Aaaagh…what is wrong with the youth of today!

They sure do not work like we did, behave like we did or appreciate things like we did when we were kids.

Have you ever heard someone make a statement like that? How about these complaints?

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. – Socrates

“The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint… As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress.”
 – Peter the Hermit, AD 1274

I am sure many of you have seen one or both of these quotes passed around the Internet at some point in the past decade. Whether either person actually said what is quoted is questionable, just the fact, though, the quotes have been referred to for decades, if not centuries, illustrates how common complaining about the youth of today is, no matter what time period “today” pertains to.

It just seems that one inalienable right of any generation is the right to complain about the generations that come after them. Granted, in many ways each successive generation has it easier than the previous generations. That is just the nature of living in a developing world. But when you take the time to get involved with youth and realize what they are doing, you would find out they are doing some amazing things, while facing challenges many of us did not need to face.

A few years ago, I participated in an online discussion (argument) on this subject. I think the discussion began with the mention of a newspaper article regarding some trouble some youths got into. One of the other participants was trying to make the point that today’s youth are lazy and spoiled because none of them have to milk cows by hand anymore.

In addition to wondering why anyone would want to milk cows by hand today, I responded to him with this:

Before we start making huge generalizations about “kids” please consider a few things. If you have concerns about the character or work ethic or whatever of kids these days, they did not raise themselves. If you want to blame someone, blame the generation that raised them (that would include all adults and not just the parents).

Mostly, I would seriously disagree with the generalizations about what is wrong with kids these days. Yes, there are some, maybe many, who do not work as hard as the previous generations. (Each generation seems to think the next generation is just not as good as they were. All of us were the next generation at one time.) If you want to see how hard kids work or the many amazing things they do, though, take the time to get involved in the lives of young people. You will see how many of them are balancing course loads in high school that many of us never handled until later in college. You will see them volunteering hundreds of hours of time, not to make themselves look good for scholarships and college applications, but because they truly want to make a difference. You will see them trying to fit this in with practice schedules and other time commitments many of us did not have until we started our careers. You will see kids who genuinely celebrate the triumphs of their peers and tearfully rally around each other in times of tragedy. Working in a high school, I get to see this everyday and I am fortunate.

Let’s pay less attention to the headlines about those who do not behave well and take the time to find out about and support those who do the right things but will never make the headlines.

From my viewpoint, our future is in good hands.

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