Parents: Relax

This article mainly talks about how teenagers these days are deemed worse off than their forebears, and that it isn't true. It talks about how parents should "relax" and that teens are less violent and more sober, rational in thinking, and should be given more rights in deciding their lives. It says that the teen brain may well be evolving, and that teens are actually becoming more rational and make better decisions compared to their forebears, so their parents, being the forebears, should rest easy knowing that their children are probably better at making the right decisions (albeit not as often as adults) as they themselves were when they were teenagers. The idea of introducing a type of 'competency test' to determine his/her rational thinking, no matter what their age is, was offered by Robert Epstein. The children/teenagers who pass this test can then be allowed more rights, such as signing their own contracts, vote and do essentially anything he/she wants, like drinking, smoking, driving, etc.

The author made a very good point in saying that even though this test can be considered, the question is, who will be the one who creates the test? Psychologists could, as Epstein said, but who can say that these psychologists can even agree on the level of maturity and rational thinking the applicant must have? Even though they are all in the same field, they would have different ideas on the competency level they think the children should have before they "pass the test". It's the same as different doctors coming up with different diagnosis for a single patient. This test could lead to even more problems because of the difference in opinion.

I agree with the author that teenagers now are more rational in their thinking compared to their forebears. This is because they are exposed to different environments. Teens nowadays have sources like the Internet where they can always research on whatever they want to know, and decide for themselves whether something is morally right or wrong. Most schools also tutor their students in what they should do and what they should not. For example, many schools invite professionals to come to their school and give talks to their pupils (eg on the harmful effects of smoking, drugs, etc.) Their forebears didn't get as much exposure to this kind of things when they were our age, as what was most important was their education, not overall upbringing. Violence is also decreased as most violent tendencies that teenagers may have are resolved as soon as possible. Although there are still cases of violence and shooting, it has become relatively less(as shown from the article-'the rate of school violence fell from 48 crimes per 1,000 students in 1992 to 22 per 1,000 in 2004, according to the Department of Education').

The author commented that since kids have been making better decisions in the past 20 years, they should maintain status quo and that it 'would be perverse to reward them by saying that we don't care if they get drunk and watch porn, or do anything else wrong. I disagree. Since it has already been proven that kids these days have better rational thinking skills and the ability to judge for themsevlves, giving them more freedom is simply what they deserve. They can be offered all the choices in the world, but if teenagers know what is right and what is wrong, they themselves will decide what they want to do. Thus, yes, parents should simply relax and let us learn how to live life our way.


-pinghao

Young People’s Protests Are Easy to Mock- But Ignore Them at Your Own Peril (’08)

Do you agree that hardship allows children to mature better? Why?

I agree that hardship allows children to mature better. A child who does not experience hardship will find that everything goes smoothly for him. If the child chances upon a difficulty he will remain stationary (not make any progress) and think that the problem will somehow or rather be solved. For example, the effect of global warming is obvious, however if he does not experience what global warming does he will remain ignorant and expect the problem to solved by itself. In addition, a child who experienced hardship will tend to treasure life more than a child who does not. A child living in less developed countries such as Africa where water is a scarce resource, the child will value every drop of water that is available to him or her. On the other hand, in Singapore where water is accessible to all, children may have the mindset that wasting water is normal. Only when there is a drought in Singapore, may the child mature better to value the true cost of water. Furthermore, a rich child will not feel the importance of saving money and may continue to spend money freely till he experiences financial difficulties or when he starts to work and realize how difficult it is to earn money.

Are Singaporean youths mature?

I feel that majority of Singaporean youths are immature. The majority of Singaporean youths today are born when Singapore is very developed. They do not get to experience any hardship brought about from the Japanese invasion into Singapore or the poor and developing years of Singapore to what success it has today. We are born in a time where there is accessibility to every need. For example every household has access to drinkable water straight from their tap. This result in youths to take for guaranteed that water is free as the water bill is not shown to the youths. In addition, youths tend to follow their friend’s decisions rather than make their own decisions. For example when choosing a tertiary education path, youths will try to stick together and not choosing their future path.


