Joliet Township High School

Central Campus

Teacher: Michael Reilly

Discussing The Attitude of Today's Youth

By Myles Singleton

In this passage, I will classify the attitudes of youth about maturing into adulthood. I will then explicate my reasoning of why numerous youth endeavor to bypass their teenage years. In addition to this, I will bestow unto you what I believe the standards for all youths to enter adulthood should be.

To start with, the disposition of every youth towards adulthood is distinct. However, these attitudes can be assorted on a number graph of one through ten. A scale of one would indicate youths who already perceive themselves as adults. They believe, without a doubt, that their minds have developed more rapidly than the common youth and that everything currently transpiring in their lives are merely signs of their maturity. They will rebel against adult authority, feeling that they are intelligent enough to conduct their own lives. Nevertheless, Nothing could be farther from the truth. At times they feel they are invincible and are able to handle materials such as alcohol, tobacco, and even guns. However, the flaw in their supposed maturity reveals itself when these materials become too much responsibility and lead to hard drugs and unnecessary violence because the individual couldn’t handle it.

Still and all, a youth on the scale of ten will also be a rebel, yet their reasons contradict altogether with those on the scale of one. A youth on a ten scale will dread adulthood and will put forth effort to delay its existence for the longest period conceivable. Their antics are very childish throughout their youth and teenage years. They assume that must make the most out of their childhood years, even as society itself heeds to take into account the individual as a child, but as a pre-adult. One may observe this group participating in activities such as partying and dare-deviling on a regular basis.

A youth with all of their facts straight would convene on a five. They want to show adult responsibility and tackle their circumstances, yet they also know their place as a child in the world. Instead of try to confirm situations by themselves, they will seek a more experienced authority on the subject. This way, they will be sure to get the equitable solution for uncertainty to worldly problems. An example would be conversations with parents on issues of sex, drugs and education. Along with these particulars, this group will never accept lower standards of where they should be. A college student will not waste time at wild parties while work is to be done, but will not neglect having fun at certain times. A high school student will try to carry more responsibility than they would have than in their youth days.

I believe there are good reasons to why the attitudes of teens vary so intensely. It is easy to blame the youth for fault in their attitudes, but I am pointing directly to the parents and the environment that the child is privileged to. Unfortunately, most parents do not know how far to take discipline in their household for their youth. Many start too late to begin extreme discipline, concluding that the their children are going through the trial-and-error phase and will resolve by themselves the contrariety amid right and wrong and also moral and corrupt. However, youth are occasioned to fail this task and misconstrue wrongs and corruption with rights and morals. They may feel it’s okay to be insubordinate to elders or to use violence when they perceive it necessary. They eventually become uncontrollable, having no fear of the belt or switch which would have made so much difference in their attitudes years back. Some may claim to love their parents, but won’t let them have any say in their already set lives.

For a clearer perspective, imagine a pet puppy. You, the master, feel that the animal is too young to be forced into paper training, learning basic commands such as sit and heal, or games such as fetch and catch. You know it will be a strain on your pet, so you decide to let it enjoy its youthful years. The puppy eventually begins to grow at a rapid rate. You now decide that it’s time to start disciplining your pet, but it won’t obey. It runs wildly in the house and leaves its little presents everywhere, just like it did as a puppy. It’s too late to change it now, for it is now a dog.

Parents, as hard as it may be must see their children in the same manner. At the day they are able to understand language, they should be taught about violence, sex, gangs, drugs and every other worldly issue. I would say that ninety-nine out of every hundred youth with attitude problems is due to the absence of discipline in the home.

One of the biggest problems that parents face is the terms of discipline. Parents are held back by society that threatens to incarcerate all of those who punish a child beyond their principles. Only the parent knows how much discipline is needed for their children. What may be an eye-opener for some youths wouldn’t even be considered a threat for others, so more drastic measures are required.

I will conclude this passage with my solution of filling up the void between the growth of child to adult. Parents must take control of their children as early as possible. Every year missed will make this task harder. Society must monitor all youth within their communities. An old African tribe quote states “It takes a whole village to raise a child.” We must raise our youth together so that they will take the bridge toward adulthood instead of trying to leap the canyon and plummeting their lives into nothingness. We must also show our youth that the path to adulthood is safe to cross as long as they pace themselves. We must push to put our youths on the scale of five.

