Drug/Alcohol Abuse

Problems of Youth

Life used to be fun for 'teenagers'. They used to have money to spend, and free time to spend it in. They used to wear teenage clothes, and meet in teenage coffee bars and discos. Some of them still do. But for many young people, life is harder now. Jobs are difficult to find. There's not so much money around. Things are more expensive, and it's hard to find a place to live.

Teachers say that students work harder than they used to. They are less interested in politics, and more interested in passing exams. They know that good exam results may get them better jobs.

Most young people worry more about money than their parents did twenty years ago. They try to spend less and save more. They want to be able to get homes of their own one day.

For some, the answer to unemployment is to leave home and look for work in one of Britain's big cities. Every day hundreds of young people arrive in London from other parts of Britain, looking for jobs. Some find work, and stay. Others don't find it, and go home again, or join the many unemployed in London. There used to be one kind of teenage fashion, one style, one top pop group. Then, the girls all wore mini-skirts and everyone danced to the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

But now an eighteen-year-old might be a punk, with green hair and chains round his legs, or a skin head, with short, short hair and right wing politics, or a 'rasta', with long uncombed hair and a love for Africa. There's a lot of different music around too. There's reggae, the West Indian sound, there's rock, there's heavy metal, country and western, and disco. All these kinds of music are played by different groups and listened to by different fans.

When you read the newspapers and watch the news on television, it's easy to get the idea that British young people are all unemployed, angry and in trouble.

But that's not true. Three quarters of them do more or less what their parents did. They do their best at school, find some kind of work in the end, and get married in their early twenties. They get on well with their parents, and enjoy family life. They eat fish and chips, watch football on TV, go to the pub, and like reading about pop stars. After all, if they didn't, they wouldn't be British, would they?

Проблемы молодежи

Раньше для подростков жизнь была весельем. У них всегда были какие-то деньги и свободное время. Они носили подростковые вещи и встречались в кафе и дискоклубах. Некоторые из них такие до сих пор. Но для большинства молодых людей жизнь сейчас намного тяжелее. Трудно найти работу. Денег не так много, вещи более дорогие, трудно найти себе жилье.

Преподаватели говорят, что студенты работают больше, чем раньше. Они менее интересуются политикой и больше обеспокоены сдачей экзаменов. Они понимают, что лучшие результаты экзаменов помогут найти лучшую работу.

Большая часть молодежи сейчас беспокоится о деньгах сильнее, чем их родители 20 лет назад. Они пытаются тратить меньше и больше экономят. Они хотят когда-нибудь иметь свой дом.

Некоторым, чтобы решить проблему безработицы, приходится уехать на работу в один из крупных городов Британии. Каждый день в Лондон приезжают сотни молодых людей из других городов в поисках работы. Часть из них находят работу и остаются. Остальные же возвращаются домой или присоединяются к числу безработных Лондона. Раньше существовал единый стиль подростковой моды, единая самая лучшая поп группа. Девушки носили мини-юбки и все танцевали под музыку Битлз и Роллинг-Стоунз.

Теперь же, подросток может быть зеленоволосым панком с цепями на ногах или скин-хэдом с очень короткой стрижкой и правыми политическими убеждениями, или же растаманом с длинными нечесаными волосами и любовью к Африке. Существует масса различной музыки. Есть регги, западно-индийский «саунд», рок, хэви-метал, кантри и вестерн, диско. Все эти стили музыки исполняются разными группами и их слушают разные поклонники.

Когда читаешь газеты и смотришь телевизор, очень легко может сложиться впечатление, что в Англии вся молодежь без работы, обозленная и имеет неприятности.

Это не так. Три четверти из них более или менее занимаются тем же, чем занимались их родители. Они пытаются хорошо учиться в школе, найти хорошую работу и жениться после 20 лет. Они ладят с родителями и наслаждаются семейной жизнью. Они едят рыбу и чипсы, смотрят футбол по телевизору, ходят в бар и любят читать о поп-звездах. В конце концов, если бы они этим не занимались, они не были бы англичанами, не так ли?