-Toby

El Sistema: Changing Lives Through Music

Summary

The article highlights a special music program in Venezuela which is so extraordinary that it has been hailed as the 'future of classical music itself'. It's extraordinary as the orchestra produces classical music with the help of kids from the slums of Venezuela, instead of having musicians that are graduates from some conservatory/music school. Futhermore, while most classical music orchestras like to play more "serious" music, this orchestra is about the exuberance of youth. The kids travel around the world to play to sell-out audiences, and is essentially a social system that fights the poverty faced by the kids in Venezuela. This is because playing and listening to classical music provides a spiritual richness for the them. The kids can start to learn from the young age of 2, and learn from the basics to playing an instrument and being in a part of the orchestra. This program helps the kids to both learn a new skill, as well as to shape them into better people and instill in them self-esteem and confidence. They also learn a culture which is very much different from their present surroundings.

Question: Will this work in Singapore? Or in the less-developed South-East Asian states, for that matter?

Yes, I think that this system (called the El Sistema) will work in Singapore. This is because music is something like an international language; everyone can listen to it and relate to it, no matter what country or background they are from. This is especially true for classical music, which does not contain any lyrics, but rather, evokes feelings in people through its melodies.

This program, where the children come together to form an orchestra to pratice and play together is a good way of promoting classical music and to instill some values into the kids. It provides the kids with a calmer and richer environment. This quieter and peaceful environment is not only needed in the poor and dangerous country of Venezuela, but in the busy and competitive environment of Singapore as well. Moreover, encouraging youths to take part in the program would be good as it would give them a nice change from all the popular music they listen to all the time. Kids in Singapore will also be able to learn how to persevere in an area they choose and commit to it as the system teachers kids to learn on a daily routine. It can also help to change their characters and turn wayward children into better people. One example can be seen from the case of Lennar Acosta who was serving time in Caracas and had a crimminal background. He tried playing the clarinet and learnt how to treat people without violence. Thus, if this system was introduced in Singapore, it could be held for youths in detention as well, so that they may learn something new, and come out of jail as a better person. As Dudamel said in the extract, Kids with "big problems" "change their life with music."

Also, as Elster said, "Kids are kids. It doesn't matter where they come from. And if you can help a poor kid in here, you can help a poor kid everywhere. It doesn't matter the culture, it doesn't matter the race. I mean, it's music. Everybody love music." Music is a language that everyone understands, so it can also be a method that would work very well in guiding kids and helping them make a difference in their lives, no matter where it is. (Venezuela, Singapore, Malaysia, or any country in the world.)


-pinghao

To what extent do young people in your society take an interest in politics?

How do you think youths could participate in their country’s politics? Give at least 3 ways they could do so.

Youths are already participating in their country’s politics through the usage of cyberspace. There are some who express their opinions on political issues through blogging. The usage of the internet is a good way to get youths involve in discussion on political issues as they can express their opinions freely without fear of being pointed or singled out.

Also, the education system may affect a student participation in their country’s politics, as the heavy curricular demands alienate them from national issues. Thus, schools could cut back on their curriculum to provide rooms for students to learn more about public policies.

Lastly, the formation of youth political organisations such as Young PAP, help youths understand more about their country’s politics and get them involved in it.

Adeline (o'w'o)

Jieyao-Milestone for Singapore Schools Sports

This milestone, is the first ever Opening Ceremony of the National School Games organized by the Singapore Schools Sports Council's(SSSC). This Opening Ceremony would mark the start of the National Inter-School Championships for the 27 sports within the SSSC Sporting calender and would culminate with a Closing Ceremony.

I feel that through this initiative by the Ministry of Education, we can see that the goverment knows that nowadays, youths in Singapore do not spend much time exercising and are taking the initiative to encourage us youths to take up an interest in sports. Through this event, we can promote sports to youths in singapore and can also impart values like teamwork, respect and resilience to participants. This would benefit youths by toughening them up mentally as this generation of youths are largely unexposed to hardships due to the fact that we are living in peaceful and prosperous times,leading to us becoming less resillient and determined compared to previous generations.

Furthermore, Singaporean youths would become well-rounded people who are capable in their studies and also sports. As youths get involved in sports, they would not spend so much time on watching the tv and playing the computer, which would be detrimental to their health. Also, we get to make new friends through sports and would expand our social network and also help improve our interpersonal skills.

Byeeeeeeee

They're capitalist-minded --- and they're changing the nation forever

How are India's youths similar to or different from Singaporean youths?

In my opinion, i feel that Singaporean youths do not strive as hard as Indian youths. Currently, the primary ambition of Indian youths today is to become rich. And to achieve that goal, Indian youths have the determination to strive for their dreams of becoming rich. This trait is not as commonly seen in Singaporean youths as youths today are happy staying in their comfort zones and not being ambitious enough to strive as hard as Indian youths as most Singaporean families today are well off.

