My letter last week, headlined Students Become Performance Pests (Life!, June 13), may have given the impression that I blamed the students for making noise during the Arts Festival performance of Electra. This was not what I meant.

I do not think the accessibility of the play is an issue. Rather, what this incident highlighted was that people have to be given choices. In this case, the students may have enjoyed a different performance, if given the choice. This is possibly an example of a good intention that has gone wrong.

Rather than putting blame on the teachers or the students themselves for their reaction and behaviour, this incident highlighted the basic social consciousness that we lack as a society.

It is not about behaving properly or correctly. It is about being socially aware of people around you and being conscious of how one's behaviour will affect others. Everyone - society, schools and family - is collectively responsible for such awareness or life skills.

Patrick Ong

This article was first published in The Straits Times.