Thursday, May 25, 2006
These are the good old days.
By Russell King
If we’re to believe the newspapers and TV news programs, our schools are full of kids who are illiterate, violent thugs who’d rather smoke, drink and do drugs than anything else. Today’s youth are foul-mouthed, self-centered, over-sexed losers approaching the on-ramp to the Highway to Hell with the gas pedal floored. One study found that in a recent month of TV news coverage of American youth, just 2% of teens were shown at home, and just 1% were portrayed in a work setting while 20% had the criminal justice as the visual backdrop.
Some of our nation’s leading figures predicted this would happen. Criminologist John DiIulio said our kids would become a fearsome horde of "super-predators" and estimated that they'd number nearly 200,000 by now. William Bennett, the former drug czar, wrote a 1996 book with DiIulio on the topic. Even Attorney General Janet Reno foresaw violent crime doubling among kids. They told us that a new generation of brutal and remorseless teens was about to savage the nation, and millions of Americans believed them. Millions still do.
The trouble is: It never happened. Instead, Americans are experiencing the sharpest decline in teen crime in modern history. Over the past 10 years, serious violent crime by teenagers has fallen by 70%. Schools today are as safe as they were in the 1960s, according to Justice Department figures. Arrest rates for robbery, rape and aggravated assault are off a third since 1980 for kids aged 10-18, according to the Justice Department's 2006 National Report on Juvenile Offenders and Victims. "Kids now are less violent than you were," James Rieland, the director of juvenile court services in Pittsburgh's Allegheny County, tells new prosecutors.
The reality is, today’s kids are pretty good people and – in many ways – better than we were (and are):
Example: Rates of teenage alcohol and tobacco consumption have fallen to all-time lows, and our current group of kids in grades 6 through 12 smokes less than any generation since World War II.
Example: Teen pregnancy is down by 33% (to the lowest level ever measured). High school sexual activity is down by 14%.
Example: Teen suicide rates have been declining for the past 10 years. Nine of 10 teens describe themselves as "usually happy."
Nor is it just what the kids are not doing that sets them apart. Today’s teens – if you look at them instead of images of them on TV – are worthy of our respect:
Example: 92% of our middle and high school kids are involved in at least one positive health behavior, ranging from earning good grades to taking part in a school sport to involvement in a religious institution.
Example: A higher share of high school students are community volunteers today (more than 65%) than ever before measured, going back half a century. According to a recent study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at the University of Maryland, teens and collegians are one third more likely to volunteer their time than are older Americans (that would be you and me).
Example: More than 90% of teens now say they "get along" with their parents, and nearly 80% say they get along "very well" or "extremely well." One survey found 82% of teens reporting "no problems" with any family member (that was just 48% back in 1974).
Example: Eight in 10 teens now say it's "cool to be smart," and the average SAT score is the highest it's been in 30 years.
Example: "We're seeing a huge cultural shift away from the word 'I' to the word 'we' in this new generation of young people coming in," U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, head of U.S. forces in Europe, observed in a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Forget what talking heads say to boost their ratings and what politicians say to push their agendas. This is the real news about today's young people in America.
By Russell King
If we’re to believe the newspapers and TV news programs, our schools are full of kids who are illiterate, violent thugs who’d rather smoke, drink and do drugs than anything else. Today’s youth are foul-mouthed, self-centered, over-sexed losers approaching the on-ramp to the Highway to Hell with the gas pedal floored. One study found that in a recent month of TV news coverage of American youth, just 2% of teens were shown at home, and just 1% were portrayed in a work setting while 20% had the criminal justice as the visual backdrop.
Some of our nation’s leading figures predicted this would happen. Criminologist John DiIulio said our kids would become a fearsome horde of "super-predators" and estimated that they'd number nearly 200,000 by now. William Bennett, the former drug czar, wrote a 1996 book with DiIulio on the topic. Even Attorney General Janet Reno foresaw violent crime doubling among kids. They told us that a new generation of brutal and remorseless teens was about to savage the nation, and millions of Americans believed them. Millions still do.
The trouble is: It never happened. Instead, Americans are experiencing the sharpest decline in teen crime in modern history. Over the past 10 years, serious violent crime by teenagers has fallen by 70%. Schools today are as safe as they were in the 1960s, according to Justice Department figures. Arrest rates for robbery, rape and aggravated assault are off a third since 1980 for kids aged 10-18, according to the Justice Department's 2006 National Report on Juvenile Offenders and Victims. "Kids now are less violent than you were," James Rieland, the director of juvenile court services in Pittsburgh's Allegheny County, tells new prosecutors.