However, Indian youths are in some ways similar to Indian youths. For example, Indian youths today now want to marry for love, with their parents approval, and not continue the tradition of having arranged marriages, where parents chose their children's spouses, often without consent. This is similar to Singaporean youths as they also do not have the traition of having arranged marraiges.

Generation OMG

Despite being born in similar circumstances of economic depression, people who were born in the 1930s and the 1970s can hardly be classified in the same mold. Children born in the 1930s were raised with the belief that as long as they kept to themselves and followed the system, everything would eventually turn out fine. These would later grow up to become more reserved people who tended to stick to convectional approaches when handling a problem. Children born in the 1970s, however, were taught to be more open-minded and adventurous, and to take risks. Thr result was that these people were more ambitious and agressive than their 1930 counterparts. This proves that although living throughout an economic crisis may affect the mindsets of people, it ultimately boils down to the way they are rised.

As to how this article can be applied to the 2009 recession, I believe that it is not very accurate when used to label Singaporean youths. Being a relatively small country with an efficient government, Singapore is as not heavily affected by the recesion as other countries. Not many Singaporeans have been forced to drastically alter their lifestyles and spending habits due to the recession. I myself have never recalled ever consciously making a decision not to splurge due to the economic recession. This may also be because most Singaporeans tend to save enough money to tide through such problems. In short, we are saved by our "kiasu" auttitude. The economic crunch may or may not result in this generation being more thrifty, but the change will not be particuarly noticeable when we look back from 30 years in the future.

Faris' post : They're capitalist-minded

This essay/article is horrendously long. Like seriously. Anyway, my opinion on the article is that it is a very refreshing view of youths. More specifically youths in India. This article focuses on the fact that nowdays, Indian youths are a product of sociological changes wrought by eight years of economic liberalization in India. They are a proud mix of Indian values with western packaging. A result of internet and cable television.

As the article has mentioned, it is amazing to see how different the Indian youths are from their parents. They no longer care about politics and they like money. The primary ambition of most youths in India is to become rich by getting high paying jobs in the media industry.

I feel ashamed that Singaporean youths like me are not motivated like our counterparts in India. Maybe we are too comfortable in our small fantasy world that we are oblivious to the harsh reality. Maybe we should start taking our future more seriously and adopt a new and refreshing attitude.

Peace Out

Chin Wang-Violent Games=Violent Children?

Does violence in young people begin solely from violence in media?

In my opinion, I believe that there are also other ways that affects young people causing them to become more violent. However,the media plays a part by influencing young people with whatever they see in films shown in cinema or on television and the games that they play.

To begin with, action-packed movies are always shown in theatres and young people especially the males prefer this to romance movies. The action scenes that are taken such as a bank robbery, theft or murder excites the audience and causes young people to idolise these "heroes". Therefore, causing them to believe that such acts are acceptable and are fun. As a result, this has caused several young people to attempt robbery when they are older.

Another way that the media affects young people is that the games young people play are much more violent so as to attract their attention towards it. However, this has caused many young people to be misled in their thinking, believing that such acts are normal in the society such as shooting bazooka down the street or shooting down a jet plane. This has caused several shooting incidents among youths.

On the other hand, these may not affect all young people as many are able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. These young people may not be affected by the games or movies that they watch as they understand the difference between the things that can be done in fantasy and reality. Hence, violence in young people does not necessarily have to begin from violence in media.

RE; Involvement of Youth in Local Politics

To me, politics is the profession of conducting political affairs, an act of governing a country for example, through political discussions .
In my opinion, the youth of today are interested in politics, but, subconsciously . They think that they are not interested in politics, due to the dry content that they are subjected to if they watch the televised parliamentary debates . However, they still actively participate in online forums regarding issues about decisions of the government . Whether they agree or disagree with the decision made is not the point . The point is that they feel very strongly about the decisions made by the government, and they usually have substantial evidence to back their cases . Furthermore, the youth of today are always pleading to the older generation to listen to their ideas and also to give them the opportunity to voice out their own personal opinions . So how can society claim that the youth of today are not interested in politics when the youth themselves want their own opinions to be heard ?

