Opinion: Troubled youth?

At any given moment in time you can pull up youth fighting and assaults on you tube. Even more disturbing, one can now see it on our local news. It seems like it's happening daily anymore. It is not uncommon to see a cell phone video, or security camera showing teens fighting in a high school.

Even more so they are randomly popping up all over social media. Clark County alone has seen 5,700 fight calls at schools this year alone. That's just one county. Most recently there was a horrific attack on a teacher in Clark county where charges range from sexual assault, to attempted murder. So why does this seem to be getting worse? Why is it happening so much more often it seems? I believe there are a few answers.

Recently I received a letter from my daughters first grade teacher stating "effective immediately, the teacher will not be allowing kids to bring birthday invitations to class to hand out to their friends anymore as it was causing a disturbance in class. A few of the children were getting their feelings hurt if they did not receive an invitation. So unless we want to invite the whole class of 25, we aren't allowed to hand invitations out anymore." Well as one can imagine, this didn't really sit well with me. See, I can handle the "no cupcakes" in class because some kids have allergies.(a bit ridiculous, but I get it). Next it was no more valentine candy or lollipop attached to valentine card. (Tradition for 50 years, but hey who am I). I also kind of understood, it gets the kids wired and hard to control. Ok I get it. But to not let your child hand out 4 or 5 invitations to their besties that they want to come celebrate with, that seemed to cross a line for me. I mean, what are we really teaching the children by doing that? So a select few got hurt feelings, so tradition is no longer allowed? Stomp your feet and you get what you want? Or just flat out try to put them in a safe bubble instead of teaching them that life isn't always what you want it to be. Rejection is part of life, and the sooner you learn that, the better off a person will be. Life is full of disappointment. Not everyone is going to be friends. But instead the option was to pay for all 25 children (who can afford that) or don't deal with it at all. So who really suffers here? The answer is very simple, ALL the kids. The kids who want to invite friends cannot. And the ones who can't take the Rejection aren't taught a very valuable, and character building lesson. No win situation. So how does this all tie in?

First, I beleive a huge portion of these parents are failing their kids by not teaching them simple life lessons. Instead they are put in front of an x box so the parents don't have to deal with life, and can catch up on the Kardashians. If that stings, or offends you, then this probably applies to you. I have personally witnessed parents throw away an opportunity to teach these life lessons because they were too busy commenting on Jimmy's Facebook post, and his hatred for societies cultural problems. And instead of taking that time to address the child, they would rather have an online argument to gain social media notoriety. I'VE WITNESSED THIS. And then this cycle continues throughout the child's life. In turn, they see the violence posted on social media themselves. They see you tube videos of kids flat out slapping their parents when they didn't get what they wanted. So it turns into a never ending cycle now perpetuated by some of our teachers as well. And quite frankly I don't blame them for not wanting to deal with it either. After all, it is the parents job to raise the child. But does that mean an educator should follow suite with these bad habits?? Absolutely not. The teacher should have a talk with the upset child's parents. Since they spend 7 hours a day with the educator, I feel it is the duty of the teacher to report this back to the parent. ALSO maybe take it upon themselves to teach the child a little bit about life and its unfair moments. After all they don't seem to be shy about talking about gender identity and sex Ed. Even controversial societal issues aren't off limits anymore. So why should explaining why not everyone is not going to be friends with you is such an issue? Not everyone is going to get an invite. Again, this happens to adults and throughout one's entire life. A life lesson that can be a taught at a young age. Instead, the masses get punished and all fun extinguished to protect the feelings of a few. Ultimately hurting our children down the road by not setting them up with crucial life lessons. The snowball effect kicks in and before you know it, we have kids attacking educators and parents because they didn't get their way, or maybe someone did try to discipline them. They don't know how to be told no. It was never taught, and they are used to getting what they want. If not, the only outlet is violence and to lash out. I've seen it. I have 4 children. It starts with a simple misunderstanding in an online chat, and ends up a brawl in the hallway at school. Why? Were they ever taught how to handle these emotions, and what is really right and wrong? The verdict is out and the evidence is clear. Throw in crazy movies and unrealistic games coupled with bad parenting, or lack thereof, and a side of participation trophy teachers and it's easy to see. Not to mention the other crazy societal issues we are facing and it's a cocktail for disaster!

The answer is simple. Parents should take the time to teach these valuable life lessons when they present themselves. Same thing with the very important educators. Don't choose the path of least resistance. Don't break decades of tradition to suffice the sensitive few. Use that time to help educate them on life. Quit canceling everything we know to be fun. These kids are our future, and the way I see it, our future is looking very bleek. We need to change it for our children's sake. They need better advise. They need better outlets. They need better role models, more importantly they need parents and educators to show them the way.