Spring Break
Children are overexposed
Mary Dixon
Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: Opinion
The East Carolinian
As a child, I could never understand my parents' contempt for how I behaved. I acted just like my friends, but as I grow older, I think I'm starting to understand the age old saying of, "kids these days."
The upcoming generation is certainly one full of problems. It seems that every group of kids slightly changes social norms throughout time, but it seems that kids these days have less regard for rules and moral responsibility, and more for instant gratification. But who is to blame? Should we point fingers at the media, the school systems or should we point the finger at ourselves?
Let's start at school. Fourth grade teacher at Y.E. Smith Elementary School in Durham and ECU graduate Dana Hyland has only been teaching for a few months, but has already witnessed the drastic change in children's behavior these days.
"My kids are all good children. But, they have learned a lot of things from home that surprise me every day," she said. "Recently, I took my kids on a field trip and one child came up to me and said 'puff, puff, pass Ms. Hyland, don't knock the rotation!' and I was blown away. I had to tell the child that it was not OK to say that at school, but the child kept insisting that it was OK [because] he had seen it from a movie."
If kids are allowed to watch movies and TV shows that are clearly intended for an older audience, then of course they are going to think it is all right to repeat what they see.
Parents have to monitor what their children are exposed to if they expect them to know what is appropriate to talk about and what is not. In a generation where most children are babysat by the television, it isn't surprising that things are taking a turn for the worse. So many factors contribute to the degeneration of our youth.
It's actually extremely hard to blame it on one solid thing. Another outcome of distancing ourselves from our children has lead to something much worse than a potty mouth. From 2003 to 2004, rates of suicide among children ages one to 20 years old spiked 18 percent, according to the Alliance for Human Research Protection.
Another growing problem is the rate of teen pregnancy among this generation. A study in the November issue of Pediatrics linked watching sexually charged television, and pregnancy in girls ages 12 to 17; and the results are not favorable. In a controlled study, when interviewed twice in two years about watching sexually stimulating television and having sex, 58 girls of the 2,003 adolescents had become pregnant by the time of the follow-up interview and 33 of the boys reported that they had gotten someone pregnant.
If we don't start connecting with our children again, then who knows how bad the next generation could possibly turn out? It's our duty as adults to guide those who are new to the world. Our parents helped us grow and develop into a fairly functional group, so who are we to deny the opportunity to our youth?
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.
As a child, I could never understand my parents' contempt for how I behaved. I acted just like my friends, but as I grow older, I think I'm starting to understand the age old saying of, "kids these days."
The upcoming generation is certainly one full of problems. It seems that every group of kids slightly changes social norms throughout time, but it seems that kids these days have less regard for rules and moral responsibility, and more for instant gratification. But who is to blame? Should we point fingers at the media, the school systems or should we point the finger at ourselves?
Let's start at school. Fourth grade teacher at Y.E. Smith Elementary School in Durham and ECU graduate Dana Hyland has only been teaching for a few months, but has already witnessed the drastic change in children's behavior these days.
"My kids are all good children. But, they have learned a lot of things from home that surprise me every day," she said. "Recently, I took my kids on a field trip and one child came up to me and said 'puff, puff, pass Ms. Hyland, don't knock the rotation!' and I was blown away. I had to tell the child that it was not OK to say that at school, but the child kept insisting that it was OK [because] he had seen it from a movie."
If kids are allowed to watch movies and TV shows that are clearly intended for an older audience, then of course they are going to think it is all right to repeat what they see.
Parents have to monitor what their children are exposed to if they expect them to know what is appropriate to talk about and what is not. In a generation where most children are babysat by the television, it isn't surprising that things are taking a turn for the worse. So many factors contribute to the degeneration of our youth.
It's actually extremely hard to blame it on one solid thing. Another outcome of distancing ourselves from our children has lead to something much worse than a potty mouth. From 2003 to 2004, rates of suicide among children ages one to 20 years old spiked 18 percent, according to the Alliance for Human Research Protection.
Another growing problem is the rate of teen pregnancy among this generation. A study in the November issue of Pediatrics linked watching sexually charged television, and pregnancy in girls ages 12 to 17; and the results are not favorable. In a controlled study, when interviewed twice in two years about watching sexually stimulating television and having sex, 58 girls of the 2,003 adolescents had become pregnant by the time of the follow-up interview and 33 of the boys reported that they had gotten someone pregnant.
If we don't start connecting with our children again, then who knows how bad the next generation could possibly turn out? It's our duty as adults to guide those who are new to the world. Our parents helped us grow and develop into a fairly functional group, so who are we to deny the opportunity to our youth?
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
J
posted 11/13/08 @ 12:49 PM EST
"Our parents helped us grow and develop into a fairly functional group, so who are we to deny the opportunity to our youth?"
Yeah and our parents also whipped our asses too when we acted foolish and didn't have to worry about being arrested for it. (Continued…)
Ash
posted 11/14/08 @ 8:20 AM EST
I totally agree. Spare the rod, spoil the child. Most kids in my generation were spanked, and we're better off for it.
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