Young Roots
Help us
By Johanne Margarette R. Macob
WE always hear people echoing our national hero’s view that the youths are the hope of our motherland. Ironically, nowadays, we also often hear people telling how the youths of today are different from those of yesteryears. The noted differences are, more often than not, in a bad light. “Ibang-iba na talaga ang mga kabataan ngayon.” So I’ve heard more than a few times, followed by a sigh.
Being one of the young, I can’t help but feel a tinge of sadness hearing these remarks. There’s a part of me wanting to answer back to correct their hasty generalization. We have been producing a lot of outstanding members of the society with life-changing concepts and inventions. Take the creator of the now widely used social media, he belongs to the youth sector. However, I also couldn’t help but agree as well with those who have doubts and fears for our future, reading about youths as drug users and pushers, as young parents, and as violators of various laws. I have personally known some of these people.
We’re a sector known to be critical thinkers yet, we’re also known to be impulsive decision makers. We’re said to be a generation of energetic, enthusiastic society members but we’re also seen as menace to the society. We’re a highly talented group, however, we do lose our drive to pursue our dreams occasionally. Thee are the ironies that surround our life.
Indeed, people could be right to view us different from the previous generation’s youth but I do hope that they also see the good with the bad in these differences. More importantly, I wish people critical of us would also be concerned about knowing what they can do to assist us. In fact, while we look as if we want to be able to stand on our own, but we could and would always use some help, that we want to feel needed, cared for by the family and society we are a part of.
I recently learned from one of my online subjects that a lot of theorists underscored the important roles that the family, the school, the community, and the rest of the environment play in developing a person’s personality. Everett Rogers and David McClelland argued maintained that the family plays an important role in the development of individuals while Alfred Adler acknowledged the impact of childhood experiences and of primary groups as family in personality development. Another theorist, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, proposed for operant conditioning or providing positive responses, rather than giving punishment, as a good way to attain desired behavior from people.
The theorists I have cited might be wrong but I think their ideas are worth a try, especially so because we, Filipinos, are still relatively sensitive, social people with strong family ties.
My hopes are still high that we, Generation Ys, can and will do better. Help us.
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