Excerpt 7

<P>*Families 90's-Style

<P>"The definition of family has changed. Fewer children grow up in two 
parent homes, while many are being raised by grandparents or other family
members." Amy Deehr, Freeman High School, Rockford, Washington

<P>*There is ample evidence that the breakdown of the family is a strong 
cause of our societal woes:

<P>"Father is leaving, mother is working, brother is in a gang, and sister is
alone after school watching television until sometimes eleven o'clock. As 
the family falls apart, so does America." 
Anne Turcea, Danville High School, Danville, Kentucky

<P>"The responsibility of a parent is the greatest ever... In order to learn
we must have guidance and this guidance must come from the home, not a 
stranger... parents should learn to become parents again and not just 
someone to place a roof over the children's heads."  
Trisha Rachel, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas 

<P>"If the parents cannot take responsibility for their children they will 
never be able to teach the children to take responsibility for themselves."
Carie Mitchell, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

<P>"An excellent example of the collapse of the family system is the fact 
that today, parents spend forty percent less time with their children 
than their parents spent with them."  
John Espinosa, Aubrey High School, Aubrey,Texas

<P>"Because the parents are less at home, values aren't being taught." 
Nicci Bachand, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

<P>*Many students stressed the importance of morals and values:
"Here in Tampa, Florida, vandalism, auto theft, drug use, and underage 
drinking are just some of the shameless acts teens commit. These teenagers
are often bored late in the night and have nothing better to do.... More 
often than not, these kids have no family background to establish morals 
and values.... Morals and values are instilled at home, and how a child 
acts outside the home reflects his/her learning and understanding of 
parental teachings." Chris Newcomb, Armwood High School, Seffner, Florida

<P>"The irresponsible behavior of today's youths can be associated with a 
lack of moral education in our school systems. From ancient Greece to cold
-war America, educators have felt comfortable instilling the differences 
between right and wrong. Yet the Social Revolution of the 60's eliminated 
schools from the triangle that once existed between family, church, and 
school. It was not until the late 80's that people began to realize the 
severe effects that valueless people have on society." 
Patrick F. Welch, South Kent High School, South Kent Connecticut

<P>"As more and more people think only of themselves we see the homeless 
population grow, crime rates accelerate, suicide rates jump, and education
scores decline."  Amy Deehr, Freeman High School, Rockford, Washington

<P>"I don't think that any of these problems of violent crime can be solved 
until we teach our children moral values and ethics." 
Brian Skouby, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois

<P>"Crime is a social problem and education, or re-education, will help solve the problem. We need to teach our children respect. Respect for themselves, respect for others, and respect for human life. We need to rebuild family values in our homes. Our children must soon realize that they need to be responsible and talk out their problems, instead of shooting them out. For if they don't, they will eventually kill every youth in this great nation of ours. It's genocide." 
Patrick A. Sampson, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas

<P>*In the following excerpt Daisy makes an interesting point:

<P>"Children do not strive to pay back society by stealing, killing, or hurting others. Children are basically good until society shows them how to steal, kill, or hurt." 
Daisy Clam, Carbondale High School, Carbondale, Illinois 

<P>*But nothing is as simple as it might appear on the surface. As Jennifer's excerpt (below) suggests, outcomes sometimes depend on what values are being taught in the home: 

<P>"The age twenty-one says one thing to most teenagers,'I can drink now without getting in trouble.'Drinking goes along with adulthood and most teenagers want to be adults. Alcoholism ruins the individual physically and emotionally because of the dependency. A family can be torn apart because a person has a drinking problem. I write this with experience in my own family. ... I learned how to drink when I was five-years-old." 
Jennifer Ciano, DeForest High School, DeForest , Wisconsin

<P>*Tough Love

<P>*Earlier a number of students criticized the justice system for being too lenient. The excerpts that follow claim that lenient parents are a large part of society's problem.  

<P>"Teens should know that they should not drink when they're not old enoughÐI would bet a good [number] of teens have been picked up for drinking related accidentsÐand have been let off easy by their folks." Gunner Rotter, Centerville High, Centerville, South Dakota

<P>"Too often, a student will get into trouble [with] little consequence." 
Dustin Gwinn, Meadow Bridge High School, Meadow Bridge, West Virginia

<P>"These days kids are not afraid of being arrested or put in juvenile detention. They are very much aware that nothing 'serious' could happen to them." Martha Yeahquo, Aubrey High School, Aubrey, Texas

