Obnoxious Kids And Millennials. Who Do We Blame?

The education system we take so much pride in isn’t nearly as perfect as we make it out to be. We criticize the generation today and label them as "millennials" but fail to find the root of the problem. Why are the kids today lacking common/basic manners and why are they growing out to be rude, mean and straight up obnoxious? Why are more of them more interested in bashing and gossiping about others rather than correcting themselves? Why don’t any of them know how to genuinely give respect or earn it? Why do they lack patience? And more importantly, why are they going around making meaningful things look pathetic?

For all of this, I mock the education system of today. I believe it has way too many flaws that most of us conveniently overlook. Educational institutes today don’t focus on polishing their students, teaching ethics and most importantly teaching them how to live.

Education isn’t supposed to be limited to studying. It is a vast and endless series of learning including all aspects of life. Campbell and Bond (1982) list the school and academic institutes as one of eight key influences of youth’s personality development in the U.S.

According to the well-known psychologist Dr. Chuck Borsellino, an expert in clinical psychology, says that anyone's character development occurs in 3 phases.

The first phase in a child’s character development is mostly between the ages of 5-8. During this period, a child is discovering the world. They are fascinated by the superficial. It is also during this period of their life that they recognize society's set rules and the eagerness to communicate in ways which could be either positive or negative.

You see kids these ages are usually the "brattiest". This obviously has two reasons:

1. The parents aren’t focusing on the right things (but we’re not discussing that).
2. Our flawed education system.

While our academic institutes focus a great deal on extra-curricular activities or academics, the teachers forget to focus on the most important part of the child: their characters. Perhaps, it is because their job descriptions never mention this. Or because they never know what teaching is about or how they are the second priority adults that are interacting with the kid on a regular basis, the first being the parents/guardians of course.

That being said, the schools need to be more focused on teaching children small things like keeping promises, individual responsibility, humility, honesty, sharing, collaborating in groups, encouraging them to help others. As psychologists state that it is during this time that children learn about interaction, they need to be trained right because what they are taught at this age, they learn for life.

The second phase of character development is between the ages of 9-12. This is the age when children come to value and see and slightly feel the society they live in. This is the time when a child should be taught the importance of rules and norms. The child must be taught about society and the functioning of every individual in their society. This phase is when they learn to feel genuine compassion and morals.

The third and last but nonetheless still very essential phase is between the ages of 13-18. These are known as the teenage years. This is a crucial phase of life, apart from the hormonal changes. There’s a whole new look at life. There’s more competition, bullying, feelings of inferiority or superiority and a whole lot of judgment from everyone. What this period needs is teaching of strong morals and ethics, self-confidence and the need to have a strong self-esteem.

Adolescents require more attention in the sense that they need to be encouraged to pursue their skills without feeling out of place. They need to be appreciated so they can help discover themselves without feeling shame in what they are doing may be frowned upon as other people do not do those things.

Also, it is essential that there is a good role model for the teenager during this time because if there isn’t a steady personality around him/her that he/she can depend on and look up to for inspiration or motivation, they will probably turn to the easiest source there is: the media, the society, pop culture- you name it. And the messages they give out will produce exactly the kind of people that make us say “This generation is messed up”.

A kid can’t choose their family, and there’s no guarantee that this sort of teaching will be available to the child at home, so instead schools should take the responsibility in building a kid’s personality.

If school teachers started focusing on a child’s personality just as much as they care about the academics, instead of just producing scholars with PhDs, we can produce human beings with PhDs.

P.S. I put in a lot of effort in this so do not plagiarize this or I will sue you :P . ©

- A.I.Eva (@arthestically)

---

If you like what I post, then hit the follow button to make sure you don't miss out on my future posts/stories/rants!
Comment below and let me know your thoughts. I would love to hear your views as well! :)