Answers To Questions

Q1- Margaret Mead states that the youth of the US today are becoming less than they may be. This is reminiscent to the Army recruiting commercial slogan, “Be all that you can be.”

Q2- None of these issues are considered since we now have the scientific facts to judge each issue’s importance.

Q3- I agree that culture is man-made and open for change, but I also feel that a person’s environment may keep the change to a minimum. An example would be an African tribe in the safari. Their location makes it difficult to change a lifestyle of hunting and farming.

Q4- Margaret Mead was advocating a greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process. In the last paragraph in the preface of “Coming age of Somoa,” she states that our studies are now mainly concerned with change. In the past we were basically concerned with fossils and how far evolution has come over time.

Q5- My stand on this issue is that some things restricted for adolescents should also be for adults. We live in a society were morals are neglected a an individual ages. We have a drinking, tobacco use, handgun purchase age, yet for the sake of all people, all three should be outlawed. Alcohol influences drunk driving and abuse, tobacco interferes with health and pregnancy, and handguns serve no other purpose except violence.

The US, unfortunately, allows us to take the quote “Land of the free” too far. Things such as pornography shouldn’t have a set age limit. It should be removed entirely. I know some people feel they can’t live without it or can’t wait until they are old enough to purchase it at their local movies rental, but that’s how low this filth has dragged society.

On top of all this, since it turns many youth to fake ID’s and even stealing to access these materials, it actually influences crime.

I believe that if we remove the filth from our society, adults won’t have to fear the behavior of today’s youth. How can we get drunk, sneak a cigarette, shoot someone or sneak a porno if the items used to carry out these tasks don’t exist? What would we do with fake ID’s? Lie to get a soda? Besides the main reason many kids sneak into clubs is for drinks and discuss topics of sex anyway. What’s so bad about a club that has neither? I say, rid of the filth and society will clean up itself.

A big benefit could be a huge crime drop. With the absence of beer and tobacco, the youth will be reluctant to move to hard liquor or weed and crack. They won’t have any starter drugs. Also most handgun owners use guns to protect themselves from other gun owners or to show power. With neither, people won’t have to fear nor have the ability to threaten. You don’t see many armed store robberies with kitchen knives.

In summary, if we clean up society, youth won’t need boundaries. If society offers the best environment to the youth, then we can’t do wrong to society or ourselves.

Q6- I’ve noticed an notably immense quantity of drug and alcohol use among high school students. Most drug abusers in the schools are actually who the common student looks up to. These people are the athletes. I am a three sport man. I’ve noticed the more intensive the sport, the more likely the use of drugs on the team. Football players are the biggest abusers. After game wins, they take it upon themselves to throw wild parties and having alcoholic beverages and cigars in celebration. It is an accepted tradition, yet I still feel that there are better ways to celebrate than to do bodily harm to yourself. I’ve wondered many times how even the outstanding athletes stay conditioned when their drug abuse is obvious. Moreover, I wonder how good they’ve could have been without the abuse.

I’ve also noticed an broadening number of drug abuse in my friends. As time passed by, I was shocked to find out how many of my friends were crack and marijuana users. I was never offered the drugs, yet I was tricked once into helping one of my so-called friends carry out a secret drug deal. I quickly cut off connections with him.

Stories of drug use is correspondingly obvious in daily conversations with acquaintances at a high school lunch table, gym room, or even in the class room when the teacher is out. Many of the stories deal with incidents where a person got “high” or tell about where a couple of people will go to find drugs on that day.

In the preceding question I’ve mentioned the wiping out of all drugs and alcohol in the US. Yes this sounds extreme and may never be done, but it is obvious how it will help control the youth’s drug problem.