<P>"The solution to our nation's problems in the line of responsibility begins at home. The United States is a place of freedom, but many parents are giving their children too much money and freedom. Many of these children do not learn about responsibility because they never had to really work for what they ... received; their parents just gave it to them. When they are forced, or decide to go into the real world, they discover how difficult life really is. This is where many of today's problems begin. They will do or say anything to get something for nothing, just like they have been used to getting. These people soon become so desperate that they listen to drug-pushers [talk] about easy jobs that aren't what they seem to be. The truth is that there is no easy way out.  Life isn't fair so get used to it and learn some responsibility."  
Tim Pace, Kiona-Benton High School, Benton City, Washington

<P>"Parents need to stop neglecting their children and start paying attention to what their children are doing, not only at night, but also during the day. They need to make their children go to school and make them do their school work."Beth Civitarese, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

<P>"Responsibility and good moral values have to be taught at a young age. Parents have to enforce and set rules for their children. Kids today don't know [what's] right and [what's] wrong. [Many] parents haven't enforced rules at home, leaving kids to do what they want. This makes it harder for schools to teach responsibility and moral values. Kids bring everything taught at home to school with them. They feel that if they can do it at home, it's okay to do it at school." 
Shaine Jenkins, Blue Ridge, Blue Ridge, Texas 

<P>"Some will blame the system while others blame the parents. I think it is a combination of both. Neither of the two put any pressure on kids to have high moral standards and to do what is right. All the messages sent to kids today are negative, such as on TV, radio, or movies. Society is not worried about high standards, only what sells, which of course are only the bad things....Today there seems to be no discipline, and what [little] of it there is does not seem to get the message across. In many situations when kids are corrected, they just rebel and get even worse. ...Parents and society should stop and think about what they are doing and how it may be influencing young people.  We should all care and encourage everyone to do what is right." Karen Lynn Cox, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

<P>*Tough, but consistent:

<P>"Charles King, director of a Phoenix school, which  provides therapy and schooling for thirty problem kids, thinks that inconsistency of family treatment is more damaging to children than unrelieved harshness. He explains if a parent strikes their kid, then lavishes gifts on him, the child has no way of telling right from wrong." 
Jodie Lewis, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

<P>*Gangs

<P>*Students tell us that many families simply don't care about their children:

<P>"Children are filling the empty places left by absent parents, or other family members, with gangs. The children involved in gangs believe that fellow gang members care for them the way their families should but do not." Jamie Sue Bellis, Prairie High School, New Raymer, Colorado

<P>"In a child's life there are two major pillars: family and school. This is where the kid finds his heroes and company. When one of these are missing something substitutes: Gangs. What the kids don't get from their major pillars they get on the street. The streets don't teach you how to survive in society and certainly not how to do well with the workforce." 
Ashley Wilson, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

<P>"We have given up the responsibility of raising our children ... Because of this, children have turned to gangs for what the family should be giving them -- acceptance and love. [The gang's] love and acceptance often has a price and the price is usually being active in criminal activities." PPaula Rogers Demopolis High School, Demopolis, Alabama  

<P>"More and more kids are becoming involved with gangs and the ages are getting younger and younger. ÐKids need to belong to something or someone. Ð Part of the problem is in the home, where the kids are missing something that they had before. . .When the change at home takes place we can expect the change in the gangs to start." 
Richard Espinoza, Prairie High School, New Raymer, Colorado

<P>"Many gang members express a desire to distance themselves from inept or uncaring home environments which lack even the most rudimentary family structure."  Jodie Lewis, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

<P>"One group in our society who are not showing responsibility are the parents of gang members, drug users, alcoholics, and juvenile delinquents. Many of these children would not have these problems if their parents had taken the time and energy to be a part of their children's activities and taught responsibility while the children were young enough for the values to sink in. When these children were born they became the responsibility of their parents, not the responsibility of the courts, juvenile homes, or the streets." Jeff Garner, Blue Ridge High School, Blue Ridge, Texas

<P>"Kids that have a low self-confidence level, and lack love and attention at home, are the gang members that we see today." 
Melanie Malone, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

<P>"The youth of America have begun looking towards gangs as ways to make drug money and to be part of a fellowship that believes it doesn't matter who is killed or hurt, only that their gang stays alive. ...In this case, responsibility lies in 'family values' and moral standards which teach children what is right and wrong. It is up to the parents."  
Brenner Farr, Broken Arrow High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

<P>"To have comrades is a reason for [belonging to] gangs.  Just to keep from being alone, [kids] choose [other] kids in the same predicament."  
Ashley Wilson, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

<P>"We need to get one parent back into the home to be there when the children return home from school. Kids need a sense of security. They have turned to gangs to try to fill<!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="http://us.js2.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/smb/js/hosting/cp/js_source/whv2_001.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1219230227" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>