Roughly two years ago an unknown person put together an email about the lack of common sense in modern society. It talks about common sense as if it was a person and describes the injuries inflicted as we make, what the email alleges are, ridiculous decisions. The email culminates in the death of common sense. You can read the email (Passing of Common Sense) here in all it's glory.

The problem with this email is not that it doesn't present facts – it does – but as with most sensationalist writing it presents only select facts and doesn't include much background information. Hopefully this page will be able to present you with all the facts to show you that many of the things held up as showing that common sense is dying are in fact simply one aspect of a much more complex picture.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

I don't think anyone would argue that these are generally sound pieces of advice but if applied rigidly they can lead to problems. If people never spent more they they earn how would anyone ever buy a house? The real advice here is not to make spending more than you earn a habit and to clear debt as soon as possible. The problem is that doesn't trip off the tongue as easily as the advice given. As for never letting the children be in charge that, again, is a sound bite that if applied rigidly will produce more problems that it solves. Taken literally it would mean that children should never be allowed to make a decision. While that might be possible achieve it would produce an adult that is unable to function in the real world. As with everything in life it is about moderation. Children need to be taught now to make decisions and the only way for them to learn that is to actually practice doing it. Good parenting means guiding and encouraging not enforcing strict adherence to every command.

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.

This is might be fair but without examples it is hard to tell. We are inundated everyday with people telling us that things are getting worse and part of that doom-saying includes the mention of new overbearing regulations. Before accepting this statement demand examples so that it is possible to decide for yourself.

Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Without references I have struggled to find hard facts about any of the three cases mentioned here. The first case, regarding the six year old boy, seems to be true but badly distorted. From what I can gather the boy repeatedly kissed (over weeks or months) a classmate without consent causing that classmate considerable distress. It is unclear whether the boy was actually charged or just removed from the school. Some people believe that the email refers to this case of a flashing six year old.

The mouthwash incident seems to be referring to the case of a 13-year-old Seattle student called Adam McMakin who used and swallowed mouthwash after eating a lunch that he felt tasted unpleasant. Apparently, after putting the mouthwash in his mouth he was unable to find anywhere convenient to spit it out so swallowed it. The school he was at had a zero tolerance policy on alcohol consumption and since mouth wash contains alcohol they suspended him. As with most of these cases this is a difficult one to call. We have only the boys word that he was unable to find somewhere to spit out the mouthwash. I find it hard to believe that anyone would use mouthwash without first making sure that there was somewhere to get rid of it afterwards. I, also, find it easy to believe that a 13 year old boy would drink mouthwash in order to get drunk.

The final case presented here is too generic to be tracked down. There are plenty of cases of teachers being reprimanded for behaviour that is considered unfitting and each case is different. There is no doubt that we need to support our teachers more but that doesn't mean we should condone inappropriate behaviour.