The reality is, today’s kids are pretty good people and – in many ways – better than we were (and are):
Example: Rates of teenage alcohol and tobacco consumption have fallen to all-time lows, and our current group of kids in grades 6 through 12 smokes less than any generation since World War II.
Example: Teen pregnancy is down by 33% (to the lowest level ever measured). High school sexual activity is down by 14%.
Example: Teen suicide rates have been declining for the past 10 years. Nine of 10 teens describe themselves as "usually happy."
Nor is it just what the kids are not doing that sets them apart. Today’s teens – if you look at them instead of images of them on TV – are worthy of our respect:
Example: 92% of our middle and high school kids are involved in at least one positive health behavior, ranging from earning good grades to taking part in a school sport to involvement in a religious institution.
Example: A higher share of high school students are community volunteers today (more than 65%) than ever before measured, going back half a century. According to a recent study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at the University of Maryland, teens and collegians are one third more likely to volunteer their time than are older Americans (that would be you and me).
Example: More than 90% of teens now say they "get along" with their parents, and nearly 80% say they get along "very well" or "extremely well." One survey found 82% of teens reporting "no problems" with any family member (that was just 48% back in 1974).
Example: Eight in 10 teens now say it's "cool to be smart," and the average SAT score is the highest it's been in 30 years.
Example: "We're seeing a huge cultural shift away from the word 'I' to the word 'we' in this new generation of young people coming in," U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, head of U.S. forces in Europe, observed in a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Forget what talking heads say to boost their ratings and what politicians say to push their agendas. This is the real news about today's young people in America.
It turns out today's teenagers aren't so scary after all. Results of USA WEEKEND's Teens & Parents survey reveal a generation of young people who: get along well with their parents and approve of the way they're being raised; think of their parents with affection and respect; speak with Mom or Dad when they have a problem; feel that their parents understand them; and believe their family is the No. 1 priority in their parents' lives (many even think their parents are cool!). A survey by the Stanford Center on Adolescence shows us that today's teens are affectionate, sensible and far happier than the angry and tortured souls that have been painted for us by stereotypes.
Example: Today's teenagers admire their parents and welcome parental guidance about important matters such as career choice (although not -- by a long shot -- Mom and Dad's advice on matters of personal taste, such as music or fashion).
Example: When we ask teens to choose a hero, they usually select an older family member rather than a remote public figure.
Example: Most teens say they enjoy the company of both parents and friends.
Example: Most teens believe they must be tolerant of differences among individuals (though they do not always find this easy in the cliquish environment of high school).
Example: One prevalent quality found in teens' statements about themselves, their friends and their families is a strikingly positive emotional tone. By and large, these are very nice kids.
Here’s another shock for you: American families are growing closer. It’s in the real-world data, although nobody has yet been able to explain it. I’ve got a feeling that there’s a cause and effect relationship between this fact and all those I listed before it. And, to tell you the truth, I’m loving it.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Fathers, sons and the rise of steam
By Russell King
Sometimes the pieces of life’s puzzle overlap and make moments that leave you thinking. The lines of father and son run close and parallel, and an American dad can find himself with a foot on either side. I’ve been having one of those moments for a couple of weeks now.
A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my parents. I live way north in America, and they live way south, so we don’t get to be together as often as we’d like. Because we yearn for more time together, my father and I pushed ourselves to share every minute we could. When I say "pushed," you have to keep in mind that everything is relative. I could be wrong, but it seems like 25 years ago we could take a few more steps in a day than we do now.
I’m used to my own signs of aging, seeing them in the mirror as I do, but seeing them in my father always takes me by surprise. It’s an emotional, not intellectual, surprise: My head knows he’s 75 years old and battling leukemia, but my heart still sees him as Daddy The Invincible. He put off a week of chemotherapy until after our visit, so that the treatment and side effects would not interfere with our vacation – which tells me that although his body is weakening, the spirit remains strong. As he has done all his life, he sacrificed himself for the good of others.
That’s a strength that too few men know about, that gets too little attention, that deserves far greater admiration. Our culture is stuck these past few years in a stupid sort of juvenile machismo when it comes to strength. We think a man has strength when he has power over others – when he can coerce others to do his will. Some use money, some use the law, some use violence (or the threat of violence), but it’s still coercion. We are so very wrong. What we see as strength is a mask for weakness. Every attempt at coercion is proof of weakness. We are in a sad state of mass self-delusion.
True strength comes in two varieties: for others or over yourself. If it’s over others or for yourself, it is the opposite of strength – no matter what you name it. You can call an outhouse a mansion, but it won’t change the smell any. Having power over yourself and using it for others also shows strength in that it runs smack into the face of our culture, which is pushing the other way with all its got. Such is the lesson of the 2000-year-old example my dad taught me to honor; such is the lesson of the example my dad taught me with his life.
