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Unfortunately I am at that age (40 plus) and had to endure the nightmare of going to school and doing what I was told whether I liked it or not; of respecting my elders and being thankful if, after doing someone a favour or task, they gave me a reward.
I sometimes wonder what sort of person I could have been if I was able to have the kind of parental support young people have today. For example parents who, instead of saying that if I was punished at school then I probably deserved it and should learn from the experience, would have instead gone down to that school and “sorted them teachers out for picking on meâ€.
Maybe they would have shown me that the only way to get on in life was to demand respect from others, whilst at the same time showing none back to anyone other than those people to whom I wished to demonstrate how “hard†I was!
Perhaps they would have taught me to demand those goods which other people have, the very goods which those people have worked hard to get and which I should receive free. After all, it is not my fault that nobody wants to take me on as an employee and pay me the salary I want and they even expect me to get up early just to be on time when I have been out partying all night!
Is that not what the Government is there for - to ensure I have the same chances as everyone else? It isn't my fault that I have no qualifications and couldn't get on with my teachers. Dad said he had the same trouble – does that sound familiar?
Then perhaps when you get verbal abuse from youths in the street you will understand that they all need our respect. We should not invade their space by walking down their side of the street or look at them in the face and we should be more understanding it isn't there fault or their parents that they act as they do. They were probably picked on and misunderstood by teachers; they all deserve a chance and another and another and another - just like they have always had!
By: Malc, ex-optimist
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Life's gotten harder for kids now. Get used to it.
How can you have respect for a bully like that?
But I agree with you that when people hurl abuse at you in the street-I live in a nice area but there is a school nearby that the rougher end of town go to and I go to the Catholic School, even though I'm a proud atheist and the whole school knows, they often shout horrible things and throw cricket balls and icicles at us when we walk to and from school-most of them have given up trying to gain people's respect because they don't want to change their opinions on young people. So people just play up to the stereotype. Sad really.
P.S. I speak from experience when I say they throw things at us. The winter just gone, I knew someone from my school who has a massive scare from when one threw an icicle at him and I got a cricket ball thrown at my head by someone in upper sixth(17-18) when I was in year seven(11-12) needless to say, it hurt.
But I agree with you that when people hurl abuse at you in the street-I live in a nice area but there is a school nearby that the rougher end of town go to and I go to the Catholic School, even though I'm a proud atheist and the whole school knows, they often shout horrible things and throw cricket balls and icicles at us when we walk to and from school-most of them have given up trying to gain people's respect because they don't want to change their opinions on young people. So people just play up to the stereotype. Sad really.
P.S. I speak from experience when I say they throw things at us. The winter just gone, I knew someone from my school who has a massive scare from when one threw an icicle at him and I got a cricket ball thrown at my head by someone in upper sixth(17-18) when I was in year seven(11-12) needless to say, it hurt.
Mr H