When Kristopher saw some kids at his school making fun of a
fellow student named Michael for wearing the same clothes every day, he laughed
right along with the bullies. Later at home, Kristopher thought about how his
actions affected Michael, and he decided to try to make things right. Joined by
his friend Antwain, the pair gave Michael a sincere apology and a bag full of
brand-new clothes. The act of kindness not only affected young Michael’s life,
but also millions of other people when a video clip of their gesture went
viral.
Kids these days.
Olivia and Emma, both still years away from being old enough
to drive, don’t waste their childhood by staring at their smartphones all day.
Instead, they sing and play guitar, ukulele, banjo, bass, and fiddle, and they
record albums of original music and perform across the Midwest, often opening
for national acts. They’re known as the Burney Sisters, and you can catch them
on stage at this weekend’s Roots ‘N’ Blues ‘N’ BBQ Festival in Columbia.
Kids these days.
When 21-year-old Satchel was trapped in the hotel where he works
in Beaumont, Texas, during tropical storm Imelda last week, he was the only
employee in the building. For the next 32 hours, he cheerfully assisted the 90
hotel guests who were also unable to leave due to the floodwaters outside. He
and a few guests even braved the elements and distributed food to truckers who
were stranded in their vehicles.
Kids these days.
Less than a year after addressing the Swedish parliament in
an effort to voice the concerns of her generation about the climate crisis,
16-year-old Greta sailed across the Atlantic (refusing to fly in a fossil fuel
burning jet) and testified before the United States House of Representatives.
She also spearheaded a global School Strike for the Climate about which she
said, “The symbolism of the climate strike is that if you adults don’t give a
damn about my future, I won’t either.”
Kids these days.
Around 400 University of Missouri students gathered in
support of the School Climate Strike last Friday at the campus’s famous
Speakers Circle. Among those in the crowd was an 18-year-old from Ashland,
Missouri, named Alex. With the blessings of a supportive professor, my son
skipped class to attend the event. Alex, Greta, and millions of other young
people know that the ever-worsening climate crisis is very real, and they know
that the corporate greed and political corruption of the older generations are
responsible for it.
Kids these days.
People my age and older have a terrible habit of disparaging
today’s youth. They see ridiculous and dangerous viral videos of teens doing
careless things and ask. “What’s the matter with kids these days?” I answer
this question by reminding them that young people have always been impulsive
and reckless. The only difference is that when we were young and doing dumb
things, smartphones and the internet were not around to permanently memorialize
our temporary stupidity.
Before you judge “kids these days”, try walking a mile in
their tiny, light-up shoes. The students at my school, ages 5-8, frequently
surprise me with their ability to thrive in an increasingly scary world. You
may think that today’s children are just a bunch of YouTube-addicted and
entitled brats without a care in the world, but you’ve never had to look a
roomful of them in their big, tear-filled eyes while having a class discussion
about what to do in the event that an active shooter breaks into their school
and tries to kill them.
Kids these days are more informed, more empathetic, more engaged,
and under more emotional stress than young people were in any previous
generation. I interact with my students and my three teenagers every day. I
know how they think and what they think about. Today’s young people deserve
much more credit than they receive for their positivity, strength, kindness,
and resilience. They deserve to hear the grown-ups in their lives say, “I’m
proud of you.”
Maybe the better question would be, “What’s the matter with
adults these days?”
