CRAZY HORMONAL TEENS ON THE RAMPAGE!!!

“Bashing Youth” and “Wild in Deceit” by Mike Males
This article reminded me of reading the book Culture of Fear in which the author made the same point that the media is constantly trying to put the blame on some powerless group. Every group of people must have their scapegoat to blame the problems of society on when they are the ones who are building it up themselves through the use of scare tactics, a lack of faith and respect towards these groups, and general ignorance.
The inflated rates of youth commiting suicide, having babies, committing crimes, etc is astonishing! Organizations should be penalized for these fraud numbers and it should be made known to the public. But of course because it doesn’t attract media attention and isn’t controversial enough no one really cares. Isn’t that the fault of the purposefully ignorant Americans though? The media is just feeding us with these lies because we have allowed them to all this time and take their information as face value truth without doing our own research. Males states that “in the last five to 10 years, intense media and government attack on various behaviors-chiefly drug abuse, violence, and pregnancy-have been followed by rapidly rising problems among teenagers.” How can teenagers have hope if the majority of society continues to believe that they are a joke and a waste of space? This is what educators have to undue in the classrooms. I remember many of my teachers who would constantly harass students who weren’t “behaving” and would say things like “you don’t belong in school” or “you’re wasting my time here.” I still hear similar phrases being shouted, mostly by administrators, at the MPS school that I’m tutoring at.
The mode at which we strive to “fix” this problem of “youth gone wild” is, as Males states, “more preaching, programming and punishment.” This creates a vicious cycle that will not be broken until we have reforms that aim at looking at why these numbers in pregnancy, suicide, and drug use are much more prevalent among our youth. We cannot deny that much of it has to do with SES and race. Unfortunately, because there are not enough programs aimed at giving minority youth second chances and because family structures have fallen apart in these communities, these disparities between whites and blacks have to exist. For example, our current criminal justice system has limited resources for delinquents when they get out of jail, not equipping them with job skills or an education that could lead them on the road to success. Instead, we throw them out there into a “jungle” and expect them to survive on the little that they have left. No wonder they continue to commit the same crimes-not only is it frustrating but it is sometimes the only way they see out. I like how Males brings up the fact that “during the Great Depression murder spiraled upward-peaking in 1933 with a rate of 9.7 murders per 100,000, higher than 1993’s 9.5 per 100,000 rate” (129). And now that we are going into a recession we have to be supportive of certain welfare programs that will help to bring families together, provide health care, financial literacy, and economic education.