Post by jordynperry on Aug 5, 2011 12:08:24 GMT -5
"When asked by Roper Starch Worldwide in 1998 to rank the major problems facing America today, students aged twelve to nineteen most frequently named as their top five concerns selfishness, people who don't respect law and the authorities, wrongdoing by politicians, lack of parental discipline, and courts that care too much about criminals' rights." That statement by the author of the article "The Organization Kid" lost me right there.
I don't know what kids he was asking, I don't know what slanted questions there were to get that answer, but I can say that that sounds completely insane/unrealistic. It sort of went against their whole article, actually. Really, 'selfishness' is ranked as a major problem facing the world by kids who refuse to have actual relationships and make their friends set up an appointment in order to hang out? Do they not consider that selfishness, or are they all self-haters? I can reasonably understand their next answer about authority figures, since, if you choose to believe this article word for word, the kids of this generation are pretty much all self-brain washed into thinking that all authority figures are just nifty (not one of my top views/issues with society at a whole). Wrongdoing by politicians I can see as a reasonable statement. Lack of parental discipline being listed as a top concern of America though just throws everything out of the realm of reality. Since when does a kid want their parents to be harsher? As the author said, "96 percent of teenagers said they got along with their parents, and 82 percent described their home life as "wonderful" or "good."" What kind of kids who get along with their parents and/or live good and wonderful lives want them to be stricter? Either they're all hypocrites or something was very VERY wrong with that survey they were asked to answer. The last answer to the 'major problems facing America' just managed to really make me mad. 'The courts care too much about criminals'? Seriously? The reason why courts care so much about criminals is because half the time they're not actually criminals! Until someone is convicted and thrown in jail they are an active part of the court system, and innocent until proven guilty - simple common sense. But what really made me mad about the fact that that one was on the list, was that it pushed out something actually important. In fact, all of them just made me mad for that exact same reason.
How about a list like, homelessness, starvation, drug issues, paying off our debt to China, and the issue of what to do about/with the illegal immigrant population? THAT sounds like an all-right starting point for focus before we move on to the other much smaller issues. Am I the only one who thinks it's a bad thing that the people who took this survey (though I would just love to see the other possible answers) are more concerned with 'people who don't respect law and the authorities, wrongdoing by politicians, lack of parental discipline, and courts that care too much about criminals' rights' than actual issues they may have seen and experienced first hand in their lives?
I don't know about the rest of the focus of the article. I suppose some kids (especially those focused on in the author at Princeton) are more driven, more easily pliable, and more totally accepting of whatever their teachers and the government spews at them. But I highly doubt that all (or even most) of the kids in America are.
I don't know what kids he was asking, I don't know what slanted questions there were to get that answer, but I can say that that sounds completely insane/unrealistic. It sort of went against their whole article, actually. Really, 'selfishness' is ranked as a major problem facing the world by kids who refuse to have actual relationships and make their friends set up an appointment in order to hang out? Do they not consider that selfishness, or are they all self-haters? I can reasonably understand their next answer about authority figures, since, if you choose to believe this article word for word, the kids of this generation are pretty much all self-brain washed into thinking that all authority figures are just nifty (not one of my top views/issues with society at a whole). Wrongdoing by politicians I can see as a reasonable statement. Lack of parental discipline being listed as a top concern of America though just throws everything out of the realm of reality. Since when does a kid want their parents to be harsher? As the author said, "96 percent of teenagers said they got along with their parents, and 82 percent described their home life as "wonderful" or "good."" What kind of kids who get along with their parents and/or live good and wonderful lives want them to be stricter? Either they're all hypocrites or something was very VERY wrong with that survey they were asked to answer. The last answer to the 'major problems facing America' just managed to really make me mad. 'The courts care too much about criminals'? Seriously? The reason why courts care so much about criminals is because half the time they're not actually criminals! Until someone is convicted and thrown in jail they are an active part of the court system, and innocent until proven guilty - simple common sense. But what really made me mad about the fact that that one was on the list, was that it pushed out something actually important. In fact, all of them just made me mad for that exact same reason.
How about a list like, homelessness, starvation, drug issues, paying off our debt to China, and the issue of what to do about/with the illegal immigrant population? THAT sounds like an all-right starting point for focus before we move on to the other much smaller issues. Am I the only one who thinks it's a bad thing that the people who took this survey (though I would just love to see the other possible answers) are more concerned with 'people who don't respect law and the authorities, wrongdoing by politicians, lack of parental discipline, and courts that care too much about criminals' rights' than actual issues they may have seen and experienced first hand in their lives?
I don't know about the rest of the focus of the article. I suppose some kids (especially those focused on in the author at Princeton) are more driven, more easily pliable, and more totally accepting of whatever their teachers and the government spews at them. But I highly doubt that all (or even most) of the kids in America are.