Questions:

1. What is the difference between the life of today's teenagers and their parents when they were in their teens?
2. What do teachers say about today's students?
3. What problems do teens have today? Is it difficult to solve them?
4. What are the trends of today's youth fashion in clothes, music, ways of life?
5. How does the mass media describe the young generation?
6. What is the author's attitude to the young people?

Vocabulary:

used to — раньше, бывало (+ infinitive to talk about things that happened regularly in past, but have changed now)
teenager — подросток, юноша
to worry — беспокоить(ся), волновать(ся)
unemployment — безработица
chain — цепь, цепочка
rasta от rastafari — растафари (название секты ямайских негров, происходит от докоронационного титула императора Эфиопии Хайле Селессие I (настоящее имя Тафари Маконнен) «рас Тафари», т. е. «принц Тафари», которого они считают воплощением бога)
do one's best — сделать все от себя зависящее, проявить максимум энергии
get on well with — ладить (с кем-л.)

Problems of the youth (friendship, love, conflicts)

- What are the problems of the youth?

- Youth is the time when a person is trying to find his place in the world. And during this search he or she comes across different problems which are as important as those of the adults. The youth of the twenty first century face almost the same the problems which were acute to their parents when they were young.
- What is the most important problem of the youth?

- One of them is a generation gap. Every generation is unique in its experience. It has its own ideals and a system of values concerning every aspect of human life. Adults always complain that the young are not what they were. These words are repeated from generation to generation. Undoubtedly it is correct. In fact today the young are better educated. They grow up more quickly. They derive joy from more freedom. At present the young do not blindly accept the ideals of their parents. For them everything that the adults bear in mind is past history. And this is inevitable, because different generations take different directions. Moreover, the young look forward and the old people look backward. The adult always teach the young how to live. They apply old standards to the new way of life. The past is hanging over them preventing them from appreciating the things around them anew. The young think that the adults have lost touch with everything that is important in life. They are right, because what is important to the adults is the past. The young know what they want. They prefer to make their own mistakes rather than to listen to the warnings of the adults. The past exists to help the young to avoid unnecessary blurs. But they do want to have them. The young want to live their own life. They want to overcome their own difficulties without turning back. Unfortunately the life of the young is frequently determined by the adults. The adults start the war but the young die in it. The young and adults have different points of view concerning everything. And it generates the conflict of the generations. In the 19th century Ivan Turgenev in his novel "Fathers and Sons" perfectly illustrated the eternal problem of fathers and children's misunderstanding. I think that parents will never understand their children.

- Why?

- Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. Today the differences are especially considerable. The adults always believe that they know best only because they have been around a bit longer. They don't want their values to be doubted. The young on the other hand are questioning the assumptions of the adults, they suspect that the world created by their predecessors was not the best one.
- Was there any clash of values between generations?

- It is known far and wide that the clash of tastes and values between generations occurs in the main in highly developed countries. Occasionally it was sharp, especially in the 1960s and '70s in Western Europe and the USA.
- Can you see the solution to this problem?

- Certainly. I think that the only way to solve this insoluble problem both the young and adults should be tolerant and patient. Despite our generation differences there are no clashes of values in our family and my parents are my best friends. They always help me, console me, and try to help me to solve my problems.
- What is another problem of the youth?

- Another problem of the youth is the relationship of the young people with their friends and beloved. I believe in male friendship, and I doubt that there can be any real female friendship.
- Do you have a lot of friends?

- I think it is impossible to have a lot of friends. A person can be on good terms with his or her classmates or university groupmates but have only one or two real friends. I believe that real friends will never betray each other. They will always understand and help each other. It is true that tolerance is the pledge of friendship. It is wonderful if your school friend will remain your friend for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, when one enters a university school friends are often replaced by the new ones.

- Are there any other problems of the young?

