What's wrong with our youth? Is it a psychosocial disorder? Is it the parents?

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I guess I'm bothered by the broad brush you're using to paint that generation. The vast majority of kids are still good kids. When I worked in adolescent psych, I saw the most difficult teens on a daily basis. I got pretty worried, much as you are, that the whole generation was awful. I had to open my eyes though. We had a 20 bed unit which was not usually full, yet there were thousands and thousands of youth in our cachment area. The percentage of kids we saw annually was quite small compared to the total population and a lot of the kids in our program weren't even violent/acting out kids. Many of them were more depressed/suicidal. I started making a point of spending time with my very healthy, productive, and fun nieces and nephews.

Now? I have two middle schoolers myself. I went to an Eagle Court of Honor tonight and saw a large group of great boys who are very dedicated to bettering themselves and society. I have a Girl Scout as well as a Boy Scout. I am surrounded by kids who do well academically, are wholesome, thoughtful, nice kids engaged in healthy activities. I am impressed by their ability to converse about global warming, politics, and their belief systems. The majority are goal oriented. Do they have some classmates who are starting to get into drugs, having sex too early, etc? Yeah, they do. They also talk about how those kids are stupid for doing those things. They are also way more into community service than my generation was. I don't ever recall, outside of Girl Scouts, doing any kind of service projects. These kids do them a lot, in school, for various activities and even on their own.

I never said all. How am I painting a whole generation of children? I'm just voicing my opinion. Some of the things I mentioned turned out to be facts. I don't disagree with you at all. There are still some very good children today, but I'm just saying it's far worse than it's ever been.