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May 21, 2005
Visitor from abroad
I have, for the last two weeks, played host to a young man from the US, a student on a "placement" with my place of work. He has been an absolute delight to host, full of enthusiasm, keen to learn and pleasant company. Everyone he has met and worked with during his time here has been impressed by his humour, and his politeness - something I fear that we, in the UK, have taught our young folk is "old fashioned" to our cost.
He has certainly been an eye-opener for some and a credit both to his family and to his university - they both can be very proud of him.
His manners and his politeness have opened up a line of thought, however, which I think needs to be further explored - in this country at least. Why have we allowed manners and standards of behaviour to slip so badly? What have we done that has made our young people - and it has to be said, not all of them - such louts. They swear constantly, they behave indecently and they disrupt peoples lives in the most appalling manner - yet our police and our schools seem unable to deal with it.
Could it be that the great "children are sacred and totally blameless" dabsters have got it wrong? Could it be that the concept, as practiced in the US, that children can and do understand the differences between right and wrong from an early age, could be right? Horror of horrors, could they be right that children do commit "adult" crimes and need to be treated as such when they do? Could it be that we need to rethink the idea that a child is a child until they are 16/18/21? I think we do.
My young visitor has been a breathe of fresh air. His respinses to some of the things he has seen in our cities have certainly been interesting, even enlightening. It may be that he is "an old head on young shoulders" and it may even be that he is unusual, but my own experience of his fellow students a few months ago suggest otherwise.
He has certainly showed me a new face of responsible and willing youth - one I hoipe we can recapture here in the UK. If we do not, we will deserve the nation the present yob culture will create in future.
Posted by The Gray Monk at May 21, 2005 09:19 AM
Comments
Just some thoughts and observations of mine on the the youth of the UK, at least the Scottish part.
I was visiting the wife's family over near Glasgow when after a dinner out we came across some kids(10-13 years old) jumpimng up and down and otherwise beating up a phone box. Everyone with me and around me was pretending nothing was happening. I went to stop them when my brother-inlaw stopped me, basicly telling me that I would get into trouble with the law. He told the kids would lie and said I hit them first, therefore the poilce would arrest me. "After a child is innocent and would never lie", that is just bull and most americans know this. But we have been dealing with "childern" doing adult crimes much longer the the UK.
So alot of american's are teaching "old-school" leasons in hope that the pain now will make life for the child and parents easier in the long run, figuring it's better then visiting them on death row.
Posted by: skipjack at May 24, 2005 12:22 AM