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Kids Then and Now

By Gordon Francis Corbett


    I once asked an experienced instructor why today's youngsters are so immature.

    She replied, "The hippies of the Flower Power era are sending their own kids to school.  Few help with their children's homework.  Many still use drugs.  In some families, the children act as parents, but, of course, they do it poorly."

    Maybe she was right.  Many of today's parents put their babies in nurseries.  Many use their television sets as baby-sitters.  Many mothers work, and are so tired at day's end that they cannot help their youngsters with their homework.  Those children receive much less love, guidance, and general maturation than did those of a century ago.

    Those long-ago young people spent enormous amounts of time with, and working for, adults.  Usually, those adults were their parents, who were raising them in their respective businesses.  This experience taught personal diplomacy, the importance of thrift, and the value of honest labor.

    Many of these families lived on top of their businesses.  At the day's end, the parents and the children, all dead tired, climbed the stairs to their living quarters.  Sadly, they had little energy for homework;  but the youngsters built skills, strengths, and ethics never taught in a classroom.

    Few parents today have businesses or trades in which to raise their youngsters, but one remedy looks promising.  More and more parents are teaching their children at home, thereby maturing them while teaching essential subject matter.  Their offspring emerge straighter, finer, and stronger, as their percentage in the Spelling- and Geography Bees shows.

    Home-schooling lets parents give their children greater maturity and better learning.  For those who can do it, what could be better?