- The problem of love is very important for the young. Today they young fall in love when they reach the age of Romeo and Juliet. Romanticism and idealism very often accompany the love of the young. Their belief in eternal love can end dramatically. Today nobody doubts about the depth of their passion. It is regrettable, but the young are not always ready to have stable relations. For a happy family life two people must understand and respect each other. It should be said that the young have other problems as well. They are concerned with education, money, employment, hobby, spending their free time, communication, and the like. And of course one of the most urgent problems is the accommodations problem. Few young people in our country have their own apartments. In the main they share the apartments with their parents even after getting married.
- Do young Americans have the same housing problem?

- I do not think so. As far as I know many young Americans do not live with their families

.- Where do young Americans prefer to live?

- They prefer to live in apartment blocks or residential areas where everyone is more or less of the same age. Young people often move away from home when they leave school (if they can afford it) into shared apartments or small, one-room "studio" apartments. They do their own cooking and cleaning, and go to the family home perhaps for the weekend.

- Where do young married couples reside in the USA?

- In the USA young married couples may move to new suburbs where most people have young families. In the countryside, some even build their houses themselves. If a family's income goes up, they often move" to another suburb, where the houses are bigger, with two or even three garages, a swimming pool, a games room for the children and everything a family could want.
- Do grown-up children live with their old parents in the USA?

- Old people do not live with their grown-up children. Many live in old people's homes. Some live in special towns, built for old people, where there are no young children and the atmosphere is quiet.
- Is it typical for Americans?

- I am sure it is. Americans are always on the move, and sortie families change their homes every few years.
- Where can average Americans start and end their lives?

- For example, Mr. and Mrs. Smith could start life in an apartment in New York, go on to a white painted wooden home in New England with small windows to keep out the cold in winter, move to a sunny house in California where oranges grow in the garden and big windows give a wonderful view of the swimming pool and the sea, and end their life in a town for old people.
- What are the problems of the American youth?

- It is difficult for me to answer this question. From the information derived from the mass media I can conclude that their problems are connected with their beliefs and values. Hard work is part of the American Dream. To be a success is important in America. Society frowns upon those who don't achieve it, that is why all young Americans want to work hard and be a success. The first step to it is a high school diploma. Without it, it is almost impossible to be successful. In order to get, it is necessary to compete, as rivalry is the spur to achievement. Winning is an American passion. In this case it is very important to be conscious of the society around and never do dirty tricks. Another problem that worries the young is to be well-liked. This feature is associated with the American Dream too. On the social level it is part of people's personalities. And of course communication can be one more problem not only of the young Americans but of all young people of today.

- How do the young communicate nowadays?

- Today the young can choose either traditional way of communication or a modern one. Traditionally the young meet after classes with their school or university friends at a cafe or a club to get fun, relax and acquire new friends. They go to the cinemas, theatres, concert halls or disco clubs. But if the young people do not like noisy clubs and other places of entertainment, they can find friends without leaving their apartments - the Internet gives such an opportunity. Although this international Web Wide Web is intended for getting knowledge, only few users employ it in this way. Other users employ the ICQ programme only for chatting. They can sit for twenty two hours at their displays carrying on endless chats with newly made friends. And it is a great problem of the present and future. Such young people do not eat, sleep, work or learn properly. They are only interested in their e-mail boxes. The best way for them is to go on chatting with their ICQ partners without meeting them. In general all the problems of the youth are linked with the present rather then with the past or future.

YOUTH PROBLEMS

All people have problems. Some of them have many problems, the others have one or two problems only.
Young people have as many problems as the grown-ups. It is possible to solve some problems but sometimes we can not solve this or that problem. The first problem is to choose a good friend. I know the proverb "A friend in need is a friend indeed." I agree with it, that's why I try to make friends with gay and true persons.
I want to have a friend who understands me. It will be simple and interesting to speak to him or her.
I think that young people have problems with their parents. What are they? Sometimes we have different tastes. I like the proverb "There is no accounting for tastes." For example, I go to the shops with my mother. She likes this dress but I like that one. My mother wants me to buy this dress. But I am sure, that dress is much to my taste.

