How many young adults do you know with this problem? And what can we do about it?Do you know an "Adam"?
Today I was told about a young man who is a friend of my daughter's. This young man, who I am going to call Adam for simplicity's sake, is terribly intelligent. He can talk about astronomy and science, he is good at math. Adam is bright and capable of doing anything.
Adam is also what I call a leader. His friends will stick up for him even when he is wrong, not because they are such good friends but because he has the ability to convince them that he is not wrong. People in his circle of friends tend to want to be like him, they listen to his advice, and they do things he asks them to.
Adam has the ability and talent to go far in this life and really make something of himself. I'm not really sure of his age but I know he is in his very early 20s and like many young men of his age group he is doing NOTHING with all this talent.
Adam instead chooses to spend his days doing drugs and playing video games. He spends his nights partying and living it up, so to speak. He has a girlfriend who he appears to care nothing for and who he regularly "puts in her place". He has a child who he is also taking care of and I assume loves. He lives with them but they do not act as one would hope a young family would.
Adam has responsibilities and chooses to act irresponsibly. He has all this intelligence and ability but does nothing with it.
The reason I am telling you this story is because the more I look at the young people in our society today the more frightened I become. So many of our youth are running around lost. They, like Adam, seem to simply not care. Has the world treated them too good or so badly that they have lost the ability to care about their own lives and the lives of those they affect.
More and more young men of this age group are sitting at home in front of their televisions playing games all day instead of bettering themselves or going to work. They have no vision and if they do have dreams they do not have the drive to make any attempt at achieving them.
I believe one of the major problems in our society is the school system itself. If you manage to graduate high school, which is a feat in and of itself now adays, then by the time you are out you certainly do not want to continue because of how awful school was for you. This is not to say that there are not kids who go on to college, of course there are, but they are rapidly decreasing in number. We must ask ourselves why this is.
Our school system does not work folks. What will have to happen before we realize this and do something about it. By high school kids are ready for more than what we give them. I do not mean academically, although in some cases this is also true, but emotionally and in the way of treatment. Most teachers are still treating high school students like toddlers. Kids are growing up much faster in today's society and are not being treated like young adults in our high schools.
For instance, if a teacher expects to be respected then should they not be treating our children with a modecom of respect to teach what respect is. If a teacher cannot act respectfully then how can we expect our children to simply give respect automatically. By the time our kids our teens they understand respect but they also are far to smart to give undeserved respect simply because someone is older or has a title like teacher. By the time a child reaches his or her teen years it takes a little more than "because I said so".
Of course this cannot be the only reason we have such unmotivated youth. Some of it is parents are not teaching what it means to be an adult. My oldest son got a job when he was 14 and soon my youngest will as well. They both know the importance of a hard days work and the reward of a well earned check at the end of the week. They also have learned how rewarding it is to save your own money to buy the things you want and have them truly be yours because you earned them. This cannot be said for all teens anymore. There was a time when most teenagers went out and got jobs. It was just what was done. Those days are long gone. Now only a handful of today's youth are doing this. Some of this is because of parenting and some is because of the amount of homework schools are giving which makes it impossible to do anything outside of school and homework.
We MUST get control of this. We MUST motivate our youth. We MUST teach responsibility and goal setting. I fear if we do not we will soon be supporting an entire generation of homeless and needlessly on welfare familys.
Things have to change, with our schools, with the older generation being good role models, with the older generation being mentors, and with the youth who are right now doing NOTHING.
Those of you are like Adam.... YOU have a choice. You can allow yourselves to stay your course and do nothing or you can rise above what the synics around you expect and go get educated or get jobs. Show the older generation they are wrong about you. Let them know you have intelligence and skills. Show yourself what you are made of. You might be suprised at how proud of yourself you become with even the smallest of accomplishments. I can tell you that nothing can happen if you do not try, bad or good. You will not become rich overnight either way but at least if you make an effort, then you have begun your journey to your dreams.
Just so we are clear on this age group I'm talking about 18 - 25 year olds. Do you really believe at this age level the parents are still responsible? And if they didn't do the job of teaching responsibility at a younger age do you think they will bother now? Or do you think a young person can turn out like this even when taught responsibility during youth?
Posted by nick f
i have a friend like that.
Posted by Fireball226
His parents need to handle this
Orignal From: Vision Care: How many young adults do you know with this problem? And what can we do about it?
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