Saturday, November 14, 2009

Learn from yesterday, Live for today, Hope for tomorrow

Old Man Warner knows only of his time, and fails to understand the developing world around him. He views new ideas as absurd and sees young people as senseless beings. Old Man Warner rejects the ideas of newer generations because he believes they are incapable of making decisions and therefore, should not have a say in significant affairs. He prefers that important matters be left in the hands of the experienced and mature elder citizens. However, young people and their contributions are crucial in the development of society. If new ideas are not taken in to consideration, our society will live following a continuous pattern preventing all from developing and flourishing. The young are the owners of fresh new minds which offer an innovative approach and perspective on matters. The opinions of the young should always be taken in to consideration because they often have the best understanding of the current world. Their opinions enable us to put new ideas in to play and allow society to grow and prosper. Learning opportunities should always be given to the young in order to prepare them to run the world tomorrow.

Young people are the foundation of our future, the root of it, and the core. If today’s young are instilled with good values, those values will reflect in their approach of running the world tomorrow. As well, the young should be given the opportunity to learn lessons through means of people, events, and mistakes. Their ability to both learn from and to apply these lessons will supplement a prosperous future. However, if the youth of today are not instilled with good values and lessons it will negatively reflect in times to come. If the youth of today are unable to learn lessons and apply them to life, the foundation of our future will not be very stable nor will its roots be able to emerge. Therefore, in order to form a secure foundation for the future, the learning and engaging of youth in important matters should always be encouraged.

11 comments:

  1. very well spoken! but young people are often easily influenced and are often obliged to "crowd mentality." is it really possible to prevent teenagers from being negatively influenced? furthermore, aren't our opinions as young people often dictated by our peers?

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  2. I agree, young people need models. However, your word choice of model was not defined, which also meant that young people need bad role models. I have to say, criticism is as important as role modeling and sometimes, criticism can save your life from BAD models. For example, let say an individual was influenced by a group of gang drug users. These drug dealers are a source of BAD role modelling, because drug abuse is totally detrimental to your health. With criticism from a law enforcer or benevolent person who are against drug abuse, the individual has the liberty to choose whither to be peer pressured to take drugs or abide law. My point is that role modelling is very impressionable(especially in youth populations) but could be positive or negative, whereas criticism is the same, but untangle the possible damage of a bad model or deal damage to a good person. It is all relative.

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  3. You keep talking about good values, but what exactly are good values? If young people are only taught good values then how can they be sure that those values are "good". Besides "good" is a relative term. What's good for some people may not be good for others. Are you saying that we should only limits are views to "good" ones? Like hot and cold, one cannot exist without the other. So these so called "good values" cannot be defined by an individual unless they know and understand the bad ones too. So the best way for the new generation to grow is for them to be exposed to all values and allow them to asses which ones are good and which ones are bad.

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  4. May, it isn't impossible for young people to be either guided or misguided by the people around them. Nor is it possible to prevent teenagers from being negatively influenced. However, if in the end there is a lesson learned after being negatively influenced by another, then there is still a benefit being made isn’t there? For example, if a teenager is negatively influenced to take drugs but later on grows to acknowledge and learn from that mistake.
    “the young should be given the opportunity to learn lessons through means of people, events, and mistakes.”

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  5. Steven, thank you for the comment, I really like what you have to say. However, you seem extremely focused on the title rather than on the response itself. That makes me think that maybe my title is not appropriate for my response. I am considering replacing my title.

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  7. Stotes, when mentioning good values I was writing from a very broad point of view and speaking in the simplest of terms. I did not say that we should only limit our views to good ones, nor did I say that I am defining good values. However, although I agree with your point of exposing the new generation to all values, and allowing them to assess things for themselves, I believe that they should always be led towards the right direction. For example, if you were the parent of a child who was pondering about stealing, what direction would you lead your child in? Would you explain to your child that stealing is wrong, and they shouldn’t engage in it? Or, would you simply say that stealing is bad, however some people think differently…Do what you think is best my child. Yes, young people should be allowed to assess things for themselves, I stated that when I said “the young should be given the opportunity to learn lessons through means of people, events, and mistakes. Their ability to both learn from and to apply these lessons will supplement a prosperous future.” However, it is society’s duty to lead the young towards the right path. Whether they follow that path is merely for them to decide.

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  8. "my child" I can't help but lol. It sounds like I'm talking to some great sister from a church or something. The Church of Self-Realization that is! It's an excellent idea to expose children to both sides of the coin, after all, if you only know one side, how can you possibly make a sound decision that you won't regret.

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  9. Sotes, I think you've missed the boat on what anonymous was saying. Forgive me if I'm incorrect, but it seems that anonymous is saying that children WILL make decisions they will regret, but that we should give them the chance to make these decisions only once they are cognitively aware that they may regret their decision. Furthermore, if, as you claim, right and wrong are objective concepts, why should anyone regret anything?

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  11. It sounds like of those answers I got when asked a priest about religion...but any ways...Back to the main point. There are two ways we can describe a measurement: by its accuracy or by its precision. Accuracy is how accurate something is in relative to a given value, and precision is how acccurate can it be reproduced. Either way, measurements are established in relative to certain objects.

    Why did I state this? Well, it is be cause of people like the 77 year old*2 man, or else we wont see how far we progressed. Without anything to compare to, the only way to know our progress is by looking at our history. If even that is to fail, I do not believe there is a way to see progress.

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