Kids These Days (Are Pretty Great)

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?”