My parents want me to be a teacher as they are skilled teachers but I have a taste for music, and my dream is to be a composer.
Where can we go? What can we do if we have free time? My friend Nastya lives in the village. Her village is far from Moscow. It takes her three hours to go to Moscow. She says that there is nowhere to go and there is nothing to do in her village. There are no clubs, museums, cinemas, parks there. If she wants to go to Moscow it'll take her a lot of money. She can't afford it.
It is a problem to get a good education.
It is necessary to pay for a good education. I think it is difficult to learn English, for example, without additional classes.
I can't enter the Institute without good knowledge. To get it it is necessary to pay for it and have heavy expenses.
Many good teachers leave schools because they haven't got enough money, persons without special experience can't teach the pupils well.
I am sure that all teenagers want to have a lot of money to dress well, to go to the theatres, to visit foreign countries, to eat what they want, to buy books... How can they solve all these problems?
They have to earn money. I think it is possible to do it. Some boys wash cars, the others sell newspapers, some of my friends help old persons. Many of my friends have load of care.
We have some problems but we are sure that we solve them in a proper way.
I think that the young people in other countries have many problems too. I have a pen-friend in Italy. He usually writes that his parents make him to do a lot of house-work. It is strange for us, but my friend Jack from London has his biggest problem - his freckles.

Youth Problems

Today it is fashionable to speak about teenage broblems. A few years ago alcohol, fights, murders and other kinds of violence were more problems of adults rather than young people.

But now, as official reports admit, violence, AIDS, drugs and alcohol are more and more associated with youngest. For many children from poor families violence, drinking problems and all that is associated with powerty becomes more and more real.

The Government surveys show that every fifth teenager who was arrested for criminal actions, was younger that 14 and couldn't be sent to prison. Almost half of teenagers have an experience with drugs, alcohol and sex under age of 16. A lot of teenagers who have drug or alcohol addiction almost never believe that they are dependent. These things are often combined with family and school problems.

What has gone wrong? Some specialists explain that the changes of our society, the system of our life force young people to choose their own lifestyle. On the one hand, our society agrees that 15-17-years old people are old enough to be responsible for what they do and gives them quite a lot of freedom and rights. On the other hand, most adults think that teenagers are too young to be taken seriously. This misunderstaning has produced many problems. Actually, a lot of teenagers say that their parents let them do anything they want and are quite indifferent to their problems. Many teenagers get upset or depressed when they can't solve their problems. As a result, it makes them believe that there is only one way out - to stop living and commit suicide.

No doubt, the teens' problems will increase. And young people should feeel that they are cared about.

Selected Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt

Facing the Problems of Youth
Eleanor Roosevelt

Publishing Information

Originally published in National Parent-Teacher Magazine 29 (February 1935): 30.

1. Education today is not purely a question of the education of youth; it is a question of the education of parents, because so many parents, I find, have lost their hold on their children. One reason for this is that they insist on laying down the law without allowing a free intellectual interchange of ideas between themselves and the younger generation. I believe that as we grow older we gain some wisdom, but I do not believe that we can take it for granted that our wisdom will be accepted by the younger generation. We have to be prepared to put our thinking across to them. We cannot simply expect them to say, "Our older people have had experience and they have proved to themselves certain things, therefore they are right." That isn't the way the best kind of young people think. They want to experience for themselves. I find they are perfectly willing to talk to older people, but they don't want to talk to older people who are shocked by their ideas, nor do they want to talk to older people who are not realistic.

2. We might just as well accept things which are facts as facts and not try to imagine that the world is different, more like what we idealized in the past. I have a letter just the other day from a mother who told me that she had brought up several daughters, and that they never did certain things which are very common today among young people. She was sure that if we never countenanced or spoke of certain things in our homes our children would never do those things. Well, it just so happens that I have a number of boys and they happen to know the mother's girls. I have, therefore, seen a good deal of them, and they did every single thing that their mother told me they never did. I think it would have been far better if she had established a type of genuine relationship with her children which would have allowed them to be honest with her. Then she would have had an opportunity to put across her own ideas with some kind of hope that they would at least be considered.

