We paint with a wide brush when we disparage all the youth of today. But it is a brush which has been used for centuries, from Hesiod in the eight century BC to Plato and Socrates to the WWII veterans who bemoaned the invasion of the Beatles, Elvis and rock and roll music, children have been an easy target. And throughout history there have been great swaths of children who have accomplished far less than their abilities would indicate possible. I've got six kids. Five attended college, four on full academic scholarships and the fifth had her choice of an academic or music scholarship (she chose the upright bass scholarship). The sixth is in eighth grade. Many young people today are hard working, contributing members of our society, defenders of our freedom and worthy of our respect.
There always will be and always have been examples of individuals who have misbehaved, proven lazy and fully dependent upon others. But the opposite is also true. Which group we choose to focus upon will determine our disposition regarding the next generation. They live in a different time than we did and thus have different restriction upon their freedoms and different opportunities.
When we focus on the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; the things to praise and not the things to curse I believe we will find our attitude towards the next generation will improve. Whether the young people of today play little league, football, the upright bass or Call of Duty in their spare time is not an indicator of their value but an indicator of their interests (or sometimes the interests of their parents).
Just a word in defense of the young people of today.
Steve
I was going to respond at length, but I think you articulated quite well in a couple of paragraphs.
But..., when we think of our youth of today, it seems many of us expect everything to be all True, Good, and Beautiful with them, and forget how we acted as kids.
I am not a proponent of Dr. Spock either. IMHO, probably the worst single thing that happened to parents. We, many not all, began to doubt our own abilities as parents.
Always(almost), thinking that how we got "the message" from our parents, many of us somehow feel that that method was the best for all. In other words we seem to pass along our experiences to our own kids. Sometimes good, oftentimes, not so good. Yet we still are ready to defend those same experiences.
I was a fairly strict father in correcting my daughter, but without having to mete out corporal punishment. Restrictive measures and reminders of what is expected of her in order to become a positive person(by modelling same), was quite enough. Consequently, she graduated from UN. of Tx. at Austin, Tex. My 3 grandkids (all TAG students) are in EE. school and Pre-Med school, and grandson in the 7th grade(Tag student). He also plays football.
Sorry, I am starting to ramble, I quit. One or two final observations, in my experiences with FB, from High school level to College level, football not only pays for itself, but many other sports as well. Of course it all depends on the size of the schools.
Also, someone placed some blame on Little League.
Its not the league, necessarily, but many parents born out of the Spock generation who have formulated and "Wimped" up the rules of the game.
Russ
