I AGREE absolutely with the essential thrust of my husband's letter (National Service not answer to yobbery, Letters, November 4).

Can you imagine your sons and daughters being made to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq just because society failed to tackle the problems of a number of their peers? But what to do instead?

Lack of discipline is an issue for us all to tackle, not least parents, and challenging intervention programmes could well have a place - if designed specifically for those in need.

But equally, our present difficulties have lifted the veil on the timeless problems encountered when always trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

We continue to expect that all children will benefit from what is, basically, a one-size-fits-all education. This has led to fulfilment for many, but to generations of disenchantment for others.

Evidence of this is found in Youth Remand Centres and prisons, where half the populations are dyslexic. If they were all to simultaneously send up a distress flare, we might get a graphic measure of the problem.

Yet there are alternatives. We really could enable many of the "failures" to be successful and the "misfits" to feel a part of society if we embraced a range of fresh approaches.

Let's pool our ideas and experiences and work up a broad and inspiring plan fit for the 21st century.

Gwen Baldock, Heworth, York.