher Road, Bournemouth