Unfortunate state of our youth

[LibertyTurns]

A really sad week for me this week culminated by a really bad day yesterday.

I work often with a variety of groups trying to help the disadvantaged. Disabled vets and just regular old vets left behind, homeless, youth training & mentoring, etc. It was a quadruple whammy this week on the front lines as nearly all converged- Memorial Day, HS graduations & kids with no future, etc.

The worst was a testimonial by a young recently separated vet about how a friend of his committed suicide because life had just beaten her down. He was rallying support among his other friends in his unit not to let this happen to any more of them.

Yesterday we had a 18yo kid whose parents had discouraged him from nearly every worthwhile endeavor imaginable & were directing him to “stay on the couch” so to speak. I wish I could go kick their *** right now. To the kid’s credit, he’s going to prove his parents wrong one way or the other & go do something.

We’ve been working with a variety of “getting ready to work” aimed at educating youth on what it takes to succeed in the workplace. These kids just graduated & have no where to go. No skills, no motivation, nothing. The #1 challenge is getting them up every day and to show up.

We selected 8 kids to try to turn their life around. I wish it could be more but we’re struggling with how to be successful in this mission & our strategy is to get a toe hold and have these kids become a bridge to others that follow. We’re not social scientists, just people with an unbringing where we all have a work ethic & have difficulty relating to people whose parents, etc have ingrained in them that they will be given what they need, not earn it.

Lastly, talked to a 25yo living at his parent house. Sunk $50K+ into a meaningless Bachelors degree and could only get a $10/hr job for 30 hrs per week (to avoid Obamacare) and was desperate for a chance to succeed. Who was talking to this kid & thought $50k was a good idea for a job you need no experience to start at?

I’m dying for eager, energetic workers. I’ll train them. We pay well. We’ve advertised, gone HS to HS in a 100 mi radius speaking to different groups. Interest is nonexistent & not just in the kids but their teachers, school officials, parents, etc. Maddening.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

There will always be a percentage of young folks who lack direction and motivation. I find that isn’t close to the majority in most schools...in bad areas yes its more prevalent.

But the majority of high schoolers I interact with are motivated to do something worthwhile with their lives. And I find that their teachers and administrators do actually care about them and work to aid and guide them.

Keep up the good work though. If you make a breakthrough with even one young person you have given them a great gift and improved the world in the process.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I find the youth "profile" to be all over the map and can't quite account for the differences. I spoke at a high school graduation last year and was inspired by the graduating class and their prospects. On the other hand my youngest daughter teaches at a fancy private college where the kids all come from rich families and she finds them absolutely slothful.

 

[LibertyTurns]

I find the youth "profile" to be all over the map and can't quite account for the differences. I spoke at a high school graduation last year and was inspired by the graduating class and their prospects. On the other hand my youngest daughter teaches at a fancy private college where the kids all come from rich families and she finds them absolutely slothful.

At the top of the educational scale today’s youth are much more accomplished. It’s really amazing how smart & developed they are. The bottom is downright depressing. I was more pissed at the parents of that one kid than anything. The other kids had no role model & you could blame their plight on that they were reared in broken families, passed from grandparents to aunts/uncles, single parent either too busy or didn’t give a crap, etc. When you’ve got parents dissuading a kid from the military, vocational schools, community college or entering the work force at all and telling him to chill instead of trying to do something you’ve got a special kind of parental rot that’s hard to fathom. Then again if you’ve spent your whole life on the dole, why would you inspire your child to actually accomplish something/anything? People want to talk about the idiotic sometimes dangerous neo-Nazi racism but the more insidious racism is the kind where people have convinced today’s youth there’s no point in trying.