Often in the world of adults, we hear that the violence of today's youth is scary. Frequently, adults speak about how things were less deplorable when they were young and that today's youth has failed to see the values of society. Like every generation that feels they have produced a generation degenerate and deplorable, they blame the music, the dancing, and the apparent laziness and lust. They idealize their own childhood and often cite the hardships they experienced. Although these are the valued opinions of the judicious and wise, I think they have failed to recognize many important facts. The capacity to do evil has not increased in any generation, including this one.
From where do the violent tendencies of today's youth come? The violence in today's youth is not entirely their own fault. The role of the parent generation is one that adults are often pained and hesitant to admit but is significant to today's youth as it controls the environment in which they live. Fortunately, or unfortunately, human nature does not become any better or worse as the years pass; it merely remains the same. Since human nature remains as a constant, the reason today's youth is the way it is must be the environment that society (which is ruled by the parent generation) has created. That is not to say that only parents are to blame for not raising their children correctly. It is the awful stories that often appear in our news, the violence in our movies and our video games, and the actual criminals themselves.
Yet it is not only this exposure to violence and crime that has warped today's youth into becoming more violent. I was shocked to learn that the average person in the American work force works longer hours then anyone else in the world, that our recent prosperity is built upon laborers who work sixty hours a week, and that there is the new concept of required overtime. Yet we are also the richest country in the world, so it seems we work these long, hard hours for our own greed, not for necessity. The workaholic has been idealized in the American culture, and this has broader societal effects, especially in children. More then ever before, many teenagers are joining the workforce; young men and women of sixteen and seventeen are working thirty or more hours a week, ignoring social and educational considerations. They do not work because of necessity but rather of greed—they want to pay for perceived necessities like cell phones and beepers.
Children are being forced to grow up quicker. When I speak to six and seven year olds, I am surprised to learn they know far more about adult issues then I did when I was their age. And when I was their age, I knew more than even my older brother did. As we progress, society attempts to cram more into the impressionable minds of children.
Fearing legal action, schools are beginning to implement sexual harassment classes that teach students as young as nine and ten. While I have no problem with teaching people about the dangers of sexual harassment, I am not sure it should be taught at such a young age. On the impressionable minds of such young children, it can leave the girls with a feeling of being the victim, and it stereotypes the boys into being lustful monsters who cannot control their desires. Those are not the kind of impressions we wish to imprint upon nine-and ten-year olds. Earlier generations had no idea what sexual harassment was at such a young age.
Another consideration is the fact that younger and younger juveniles are treated as adults in the criminal justice system. This tells today's youth that it has to be the moral equivalent of an adult. With the advent of the internet, which is dominated by youth, I wonder at the social implications of such limitless exposure.
Forcing children to deal with adult issues will not lead to positive results. It places great pressure upon their developing minds. The nexus of these greater pressures ultimately leads children to an early adulthood, forcing them to understand and deal with adult issues long before they are ready or capable to deal so. By placing an insurmountable stress upon them, society has forced today's youth to find other channels to vent its frustration. This frustration creates a tension between youth and the adult world that controls their environment. Unfortunately, youth frequently unleash this frustration in violent and harmful ways.
At the very least, children (especially teenagers) need to be taught better ways to handle this frustration. Most middle and high schools pay lip service to the notion of counseling, but well-qualified guidance counselors need to begin guiding and counseling today's youth.
Mental and spiritual health needs to be taken as seriously as physical health. The pressures that increase the frustration in today's youth need to be lifted, if not for the current group, then for the generation to follow. We need to allow them to adapt slowly to the adult world instead of thrusting them into it far before they are ready to handle it. Otherwise, by continuing to place these overwhelming pressures upon them, we create an even more violent and turbulent youth. We need to let children remain children.