HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Sept. 25, 2007 Has anyone closely observed America's youth lately? If they did, they would be in the for a huge disappointment. Today I was talking to a girl at a coffee shop about traveling the world and I told her, because she speaks Spanish, that she should go to Barcelona. As much as I liker her as person, the response I got was totally unexpected: "Where is Barcelona?" Now, when people talk about the education crisis, what they refer to is money. Not enough of it for the classrooms, too much for administrators and higher takes for property owners. But the real problem is that our kids are getting dumber while we intended them to take over where we left off. I have spoken, in the past, of the film "Idiocracy" and how it is not that far off from a possible future reality. I have also watched enough and learned enough about this world to come to the conclusion that there is little hope of reversing the course. What we have on our hands is the era of mules, and stubborn ones at that. Children are coddled for or ignored completely by those that created them. They are given opportunities that are unparalleled in our history. Whether it is technology or services or whatever, they are a capable bunch in the United States. But this only leads to the worst possible conclusion. While we think they are cute and will grow out of it, the reality is that they probably won't. In fact they are headed toward doom. I hate to seem like it is impossible to stop but look at how we have legislated our people. While we try to protect children from all the worse case scenarios, we do them a disservice in how they should adapt to becoming adults. We give them technology and toys and give them freedoms of movement that make people my age jealous. I never had a credit card as teen. I didn't have a car until I could afford the insurance. I didn't even have a phone in my bedroom, let alone a computer or television. These were unnecessary luxuries that, for some reason, parents today think their undeserving kids deserve. I hate to sound old and crotchety but I am numb to having to deal with amateur hour behavior of our youth. How are they going to cope when they are adults? What exactly are we teaching them? That if they bat their eyes or have a tirade that they will get what they want? When reality sets in on that day a real problem occurs, how are we supposed to feel? That we are failures. But we didn't do the preventive steps we could have done to stop this type of behavior. It is only through collective reasoning that we have any chance of making it. Let's just hope people will want to listen. ------------ About the author: Nicholas Olson is an aspiring playwright and former journalist. He spent parts of his high school, college and professional life as a journalist, serving as a military journalist from 2000-06. Mr. Olson is an avid writer and enjoys political opinion. His views are not that of any particular party or of the country he once served: They are his own. Email: nicholasjolson@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
