Huh... government mind-washing... it would only seem that way in the US. In Canada, they (seem to) promote free speech...

I think this is a huge question and though you're trying NOT to generalize, that's exactly what you're doing. I agree that America, the youth in particular, are miles behind other developed countries. However, it seems you're looking too globally for issues that are particularly local to you. What's wrong with the kids you go to school with? Obviously they're influenced by those around them as well as what they see, but with each particular area there comes with it a specific form of socialization (i.e. one kid sees it and mimics it; everyone else apes him/her). I agree with dre that consumerism and bad parenting are a big part of what's wrong with society, but I don't think that's the bottom line. And violence? As a general rule, humans are innately violent. You want proof? Look around you. Even when little kids aren't subjected to violent "gangster rap" and other pop culture icons who are setting bad examples, they still tend to hit or otherwise harm people. My stepmother didn't let my little brother watch television until he was almost eight years old and the only music she allowed in the house was Christian soft rock or Christmas hymns (blech). Even before preschool, where socialization begins with other kids who HAD been subjected to those violent elements, my brother still wanted to play cops and robbers...where he was the criminal, where he was shooting pretend guns. He bit, kicked, punched, etc. when he didn't get his way.

In all, I'd say that there are million and one factors, but no one definitive answer.

This post has been edited by Qittie deKay: Mar 6 2008, 07:18 PM

We're just trying to pick out the top ten, it's not that hard, really.

Sure it is. Anyone can just pick and choose ten things that most effectively influence America's youth. I mean...you might get three or four that are at the top of the pile, but what about the rest? It's all opinion no matter how you look at it, and no one person is going to agree with another on the answer, even if it is in the setting of a top ten listing. If you're going by the top ten according to each and every person this forum will never die...unless everyone loses interest, which is very likely. All I'm saying is that there ISN'T a definitive answer any way you look at it, and you can't argue that point. I'll agree that you pick ten out of a hat and argue for them...but I never saw anywhere in the original post that said they were looking for that format. *shrugs* Just saying...

Well if he wants my answers, he's gonna get them.

America.


I don't think it's that kids have changed, but that America itself is failing them.

We all recognize obesity is a growing problem, but then our country is choosing to eliminate P.E. from public schools. Sports like dodgeball are outlawed for being "too dangerous" thanks to the voices of vocal critics.

People wonder why kids increasingly prefer video games to playing outside. After all, we have all these sports leagues available for them. But that in itself may be the problem. Those fields are by and large only for league teams. Kids are shooed off the fields that are often chalked up and thus unusable save for teams during much of the summer. America is sending the message to kids that the only time it's alright to play sports is when it's organized league play, but in doing so is removing the element of fun that comes from unorganized sports.

Take a look at what your younger family members are bringing home for homework. Schools are increasingly giving more and more busy work as though their primary objective is to train young workers for a lifetime of drudgery, rather than to make them enjoy learning. Kids are coming home stressed out under workloads similar to what their parents have to deal with, and are expected to be active in sports, jobs, and other responsibilities as well.

Our public media constantly bombards kids with numerous agendas. Marketing from MTV (who owns Nickelodeon) and other sources sells kids on sex from an early age. Marketing of course focuses them on money and material objects. Rap music sells them on the idea that premarital sex, violence, and drugs are perfectly acceptable.

On top of this, parents rarely have time for their kids any more. Apart from the increase of single-parent homes, there is also the matter of parents working so much that they have little time for their kids even when there are 2 parents. It is much more common now for both parents to be active in the workplace trying to make ends meet, while kids are shuffled off to babysitters or groups.

What's more, our society has stopped seeing a distinction between "love" and "lust". Our society sells people, kids included, on the idea of "do what's right for you." Our society tells people to make it all about themselves, rather than other people. It's self-centered, which is what lust is. As a result, numerous marriages and relationships break up because "the energy isn't there anymore" or "the relationship lacks the excitement it once had."

You see, people are only in relationships now for the sex/status/energy/excitement/passion the other person can give them. The idea of caring about others for who they are is foreign to them, and the concepts of commitment and sacrifice are seen as unusual and out of place. Our society has lost any semblance of morality or compassion and our kids of course suffer as a result.

Our media shows almost exclusively bad news instead of good. And indeed, there's very little good news anymore anyway. People get increasingly discouraged. We elect a bunch of dishonest politicians and don't keep them accountable for what they do in office. Our whole society is going down the tubes. The problem isn't with America's youth, but with America as a whole.

Good call Joshua, I agree with all that you said.

Exactly, the "all about me" phenomenon. It tends to end in a crash later on, which is the upside, ironically.


"Good news is no news."

"If it's not entertaining me, it's not worth my time."

Hey, look how nicely this is matching up with the things I mentioned before.


*Glances at all the basketball courts which are rarely used* I agree 100% with this. Some people just don't want to commit 70% of their day to go play school sports, they just want to shoot some hoops and talk with friends without having some bald man yell over their shoulder every other moment. However, it's hard to do when no one is actually going outside and playing (shockingly).

This post has been edited by dre: Mar 11 2008, 06:07 AM

1. About Education :

The system of Education in USA [as in Australia] is not good. You have nice schools with nice library, computers , laboratories and sports utilities but the schools is lacking the value of schooling. The students and their parents see the schools as place to spend the times and free the parents from their responsibilities and free them go to their works. Students see the school as place to play and socialize not a place to facilitate the knowledge and organize the sequencing of the knowledge [which first and which after] It is as building blocks. That mean a good restricted and unified curricula . The students have to feel that skip a class required lot of time and efforts to cover what they skipped.

When I was lecturing Mathematics in Egyptian Faculties, I saw how the students came early to reserve place to sit in the firsts rows. I was suffering seeing how many students has no place to sit in the auditory and standing hour and half, writing their notes on one hand and writing with the other hand while they listen to explanations. That because they know how they will spend hours to recover the missed hour and half.

Classes in developed countries as Egypt, India and Pakistan has windows broken their glass but they are studying two foreign languages plus the native language. They study the same Science and Mathematics mostly theoretically with limited scientific experiments nor computer in each class. They have to prove the scientific laws and remember on head the formulas While in your schools they allow to use sheet for all formulas and calculators to use even for each simple things.

Your students are not seriously study foreign language. Even the English language they are speaking English as mother language and they don't know gramme or id oms etc..What passive what active speech? what direct and indirect speech. Many people [even in high positions] they confused between "their" and "there" , "than" and "then " , "to" and "too". Many can't pronounced a word hasn't met before even it easy to do that.

The System of schools in republics of former Soviet Union are good too. Also the French and German School Systems are good.

The schools in India, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia produced students who are working doctors and famous surgeon in your hospital , Professors in your universities Engineers in space or telecommunications or programmers in your IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, Silicon Vally.... It is 30-60% of the worker working in US in computer related industries, are people has received their education in developed countries or Eastern European countries

2. About Violence
It is your series programs and films that produce these violence. Plus the weaken influence of religion.