I accompanied my boys and their grade six class on a field trip today. It was my first time to do the parent volunteer thing. I found the kids to be unbelievably good to one another. They seemed to have no divisions by social stature, and seemed to get along great.
I don't know if this has to do with the small town attitude (I recently moved my entire to a very small town), or that in general kids today are just better than they used to be. I remember kids being very non-tolerant, looking for weakness to exploit, and very divided on social scales. Granted, this was much worse in high school, and these kids are middle school, but I'm sure I remember it even then.
I will admit to the possibility that what I remember is badly tainted by my own social limitations, but I don't think so. After all, it was my generation that created "The Breakfast Club".
This experience just added to my already growing belief that kids today are just generally better with each other than they used to be. I've seen it at sports, at social events and now at school.
I hope I'm right. They are our future, and it could be a very good future.
2 comments:
I am optimist! I see what you see, and believe many kids today are coming into the world with a more evolved sense of justice, ethics, compassion and talents.
100 years ago if a child started playing the piano at age 3, they were hailed as a prodigy and genius. Today, this is so common nobody pays attention. Prodigy's are occuring now in sports, sciences and social disciplines. These kids exhibit a level of maturity that far surpasses the best of human leadership today. I have heard that as many as 20% of all children being born today are exhibiting accelerated awareness or talent in some area. Perhaps the explosion of autism in our societies is a statement by this generation that they will have nothing to do with the insanity we pass off as "our way of life".
Thanks for your observations. Its nice to know that its not just me seeing this. Considering how much bad publicity the kids of today get, I'm glad there's optimism. I think we need to recognize these positive changes more publicly, and encourage them. We can learn a lot from these kids.
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