Editorial - Celebrating the Youth of Today

Editorial

Celebrating the youth of today

I find it somewhat disconcerting that wherever possible, the media will report on the actions of disaffected young people and what it is they ‘take away’ from their community. Sadly, the converse is not always true. That when presented with uplifting stories about how young people have made a difference in their community, these stories seem to somehow be discarded due to ‘lack of public interest’. This clickbait reporting therefore provides the reader with a skewed perspective of the youth of today, so much so that the shortcomings of the minority become the new normal for youth and therefore negate all that is positive about young people.

This of course is not a new phenomenon. Highlighting the decline in standards of our youth reaches far back in to recorded history. Socrates (469 – 399 B.C.) was quoted as saying: “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 tyrannise their teachers,” Every day, I have the privilege of working with young people who are hardworking, polite, courteous, who show respect to others and who are a joy to be with. I wish the media would concentrate more on students such as these; students who would rather give than take, who would rather help than hurt, and hold these students up as role models in order to capture the true norm; a norm which is light years away from the murky underworld of a disaffected youth. At our college we see daily reminders of how students are open to, and accepting of, diversity. Where being different is not something to be used against others but seen more as a uniqueness of character. I have learnt that once students understand another’s needs, they will willingly put the other student’s needs before their own. They will, for example, accept that an autistic student is allowed to use earphones in class while they may not. Some of the loudest cheers are for young people with special needs competing on the sports field, or receiving academic awards.

The lessons from the year that has been, teaches us that life can never be predicted, but I find solace in this, that the young people I work with cling to the words of Henry David Thoreau who said, “It is

never too late to give up your prejudices.”