I was first informed of drugs in the D.A.R.E. program in my grade school. It only supplied me with drug knowledge and very little of the life effects of drug use and how common it is. Anti-drug programs should be organizations willing to get kids to group together and fight against drug use at a very young age so they won’t be subdued into using them in the future. In addition to the preceding, the community should inflict greater punishments for drug users. We should be saying, “Don’t use drugs because we say so!” It shouldn’t be , “Don’t use drugs for your own sake and ours!” Most drug abusers don’t care for themselves or others, so the latter statement is less effective.

Q7- There may be several solutions for the “plight of the black teenager.” I, being a black teenager myself can easily understand our situation. Individually, we need to start raising our own particular status by becoming more competitive in schools grade-wise. Many black students feel they might as well just get by with school because they perceive they can never progress in the cradle of humanity. This is predominantly owing to poor living standards due to the reality that many parents of today’s black youth didn’t have many doors open to them. If adults today would be able to convey the message that there are extensive rationale for shooting for the highest education conceivable, we can start setting goals for the building of blacks social rank.

Black students should never embrace nor strive to play off of a degrading stereotype by virtue of it’s the light means of escape, because there is no easy way out of our predicament. Since the portrait of most blacks is violent and rule-breakers, many conceive to live up to their stereotype rather than change it. They are doing this by broadcasting a “thug” life for all blacks nationwide through music appearance and personality. I know how easy it is to get caught up in the hip-hop and urban music genre. These are the styles I favor most. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a hip-hop artist with good lyrics and can still “flow” in the rhythm. All rappers talk about is the way life is for them or how they want it. Black teenagers today would be much more fortunate if they were receiving the message of how life should be and how to obtain it from rappers. I say a person can rap on anything, but they don’t need to portray a “ghetto” lifestyle for all blacks to the world. It just isn’t true and it corrupts the minds of those who may not know any other life. I had a taste of the “civilized” and the “ghetto” lifestyle and the latter is second to Hell. Blacks in those conditions should know there is a way out. That way is a good education and understanding of life.

Q8- In a school where all that we did was learn or if I attended a single-sex school where everything was awarded for good academics, I would receive a erroneous interpretation of how the adult world is. Public schools do more than just educate, they provide a pre-image of real-life situations. One example is organization. If students cannot present information in a fashionable manner every time, they won’t do it as an adult. Student’s shouldn’t count on learning to be fun because it educates you on life and life isn’t always fun.

Segregating sexes also creates a highly unrealistic viewpoint of life. I believe that segregation in schools was done just to find an easy way to reduce sex among teenagers from relationships developing in schools. This has more cons than pros. Boys and girls should learn to work together. They will have to when they get older. Also, we don’t want stereotypes that one sex is smarter than the other because of the average GPA’s of the segregated schools. It could be due to an unbalance of intelligence within a certain school.

Q9- Pete Seeger’s comment is completely untrue. School is as realistic to life as one wants it to be. To me, school life is extremely hard. The only reason I am able to pull off high grades every time is through the methods of organization that is taught by the school itself. No, the school doesn’t put in words exactly how one should keep track of one’s self, but it does force a person to make some methods of keeping track of everything if they want to enjoy life and still meet honors criteria in school. For me, this is difficult for I am juggling school, a handful of sports, and a music career. Calendars, notebooks and pre-hand preparation makes life less hectic for me. All of this will prepare me for adult life when I will replace these matters with jobs, finances and family. School lets me practice organization so I won’t be hit in the face by its reality later in life.

Q10- Teenagers need to be led be adults. I agree with the author of “The Bottom Line.” The preponderance of the world has been taken over without encumbrance by teenagers, mainly media and fashion products. Since they are the main tools for advertising or making a cultural statements, teenagers easily spread their customs and beliefs to other teenagers. However, without the proper adult supervision, teenagers could send corrupted messages such as violence, drugs and rebellion that will quickly catch on with teenagers because the advertising is so inducing. Teenagers don’t see the flaw in the advertisements because the parents have not taken notice and rebelled against it. over time, the teenager grows into it and changes before the parents eyes. We see much of this with rebellious teenagers because now the parent is trying to control the teenager when they should have been monitoring all along. Adults should take a look into teenage media and marketing and check out if what is being broadcast is acceptable.