Amsyar Omar
10s403

the dumbest generation?dont be dumb

does being ignorant make the new youths of today dumb? Does being unable to remember the past make us even more dumb then the generation before? these are the contrevertial issues discussed about in the passage. I feel that this passage is highly inaccurate in presenting its ideas of this new generation as being dumb, on the basis that we are unable to rememeber and are ignorant towards our history. therefore, i do not agree with this argument.

the passage makes many references to youths of today not having the knowledge of past evvents or hisotrical figures. i feel that this may not reflect our dumbness or lack of knowledge, but rather, or ignorance and unwillingness to learn about the subject. Many youths today find that they do not have much to learn from the past, so do not bother to learn more about it.

the passage also blames multi tasking and the rise of the digital age as a major contribution to our "dumbness". However, i feel that our knowledge has expanded now, with the ease and efficiency of communitcations and spread of information. youths alll over the world today know more in terms of academics than we have ever did before. the internet is an amazing source of information, where we can find almost anything we wish to seek. such ease of the transfer of information has made youths today much smarter and knowledgeable than before.

No doubt, the new Gen- Y has their disadvantages and may tend to be dumb in certain ways. our lack of mental stimulation hinders our creative side of us, and makes us less inquisitive. we tend to be spoon fed with information as compared to people of the older generations, who had to search tirelessly for their information which they wanted to find. efficiency has led us to becoming dumber, by disrupting the natural human process of creativity. As the passage said, our fluid intelliegence has gone down.

However, this generation still has more knowledge and potential toout do te rest. therefore this generation is not dumb, just ignorant, and apathethic

Caleb seow

GENERATION OMG

This article shows how youth today are shaped by the Great Recession(2009) and the way they are similar to the Silent Generation. Silent Generation refers to the generation coming of age at the time, born during the Great Depression and World War 2. The reason for such comparison is because most of the youth today bear the same characteristic as the silent generation who are cautious and resigned. The characteristics of Silent Generation are grave, fatalistic and conventional. According to the passage, youth's ambitions have shrunk and the youth today are lacking of confidence.

I feel that it is because of the small generation population in response to the financial and global insecurity which in turn, uniquely poised the youth to take advantage of economic opportunities and resulting in the reduced competition. Hence, youth are becoming more apathetic and self-centered. Youth are just waiting for the hand of fate to fall on its shoulders and meanwhile working fairly hard and saying almost nothing. By comparing the flaming youth of their fathers and mothers, today's youth is still a small flame. However, we need to also note that the description of silent generation is abit of misnomer. Many revolutionary leaders in the civil rights movement came from the Silent Generation such as Martin Luther King and Loria Steinem as well as rockstars the Beatles. There is no simple cause and effect relationship in how economic adversity pushed a generation into any one kind of behaviour. It is still dependent on the context and the mood of the time and how children understand the spirit of the times.

The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb - Faizah

It is said in this article that it is easy to spot the ignorance of today's youth, "like shooting a fish in a barrel". For an example, there are many general knowledge stuff that youths today do not know.

I personally do agree, to the fact that generally, youths in th past would have been more knowledgeable compared to the youth today. The main focus of this article is not just the ignorance but also the apathy of today's youth.

*Apathy = the feeling of not being interested in anything and being unwilling to make any effort to change things.

Not only that they do not know, they can't be bothered too.

This don't-know-don't-care attitude is really dangerous, if all youths today share that attitude. The future would be full of selfish people who do not really care about what's going on, so long as their own life is working fine.

Perhaps the reason that causes youths these day to behave this way, is due to the digital age that we experience. Perhaps, it is because of the fact that we've spent alot of time online, and surfing the net, where everything is served to us just within seconds of clicks. And we also get to filter in choosing only reading what we WANT to read or watch or listen, where in most cases, youths would be reading on their idols & favourite artistes, watching music videos and so on.

Thus, we felt as though there was not a need to read the newspapers, & watch the news, because often we got this thinking of "oh, all those are adults' issues - doesn't concern me."This is wrong. Secondly, this form of information resource does not allow us to choose what information to obtain, as it comes in big bulks. This triggers us to be bored as we are so used to reading short chunks of information which is part of our interest.

It has also been scientifically proven that spending more time surfing the internet leads to a decline in a person's attention span. In other words, these would tend to get distracted easily. These explains why youths today hardly read the newspapers, due to this Digital Age.

Perhaps youth useful television programmes in channels like Discovery Channel, National Geographic and so on.

