Kids Are Messed Up!

These past few days I have had off of work. I worked yesterday morning, but since then, I have been at home. Didn't go out. What did I do with myself?
I was online looking for jobs. I cleaned up the place a bit. I watched a little TV. I listened to some music. I played some Madden 2005 (The best Madden EVER). And I thought. Yup. Took some time out and thought. I do that from time to time. Not as much as I should, but I took a few moments and just thought. Prayed. Thought. Then prayed some more. I highly recommend you try it out. You begin to put things in perspective when you do that.
It was thanks to my "quiet time" that I made myself scared. I realized that in about 20 years or so, my generation will be in public office. There will be some people that graduated with me who will be in charge of the country. That, my friends, is scary.
The people in office right now (and for the past 20 years or so) have done such an awful job, but I think that my generation will do worse.
Why?
Because my generation is a bunch of idiots. I have come to realize this recently, too. Now, do I put myself in this category? No. Do I put most of my friends in this category? No. Why? I'll tell you why - we aren't idiots. I don't mean to brag, but I feel that I am smarter than most of the people in my age group. Why? I'm not too sure. Maybe it's because I enjoy learning. Discovery Channel, History Channel and keeping up on current events. It is keeping me sharp in a world of the dull.
I can tell you about ancient cultures. I can point out countries on a map. I can even draw you a map of all of the states, their names, and most of their capitals. (Seems like something most Americans should be able to do - right?) I can tell you what the U.N. is up to. I can talk about political issues with facts to back me up instead of opinions.
Can the average American do this? Most can't. Can my generation do this? Even less can. Am I writing this to boast about myself? No. Instead, it is a concern that somewhere along the line, things went wrong. Education? It's part of it. Teachers? They are at fault too. Parents? Getting warmer. Where does it start? I'll tell ya - salaries.
Yup. My generation was the first generation to have two working parents. Why? The cost of living increased when salaries didn't. The greedy 80's fueled an economy based on buying what we don't need and charging the rest. Personal debt soared. Mom then had to work off the boat that dad had bought so that they could spend some quality time with the kids on the weekends. When in reality, the kids would have probably been just as happy playing catch in the back yard with a ball and a set of gloves that wouldn't have cost more than $20.
So, where does this leave the kids? They become "latch-key kids." They come home from school, put a hot pocket in the microwave, watch some cable TV and do a little homework. If they are lucky, Mom or Dad will be home in time to put them to bed. The element of a positive role model is nearly non-existent in the home. Instead the house becomes a place where people sleep. It is more of a hotel than a home.
Who becomes the role model? TV. Teachers. Other students. These options are not the greatest. TV is filled with such crap that it has little to no value. (Some of it is good. But, for the most part - crap.) Other students? They are just as messed up as the kids themselves. That leaves teachers.
The teachers that I had, for the most part, were good. But, they can't serve as a role model for our kids. Especially teenagers who see 6-8 different teachers a day. Each teacher has 30 students in a class. Surely this is not enough attention to provide a healthy environment for the average kid.
Plus, you have teachers that are tenured. This is a bunch of crap. Once this occurs, the teachers (not all of them, mind you) realize that the teacher's union has their back and they can slack off. They give the same tests for decades. They give the same lectures each year like clockwork. They push the kids in and out of their classroom as if it were some sort of assembly line.
The kids today are even more messed up than my generation. They play sports without a score. They are given test grades back that are not an A,B,C,D or F. And God forbid a teacher use a red pen for fear that might effect the kid's self esteem. Purple is more soothing! And God has NO place in the life of these kids, so He is out of there.
Kids also have a low self-image. You may have seen the interview that Dove did with some of our youth in one of my previous posts. The efforts in our school system to raise our children's self-esteem are not working! As a matter of fact, they are either remaining the same or getting worse.
You may be saying "Well, John - what's your solution?"
Well, I don't have a complete one yet. But, I do have some suggestions to get the ball rolling. You ready? I thought you were.
First - increase worker's pay. Reduce the cost of living. Also, teach Americans the evils of credit cards. So much so that Visa and Mastercard go out of business. Also teach that buying just to buy is STUPID. We have a bunch of teenagers that don't have anything to do except waste their time and money in a mall. This is setting up bad habits. Buying things on Daddy's money only teaches them that they don't need money to buy things and eventually leads to sizable debt. Thus, leads to having both parents work.
Don't get me wrong, ladies. If you want to work - go for it. But, if you have a kid, why not consider you or your husband stay at home and do the most rewarding job that has ever existed - be a parent. Don't tell me that you can't afford it. If you can afford to go out to dinner several nights a week and afford those expensive cars and boats - you can afford to sell them and eat rice and beans for a bit so that your kids don't screw us over in the future.
If kids were taught the value of a buck early on, they wouldn't have debt in the future and wouldn't have to worry about all of this. Make sense? I knew that it would.
Parents need to be the role model. In order to do this, they need to be present. They need to monitor what their kids do online. (Maybe the MySpace freaks wouldn't be able to con as many kids if Mommy and Daddy were standing right behind them?!) They need to learn what a "V-Chip" is and how to use it. They need to encourage their kids to hang out with the right groups, tell them that drugs are damaging and that teenage pregnancy doesn't exist only in after-school specials. Wow! Great concepts, right? Won't find those in prime-time, will you?
Also, incorporate God back into schools. I don't want to hear about the atheists. You had your shot and have proved to us that it isn't working. Even if it is only five minutes of silence to start the day to clear your head, this would be better than no potential presence for God in the first place. And kids should also say the pledge. Every day. We are living in a volatile society. I think it is important for our future to be proud of where they came from and know what team they are playing for.
Next, pay teachers more. Yup. Make this a highly sought after position like doctors and lawyers. Teachers are the second best role model in a child's life. Granted, they aren't as important as parents, but they should be valued more in our society. To make only $16,000 or so a year and be that important to the development of our future is an outrage. If you increase the salary, you have more people applying. If you have more people applying, you have a better selection of potential teachers. You don't have to hire the dumb blonde with spelling errors on her resume because of lack of selection. But, do away with tenure. Every teacher must take a test at the end of the year to prove that they are still capable of teaching that subject and teaching it well. Along with that test, a psychological profile to make sure that you haven't gone batty and that you are sane enough to teach our kids.
The ideas of games without scores and tests without grades are doing NOTHING for our children. Instead they are teaching them that the real world will accept you no matter what. This isn't true. It is a harsh reality that should be with them since day one. Teaching them that hard work and dedication to a cause, whether it be individual or with a team is the only way to succeed in society is a more important lesson than "everybody wins." Because they don't. There will ALWAYS be a looser. And, sometimes you are that looser. Teaching kids this early on will better prepare them for the world and also teach them the most important lesson - when you fail - try harder next time.
Will this solve all of our problems? Nope. There will always be problems. But, if we better the influences around our children (such as parents and teachers) then maybe we won't have bills signed into law with purple pens.