3. But if the relationship is such that youth has no desire to talk to older people, then, I think, it is entirely impossible to help the youth of today—and they need help badly. I think they are very glad to have it, too, when it is given in a spirit of helpfulness, not self-righteousness. We don't need to idealize things that are past; they look glamorous, but perhaps they were not so glamorous when we really lived through them.

4. My own feeling would be that the most important education is the education which will enable us, both in our homes and in our schools, to understand the real problems that our children have to meet today. It is easy enough to impart book knowledge, but it is not so easy to build up the relationship between youth and older people which is essential to the working out of their problems—very difficult problems on which young people need our leadership and our understanding.

5. We cannot pass over the fact that the world is a hard world for youth and that so far we have not really given their problems as much attention as we should. We smile—I smiled myself the other day when one young boy said that he hoped to go in and clean up politics. Politics need to be cleaned up, of course. Everything that is human needs that particular kind of enthusiasm. But we older people know that we don't always succeed as easily as these young ones think they can. Yet I doubt if we should smile. I think that we should welcome their help, and find places where this tremendous energy that is in youth—if it cannot be used immediately in making a living—may at least be used where it is so greatly needed today.

6. I should like to leave with you this one idea which I have been thinking about a great deal of late: the necessity for us as parents, as teachers, as older people, to put our minds on the problems of youth, to face realities, to face the world as it is and the lives that they have to live—not as we wish they were, but as they are—and, having done that, to give our sympathetic help in every way that we can.

Erosion of National Pride/Identity

f every year the Olympics were held, this probably wouldn’t be a problem. This list is indicative of the fact that America (like any nation) has problems. The issue at hand is collective though amongst the people affected about how to deal with them. Unfortunately most folks tend to focus on their self and not the whole. We see these problems as affecting “them” and not “me/us” When we hear that America’s children are the fattest among Western nations, this doesn’t sting. When we learn that America’s children lay educationally behind other industrialized nations, we don’t cringe. There is very little sense of collective identity of people, as Americans. This is a result of our children not being properly educated and guided. There was a time when every child would begin the school day by standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Children were taught the significance of the 4^th of July (besides fireworks). These practices are long gone and so is our sense of common destiny. With so many diverse nationalities, races, and ethnic groups that comprise America, the one common bond we all have with one another is that we are Americans.

Poverty

The federal poverty level is $22,050 for a family of four. This equates to 21% of all children (15 million children) are considered in poverty. Just to cover basic expenses for a family of four you would need to have a salary of $45,000. This means that nearly 50% of our children are living in poverty. Half of those kids receive no government assistance because their parents earned more than $22,050 that year. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), that poverty is the single greatest threat to children’s well-being. Poverty impedes learning and contributes to social and behavioral problems. And guess what? There is no income to counteract these problems. Mommy cannot afford a tutor or Daddy cannot afford a counselor. There is a huge opportunity for society to stop being so materialistic and in turn poverty wouldn’t be such an issue because most children will all have the same things –things they need instead of what they want. This would decrease violence in schools because fewer kids would be teased.

Shifting Economy

America used to sustain itself with making its own products through manufacturing and then turning around and selling those products. The economy is shifting to more of a service industry versus a manufacturing industry. In order to cut costs and keep product prices down companies are forced to outsource manufacturing to other countries. Other countries can produce products at much lower labor costs. Some companies have even begun to outsource call center jobs to keep labor costs down. Not only is America now having lower paying service jobs than the average blue-collar job with a sustainable income but our economy is now a global economy. For example, what happens in Japan or Iraq can drastically alter prices for our stock exchanges, gas/oil, and many other products. What exactly does this mean for our youth? The youth cannot graduate or even dropout of school without going through the pains of a low-income job. The jobs offered with no experience pay very little with very little room for pay increases. In fact, the competition to get a promotion can be fierce. In the past, your high school senior could graduate and go work at the local factory for the rest of his or her life and make a good living. They would not necessarily need to have a college education to survive. In fact, youth today will graduate from college with multiple degrees and still cannot find work that pays enough to sustain a decent lifestyle.

