Has your attitude towards the 'yoof' changed in the last week or so ?

Has your opinion of the 'yoof' changed in the last week or so ?

  • Yes - For the better

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Yes - For the worse

    Votes: 6 12.0%
  • No - I don't think it has changed my view

    Votes: 43 86.0%

  • Total voters
    50
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While I think of it - probably another difference now is the discipline you had in schools and from the police has gone and now kids are protected and the scummy ones know they cannot be touched.

There really is no deterrent - especially when you look at all the lilly-livered punishments being handed out left, right and centre in society.


All rights, and no responsibilities.:doh:
 
Not the only, or even the main factor, but...

We have created a consumer society. We are bombarding kids - through TV, Sky/Virgin, Internet, billboards, and what-have-you - with advertising for expensive goods. 3D TVs, game consoles, the latest name in a pair of trainers... We have been force-feeding kids who watch TV and use public transport with advertising aimed at creating desire, craving even, for these products.

And, the High Streets outside their (sometimes social, but not always!) houses are full of designers labels and latest electronic devices.

Yet... for most of them, they can not afford them, and some will never be able to, even if they work hard throughout adult life.

My kids, from when they could talk, where asking for things they saw on TV - advertising for very young kids is particularly cruel. Obviously we did not buy them every toy they saw on TV, not just because of the cost, but because it would have been very bad education. But they saw these items of desire repeatedly every 30 minutes, every day, every week, being played with by smiling children of their age, with lovely music in the background... the people who try and tell us throughout our lives that we absolutely must have this or that start very early and have no limits.

Something to consider. Sure, we want people to be motivated to better themselves, and we do tell them that if they study well and work hard they will have a more comfortable life. But only up to a point...
 
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Some years ago, I was driving through Essex listening to BBC Three Counties (yes, I know it's Beds, Herts & Bucks, but you can hear them in Essex...) .

A lady caller complained that her 24-years old son has been on a waiting list for a council house for over a year, and the council told her that they are short of houses due to having to house a large number of refugees and asylum seeker.

The lady then went through the usual anti-immigration rant. But my thoughts we not of immigrants, refugees or otherwise. My thought was: why does a young man think that the council owes him a house? How did we get to this sad state of affairs? There was no mention of any particular economic difficulties or other hardship, just that he should be getting a house, because everyone else does.

Obviously, I don't know the full details of this particular case. But I do think that it does highlight an additional problem - sense of entitlement. We are raising children and teach them that they have rights, but we neglect to remind them of duty.
 
It hasn't changed my view of the " Youf " of today which was pretty poor anyway. :( As a society we have failed them in their formative years. I am not blaming the teaching profession for this because that's inaccurate. It's what they have been taught or picked up from all sources in society be it parents----the media [ BIG BIG blame here :mad::mad:] teachers politicians etc and after several years of education many of the present generation have not been helped/instructed in the following:- [ notice these aren't facts and figures to memorise :confused: they are the basic skills on how to cope with living in society :doh:]

How to read and write.
How to cope with failure
How to apply yourself repeatedly to a task till you succeed. Merely going through the motions is NOT enough.:wallbash:
How the acquisition of material goods is not necessarily the road to happiness.
How Appearance isn't everything
How Altruism can work both ways. Helping others may help you
How work is not merely a means to make money- it has other benefits.
Listen to what older people may tell you- they have already made the mistakes you are about to.
How what matters is self respect not necessarily the respect of others.:thumb:

If these fundamental societal realities have not been instilled in them by their mid teenage years its going to be hard road ahead for them and for the rest of us. :dk:

I agree with you on this, being a former teacher.

The problem is that it is far easier to label your problem rather than do anything about. If a child can't read there must be a learning disability there, but when you ask said child, "Do you practice your reading?" They will answer "No". The parents dont care as they see school as more of a baby sitting service than an educational one and hence don't even take the time to guide their child so that they can improve their future prospects. These same children bring their ipod/blackberry/PSP and any other new gadget on the market to school with them even though they are not the richest people in the world but dont see that they have to put in the hard graft to get what they want out of life.

I have seen during my career a number of children at 16 who are almost ready to leave school but can barely string a sentence together. We are told by headteachers and even the Special Educational needs co-ordinators that these children need extra help. It used to wind me up when these children would make no effort at all to improve themselves, and when their parents were approached their attitude was "Well what do you want me to do". I left because I was a glorified baby sitter. Some kids would openly say that if they couldnt do anything in life they would go on the dole.

If you contrast this with other countries like India for example, you see kids from villages who work they hardest so they can improve life for themselves and their families. They have a sense of responsibility, respect and honesty. I'm not saying that the youth here are all bad, but you dont see the same level of rioting in certain other eastern countries where poverty is much, much worse than here. Where people are genuinely thinking about what to eat tomorrow, not why they havent got a 50 inch LCD TV. They could easily blame someone else but they don't they take what they have and better themselves.

Some parents (shown by the riots) are that in name only. They stopped being true parents when they don't know/understand/care where their children are at any time of the day or night. Using myself as an example, when I was in university and at the age of 19, my parents would still ask where I was going, when I'd be back, warn me about trouble etc. The things you would expect a true parent to do. I think our society needs to take a good long look at itself and discuss what should be acceptable and what should now be not acceptable.

My thoughts when I saw certain young people talking to journalists and their reasons for rioting were:
1.Loss of EMA - I went to 6th form and I didnt get EMA. Some of my friends had jobs in order to get money to go out etc, pretty much what normal working people do.
2. Prices of things have gone up - right so that gives you a right to steal? Oh ok then, here's an idea, get a job you scrote
3. There are no jobs - hmmm again not true, there are jobs but none that you can be bothered to apply for or attend interview. So it is not that there arent jobs, you can't be bothered to get off your lazy @rse and get one.
4. The police don't respect us - now my idea is that your actions tell other people whether to respect you or not. If you think you're some kind of 'badman' and go round your estate or other areas being a complete and utter tw@t and causing trouble, you say the police should respect you? Maybe I don't see how.

There are riots in other countries, but people do this as a last resort when others in authority don't listen to them. This wasnt any of those things and more to do with greed and opportunity.
Some of the youth of today don't learn from teachings of the past. People like Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King. Yes they were fighting for freedom for their people, but their methods worked because people could not fight them because they didnt give anything to fight them with.
 
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