"Kids these days." We have all heard it at one time or another. Kids today just are not what they used to be. Right? Kids today are too soft. Kids today just don't have a clue. Kids today wouldn't have made it back in my day. We have all heard at some point these criticisms of the youth of today. We have all been privy to someone deriding today's young people worrying about what is going to happen when these kids grow up and take over society. It's not going to be pretty is it? Nope, the good times really are over for good. They don't have any respect and they are just so entitled. These kids can't handle responsibility and everything is going to go to hell in a handbasket. I mean just look at them. Good God! They just do not get it! I fear for our future. All of this is a very common refrain that is oft repeated, so it has to be true if so many believe this, right?Well, I've got news for everyone; None of this is true. Not one word is true. There is not one sliver of truth in any of the above statements. How do I know this? One, I work with teenagers every day and have done so for the past 20 years and I can assure you, for the most part, teenagers are pretty good, thoughtful people who want to do well, are very concerned about the future and want to make things better. Two, every generation looks at the next generation and is convinced that the younger generation are the harbingers of the Apocalypse. It has ALWAYS been like this. And when I say ALWAYS, I truly mean ALWAYS. I like to tell my students that teenagers have always been teenagers and they always will be. Teenagers have always thought about essentially the same things, worried about the same things, wanted the same things, felt the same way, and were interested in the same things. Really the only things that change with teenagers are the way they dress, the music they listen to, and the lexicon that they use. Other than that, the teenagers of today are really not all that different from teenagers 100 years ago. Furthermore, the opinion that adults have today of teenagers is not all that different from the opinion of adults towards teenagers 100 years. As the old saying goes, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
We can see this very phenomenon play out in documents from the 14th and 15th centuries which express the concern of adults because teenagers seemed to be more interested in "frolicking" and "slothfulness" than they were in working the fields or learning a trade. When the Puritans made their way to the New World, they were often shocked and dismayed at the "youthful exuberance" that teenagers seemed to employ. Often it seemed as though the teenagers were so willfully disobedient and woefully disinclined towards industriousness that the Puritans believed that it was the Devil himself who was taking advantage of the young people's minds. During the latter half of the 18th century, there was a young musician who was turning the music world upside down, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was crafting music that was unlike anything before. Because it was "different" from anything before older people looked upon this music suspiciously. Then there was the matter of Mozart's decadent and seemingly depraved lifestyle, after all, he wrote a piece of music extolling the virtues of licking someone's...ahem.....backside (Leck mich im Arsch). All of this, coupled with the fact that it was predominately younger people who were drawn to Mozart's music was all the proof the older generation needed; these young people could wreak havoc on society. "Proper" society at the time became increasingly convinced that these young people were morally adrift and would never be fit to assume the reins of society. In all of these instances, these young people eventually did assume the reins of society and tended to do better than their predecessors had done despite their moral and social shortcomings.
During the 1920s, when Jazz was all the rage, a speakeasy was the place to go, and cars gave Americans freedom the likes of which they had never known before, older generations tisk-tisked the teenagers of the day. Young girls began to cut their hair short, much shorter than any previous generation ever had. The hemlines on their skirts came up- way up, exposing their calves. Why they were pretty much naked! Young girls tried to flatten their chests and wore loose-fitting skirts! The horrors of it all! These same girls had the audacity to smoke and drink! IN PUBLIC NO LESS! And worst of all, was that young girls and boys began to go out....alone...away from the house. Shocking behavior. To top it all off, these young people danced a thinly disguised mating dance called the Charleston. The older generations were aghast at this lewd, shocking. It was obvious that the Charleston was basically having sex with your clothes on. Some communities went so far as to outright ban the dancing of the Charleston because it so offended publically decency. During the 1950s teenagers once again proved to the older generations just how unfit they were to assume the leadership of the nation. Rock and Roll burst onto the scene and with it a new round of rebelliousness. Teenage boys grew their hair long and slicked it back with a lil' dab of Brylcreem. Dungarees began to overtake pleated slacks and penny loafers. Adults across the nation sat dumb-founded, horrified, shocked, and outraged as images of Elvis swiveling and gyrating glowed in living rooms across the nation. It was pretty clear to many adults; Rock and Roll was the seventh sign of the apocalypse. Rock and Roll was making teenagers unfit for adulthood as they most assuredly were going to spiral down the social drain due to rampant drug use, delinquency, and teenage pregnancies. America was certainly doomed. It was a good ride, but these young people just will not be able to guide this nation any longer. Just look at them! The 1950s gave way to the 1960s, and if adults were shocked by the youth of the 50s the youth of the 60s would pretty much kill them. Music became louder, faster and now carried social messages rather than songs about teenage love. Young people grew their hair long- real long. They ushered in the drug culture. They openly mocked and challenged the social system. Now these young people, adults would proclaim, are way too soft intellectually, morally, and physically to lead this society. These young people were going to destroy everything great about this nation. It was absolutely true! I mean, just look at those...those.....hippies!!!!!! They just don't have a clue. These young people grew into adults and helped us achieve some of our greatest triumphs; they fought a war and saved us from the horrors of unbridled bigotry, they found a way to get us to the moon and back, and they figured out how to thoroughly transform society into one that is more connected with access to more information than any human ever thought possible. Despite the misgivings adults had about them, these young people rose to the moment.
Today we now know that none of these predictions of moral decay, societal collapse, and dereliction of duty ever happened. Young people have always grown into adults and, at the proper time, assumed the stewardship of humankind flawlessly. I dare say each generation has helped improve society to be better than the generation before them. Today we are more accepting and tolerant of others than we were 30 years ago and the generation of 30 years ago was the generation of the Civil Rights Movement. That's saying something. We are improving and moving forward ever so slightly every single year. At times it may not feel like it, but trust me, we are. Having been around teenagers all my adult life I can honestly say they have never changed; teenagers are just teenagers. They do not ever change. They will grow up. They will cut their hair or change their hairstyle. They will eventually wear better clothes. Their unbridled idealism will eventually give way to well-rooted realism. They will eventually act "normal". Teenagers will grow up into adults and eventually have teenagers of their own. They will shake their heads with disdain and know in their heart of hearts that these teenagers are too soft and will be the downfall of all that they have worked for. And of course, they will eventually be proven wrong...again. It will happen, it is the way of the world.