Education Disparity

Education is important. Few people would dispute this well regarded fact. A good education (in comparison with a bad one) will provide a child with an increased chance of taking advantage of opportunities to be successful in life. Unfortunately, some people have it better than other. This is not an issue of just one school being better than another school. Rather we are talking about whole classes of American children being denied a proper education that will prepare them to compete in a job market with their peers and have the same access to the American Dream. Disparity in educational quality is delineated by race and financial status. If you live in a poor neighborhood or are a minority, there is a good chance that the schools you attend are lacking many necessities. While Asians and Whites enjoy high graduating rates, African American and Latinos continue to lag behind. Not surprisingly, because job opportunities are lessen for dropouts, these two groups have the highest incarceration rates.

Obesity

Our kids are fat and getting fatter. Recent numbers show that 20% of American children are obese. Not chubby –OBESE! Video games, TV, the internet and fast food are partly to blame. Kids are spending more time sitting in front of a TV/computer screen than running around outside. This sedentary lifestyle has consequences. Socially, it’s no secret that overweight kids are going to be subject to ridicule from their peers – it’s sad, but nevertheless true. This can result in such issues as low self-esteem, depression, etc. Then there are the health concerns. High blood pressure, diabetes and other maladies that is associated with obesity. Psychologically and physically, obesity is an issue that can be resolved with a simple increase in activity and awareness.

Materialism

We live in a society that promotes materialism and so we perpetuate this particular malady by instilling bad habits into our children. We teach our children that the measure of success and happiness in life is how much stuff you have. Kids naturally want things –especially if their friends have something similar. Unfortunately, there seems to be little restraint on accompanying guidance as we go about this. Essentially, we provide our kids with whatever they want that is within our financial ability to do so. The concept of “earning” what you get or the idea that something “you don’t need” seem to have been lost and discarded. Is there really any wonder why the average adult is $15,000 in debt at any given time? We have a mentality of getting what we want and when we want it that has been ingrained in us since childhood. The unfortunate result is that there are devastating consequences for such continued behavior later in life.

Violence in Schools

A child’s education is the foundation from which he or she will be able to go forth out into the world and build a life. Schools play a major role in this endeavor, and therefore it is reasonable to expect that these places of learning would be safe havens for the children while they are preparing for adulthood. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In many instances, especially in low income, urban settings, schools can be a war zone. We are not talking about minor bullying, but rather serious violence. Consider that in the last decade 284 kids were murdered due to school violence – these were shootings, stabbings, fighting and suicides. Growing up is tough enough without having to be worried about being killed while going to math class.

Growing up too Fast

There was a time when kids enjoyed being kids. Today, even at the earliest of ages, children are partaking in adult activities with serious consequences. Similar to what we see with alcohol and drugs, sex is a very popular and portrayed subject matter. The movies, TV, the internet, essentially everywhere a kid turns he or she is bombarded with sexual suggestions. In fact, there are entire TV series marketed directly to kids dealing with sex – the egregious being The Secret Lives of an American Teenager and Teen Mom, to name two. Music is a culprit as well. Songs have always had sexual innuendos, but at least “back in the day” you had to be old enough to understand them. Today, it’s all about “How low can you go” and “baby let me sex you up.” Kids are having sex as early as 10 and 11, with teen pregnancies increasingly on the rise. The concept of childhood is literally being wiped out.

Drug/Alcohol Abuse

There was a time in cinematic history where virtually every actor/actress was portrayed on screen with a cigarette in hand. Smoking, it was implied, was cool. As a result everyone was doing it, including kids. Well, as awareness to the danger of smoking increased, “cool” images of smoking disappeared. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about drugs and alcohol. These vices are staples in everyday media. Simply, drinking and using drugs is shown as being cool. The numbers bear the tale. 21% of high school seniors say they get high and 41% of the same group report drinking alcohol. Our kids are literally moving around in an intoxicated daze. Immature behavior is then amplified due to being under the influence. Drunk driving, poor grades and attendance, anti-social and violent behavior and the list goes on.

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