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Every week I try to direct my thinking and writing towards a specific topic. Considering that a lot of my writing involves feelings and issues that affect children, this is not that difficult to do- there are so many! As our world gets more technological and kids get buried deeper within their electronic devices, my work here is just beginning. The goal of my “mission” is to pull their heads back out into our world and encourage them to notice what is happening around them. My intentions are simple- inspire an awareness by captivating their interest with a message that hopes to entertain, educate and motivate! Not an easy task when I’m in opposition with the worlds of Nintendo, Instagram and Netflix! This seems like more of a battle than a task right? But then today something prompted me to don my armor…
I read an article called the “Top 10 Issues Facing Our Youth Today”* and this lit a spark underneath me! I decided to base my weekly topic and post from the information in this particular article and the comments that were evoked in me.
According to toptenz.net, here are the Top 10 Issues Facing Our Youth Today:
Number 10- Single Parent Households
This is not news, kids have been growing up in one- parent families for decades. Since well before the 1980’s, divorce is not only prominent in our society, it’s a necessary alternative in certain situations. The scary statistic I got from the article is that, ‘Today, 14 million single parents are responsible for 28 million children.’ Yikes! A lot of kids raised in single parent homes grow up to be healthy, happy and well-adjusted adults, but there are still many that are lacking the proper economic, social and educational tools and skills that in the majority of cases are provided by two-parent homes. No judgement! I myself was raised by a single-parent and for the most part I think I turned out okay- I hope! Regardless of how many parents a child has, as long as they are fully loved, nurtured, educated and socialized, then everything else is bonus. I guess the key here is to always be able to offer any child extra tools and skills that they will need in life and then hopefully they will succeed just fine!
Number 9- Drug/Alcohol Abuse
Number 8- Growing Up To Fast
I think these two go hand in hand, because one really induces the other. Any child that is confronted with choices such as these is definitely in a situation where they are being forced to grow up too fast and vice versa. Maybe that’s too vague, however according to this article, “21% of high school seniors say they get high and 41% of the same group report drinking alcohol… 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.”
I really have to agree with this article about sexual suggestions. Look at any music performer’s video and see the sex oozing from it. So what can be done? Ban kids from watching anything sexual or ‘helicopter’ their every move to protect them from any drugs or alcohol? How about just educating them about the negative outcomes of these influences and more so, teach them proper values to cultivate their self-esteem and awareness of who they want to be. Who do they want their role-models to be and who do they just like because they make great music?
Number 7- Violence In Schools
Now this is scary! There was a time when violence in schools happened only in the inner-cities…isn’t that why parents went to great lengths to move to the rural areas to raise their kids, to get away from this? Not anymore, so often we hear an increasing amount of stories about bullying, cyberbullying and shootings in the current news. This is happening everywhere-urban and rural areas, and that’s not even the gang-related violence! No wonder! Those same news channels cover war, rape, murder, discrimination, hate… “in the last decade 284 kids were murdered due to school violence – these were shootings, stabbings, fighting and suicides.” Yuck!
Number 6- 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.” Enough said. 
Number 5- Obesity
I’ve written several books on this topic and themes that are related…It’s time to wake up and help these kids learn ways to deal with the issues that they are trying to soothe through food!
“20% of American children are obese.”
Number 4- Education Disparity
“Disparity in educational quality is delineated by race and financial status. If you live in a poor neighbourhood 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.” Ironically, I had to look up the definition of disparity just to be sure- it means different. Wow! That explains so much! Here I am a writer and I didn’t know the definition of a word I’m writing about…I may have suffered some shame for that attribute about myself, except I’m not the least bit embarrassed that I needed to learn a new word…learning is important for growth and this is exactly why some areas of the world and their people are not advancing in their learning-shame from those that have the ability to teach, but use it towards judgement instead are really the ones who should be shamed! Encouragement and inspiration allows all people to learn because then they believe they are worth teaching. Kids need this, adults need this-everyone deserves this!
Number 3- Shifting Economy
Number 2- Poverty
I’m not going to get into these two political and economical topics too much because I believe a lot of the issues above are a direct cause of these issues. There will always be a strong adult influence over these sectors of our society as their obviously should be- nobody wants a child to run the world-or do we?
Maybe that’s what we need! However, there is very little that we can do to motivate kids to want to change these world conditions, other than educate them and hope they want to make it a better place when they are adults. The one trend that is very refreshing to see more though, is that there continues to be child entrepreneurs emerging in all facets of the world’s industry. This is so great! You go little guys!
Number 1- National Pride
All kids should be able to feel proud of where they come from. Sadly, this isn’t always true. So…as long as each child is taught how to have self-pride, then hopefully they will naturally aspire to having pride for others and their surroundings. I think more importantly than just nationally, kids should feel a universal pride as well for all people, in all their diversity, everywhere in the world!
Tracy Bryan is a self-published author that specializes in writing whimsical
books about self-esteem, life skills, emotions, social issues and other such
topics for kids aged 4 to 11. Please visit Tracy’s website tracybryan.com or
email her at tracy@tracybryan.com
*Thank you to Lee Standberry who wrote Top 10 Issues Facing Our Youth Today” on July 26th, 2015. Article from toptenz.net