There’s no doubt about it. We are living in contentious, anxious and uncertain times. One can only wonder what young people think of the endless parade of public figures—government officials, businessmen, entertainers, professional athletes—screaming and cursing and crashing and burning before their eyes. Perhaps F. Scott Fitzgerald said it best when he wrote: “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.”
And, although the atmosphere seems more anxiety-producing than ever, such feelings aren’t new. Several years ago, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center asked 1,200 high school students from all across Long Island to share their concerns for the present and the future.
One of them wrote: “I don’t think this world is ever going to get better. To live in this world you have to be very, very strong, because if you’re not, the system will walk all over you. You really cannot trust anybody but your family, and not even them half the time.”
Relationships, illness, divorce and death weighed heavily on their minds. One wrote about the dissolution of his parents’ marriage, “My parents are getting a divorce and now there is talk about my mother being forced to move out of the house and my father move in and I have no say. I have lost faith in the court system. I thought we had the right to freedom of speech, but I guess actually being heard is another story.”
Another talked about his fears: “I am afraid of a lot of things—mainly dying too young and not getting to live to my greatest expectations.”
We asked, “When you’re confused about life, who helps you sort things out?” Almost three-quarters said their parents and their friends fill that role. Far from rejecting parents in favor of peers, family is part of the solution, not the problem.
In an all-day gathering of teens and adults that followed the release of the results of the student survey, the young people talked about well-meaning parents who are overwhelmed with trying to make ends meet, with little or no time for substantive discussion with them. They also talked about teachers they admire but who are too preoccupied with preparations for standardized testing.
In a small group discussion that day, a parent said: “What stood out for me the most was the observation by several of the kids that they need support from adults to tackle the challenging issues they face. Often, adults complain that kids are apathetic, lazy, unmotivated or apolitical. Maybe it is our own apathy and fears that prevent us as adults from helping.”
And a teacher said: “Listening to the depths of emotion and world concerns from the students, I came away feeling that we are missing the boat with our kids. I know this is a generalization, but so many young people are walking around with such powerful feelings that we as adults are not helping them with. Our schools appear to be more interested in control, assessments and achievement scores than the life events that affect our children.”
All of these comments point out one basic truth: connections count. It is the good connections in their lives that enable children to bounce back from private crises such as illness, divorce, drug addiction, child abuse and death, and keep them from being weighed down by the daily drumbeat and demoralizing impact of public scandal, corruption and contentiousness that beset us all.
Note: Portions of this article first appeared in Newsday. Written by Andrew Malekoff, Executive Director at North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center.