Dad, I noticed when we were fishing, is still casting directly into the wind.
That same week, my eldest son turned 18. The legal age of majority; the symbolic age of separation from parents. Dan has all the advantages of youth, and then some. He’s intellectually superior to most of us, artistically gifted and blessed with both the face and smile of a model and the lean, muscular torso of an olympian. He’s working, he’s thinking about his future, and he’s being remarkably realistic for his age. Still, he and I both know that he’s not ready for the exquisite independence of young adulthood. But the siren song is pulling him away. He’s making choices that create space between us, as I know he must. Pain and pride are both in it.
Then, last week, when Dan was stricken with a combination of strep and mono, he called on me for help. He rarely gets sick, so he’s a poor patient when it happens. I’m sure it left a bruise on his I’m-18-and-can-stand-on-my-own ego to call me, but it did me good to be called. He needed me, and I’m still selfish enough to be happy about it.
Dad called, too: His chemotherapy is on hold until he undergoes, and recovers from, a triple bypass surgery. I’m still selfish enough to be terrified by it.
So, here I am: half a son yearning for more time with his dad, half a dad yearning for more time with his son. It requires some amount of time spent in contemplation, staring through the steam rising from a mug of coffee. Just like that steam, the thoughts rise, swirl, mix and fade away. What I think I see is that this is how it is when family and love are what you treasure most. And the treasure makes it all worthwhile.
By Russell King
Sometimes the pieces of life’s puzzle overlap and make moments that leave you thinking. The lines of father and son run close and parallel, and an American dad can find himself with a foot on either side. I’ve been having one of those moments for a couple of weeks now.
A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my parents. I live way north in America, and they live way south, so we don’t get to be together as often as we’d like. Because we yearn for more time together, my father and I pushed ourselves to share every minute we could. When I say "pushed," you have to keep in mind that everything is relative. I could be wrong, but it seems like 25 years ago we could take a few more steps in a day than we do now.
I’m used to my own signs of aging, seeing them in the mirror as I do, but seeing them in my father always takes me by surprise. It’s an emotional, not intellectual, surprise: My head knows he’s 75 years old and battling leukemia, but my heart still sees him as Daddy The Invincible. He put off a week of chemotherapy until after our visit, so that the treatment and side effects would not interfere with our vacation – which tells me that although his body is weakening, the spirit remains strong. As he has done all his life, he sacrificed himself for the good of others.
That’s a strength that too few men know about, that gets too little attention, that deserves far greater admiration. Our culture is stuck these past few years in a stupid sort of juvenile machismo when it comes to strength. We think a man has strength when he has power over others – when he can coerce others to do his will. Some use money, some use the law, some use violence (or the threat of violence), but it’s still coercion. We are so very wrong. What we see as strength is a mask for weakness. Every attempt at coercion is proof of weakness. We are in a sad state of mass self-delusion.
True strength comes in two varieties: for others or over yourself. If it’s over others or for yourself, it is the opposite of strength – no matter what you name it. You can call an outhouse a mansion, but it won’t change the smell any. Having power over yourself and using it for others also shows strength in that it runs smack into the face of our culture, which is pushing the other way with all its got. Such is the lesson of the 2000-year-old example my dad taught me to honor; such is the lesson of the example my dad taught me with his life.
Dad, I noticed when we were fishing, is still casting directly into the wind.
That same week, my eldest son turned 18. The legal age of majority; the symbolic age of separation from parents. Dan has all the advantages of youth, and then some. He’s intellectually superior to most of us, artistically gifted and blessed with both the face and smile of a model and the lean, muscular torso of an olympian. He’s working, he’s thinking about his future, and he’s being remarkably realistic for his age. Still, he and I both know that he’s not ready for the exquisite independence of young adulthood. But the siren song is pulling him away. He’s making choices that create space between us, as I know he must. Pain and pride are both in it.
Then, last week, when Dan was stricken with a combination of strep and mono, he called on me for help. He rarely gets sick, so he’s a poor patient when it happens. I’m sure it left a bruise on his I’m-18-and-can-stand-on-my-own ego to call me, but it did me good to be called. He needed me, and I’m still selfish enough to be happy about it.
Dad called, too: His chemotherapy is on hold until he undergoes, and recovers from, a triple bypass surgery. I’m still selfish enough to be terrified by it.
So, here I am: half a son yearning for more time with his dad, half a dad yearning for more time with his son. It requires some amount of time spent in contemplation, staring through the steam rising from a mug of coffee. Just like that steam, the thoughts rise, swirl, mix and fade away. What I think I see is that this is how it is when family and love are what you treasure most. And the treasure makes it all worthwhile.