Honestly, i really feel that youths today need to wake up, and realise alot of things. We, youths, need to stop being obsessed about ourselves, where we actually spend hours blogging about our own individual lives, going shopping for luxury items just to look good, taking a long time just to decide which meal would satisfy our tummies best.

We need to realise that this little details, are hardly benefit the rest of the world in any way. With Children & families suffering in LDCs such as Africa, I really hate to sit and watch/listen to th fact that every 6 seconds, a child in the world dies of starvation. I wish that we youths are able to do something to make a difference to these statistics somehow.

Youths need to realise that they are not the only ones occupying space on earth. They cannot be apathetic to the surroundings, because the world needs us to open our eyes to many issues politically, environmentally, socially and more.

After all, we are the future!

Ivy /Their lives are an open (Face)book

I feel that social networking can be both healthy and harmful, it all depends on how an individual uses it.

Social networking is healthy as it allows people with friends and family members living in different parts of the world to connect be updated with each others' lives, it also allows one to be in contact with past classmates and schoolmates.
Such networking sites also allows youths to stand up for causes they strongly believe in such as abuse against animals and get people from all over the world to support them.

On the other hand, social networking sites can be harmful as it is highly addictive, especially to youths who do not have the control on the time they spend on such activity. As a result, many would end up neglecting their studies, family members, friends and health.
These sites also exposes youths to dangers and crimes such as sexual assault, causing them great trauma to their lives.

In conclusion, I feel that parents would have to play a vital role in assuring that social- networking sites would turn out to be a healthy one for their child.

Dare Violate a Copyright in Hong Kong? A Boy Scout May Be Watching Online

No, I believe that peer pressure does not substantially help fight crime.

First of all, peer pressure exist to everyone in this world who has friends. However, peer pressure are usually highlighted by the past cases in a more negative way. We are all humans and we do make mistakes, most of us are morally imperfect in one way or the other. So, the influence and pressure we exert to our friend might not be positive, in fact, most of the time it is negative.

In the case of this passage, I believe letting youths fight crime is indeed one way to encourage integrity and inculcate better moral values in them. However, there are too many negative impacts to this action. First of all, students are distracted from their utmost important mission: Study. Secondly, youths maybe influenced by additional exposure on the very addictive subjects like games and pornography. How can one influence a huge group of people when they are the minority.

Lastly, it takes a lot of determination and courage for a person to break the law and be a criminal. I believe that just by the mere peer pressure cannot influence or even change their mind, how can they fight crime? Peer pressure is not strong enough as a mean to fight crime.

Therefore, I believe peer pressure can hardly help fight crime.

PJM

Teenage Pregnancy, hollywood style

Has anyone watched 16 and pregnant on mtv channel? Every week, there will be stories of teen moms in America going through their 9 months of pregnancy. When the child is conceived, most of them would put their child up for adoption as they do not have the ability to raise the child. Others who do not have the courage to deliver the child would choose to put the innocent foetus's life to an end.
This all comes down to one thing: uprising involvement in premature sex. What's the reason behind it? i believe it is due to all the over exposure to stuff that encourages youths to get involved in sexual activities. And, youths who have an innate sense of curiosity, will wanna try out new things.

The mass media in Singapore could also help by being more supportive of sex education through more positive treatment and coverage of the issue. There are existing programmes on radio and magazines such as Teenage and Seventeen that deal with the issue of sex among youths. However, top dailies such as The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and Today, as well as television channels like Channel 5 and Channel 8 should also join in to extend the reach of sex education. [ ok this is not hollywood style but i think we have a topic in gp called mass media which is what is in the above. so yay. ]

bye.

CHRISTOPER~v(^-^)v~MySpace Medical~

I think a similar message on the awareness of public health can be sent to Singaporean youths through online social networking sites. This is because a wide number of youths can be reached through social sites like Facebook as many of the Singaporean youths have profiles on Facebook in order to interact with their friends. Thus, a wide audience can be reached.

Also, due to the mostly Asian culture of Singapore, it might be easier to spread these awareness messages to Singaporean youths as they are thought to be more conservative compared to American youths, thus there is a higher chance that they may heed the warnings on posting racy things on their profiles instead of just ignoring them and having negative reactions.

However, there will still be some youths who are rebellious and do not heed the advice that professionals give. Moreover, it is quite difficult to influence youths just by sending a single message as it may seem boring and insincere, leading to them not responding to the message. Talks could be given or videos could be made and posted online to appeal more to them youths and compel them to watch and learn their lesson.