Walter C. Gusler

As I read the newspaper each morning or watch the national and local news each evening, there seems to be the same subjects on every night. The rise in child suicide, currently fourteen children take their lives each day; the rise in illiteracy among young people has gone up each year since 1991; a continuous rise in child on child assaults and sexual assaults; and teenage pregnancy which has now reversed a fourteen year trend of declining and has began to rise at a much faster rate than recorded in the past.

I attribute part of the troubles with our younger generation to the lack of education and introduction of the cultural and respectful ways of life of our past generations. It has become nearly impossible to find a book of William Shakespeare plays or Charles Dickens stories. In schools today, literature is now an elective in most districts; therefore, as long as you have the basic English class they will graduate. Cultural events such as plays, symphonies, art museums, and classic socializing events are discouraged and labeled as boring and stupid. Hollywood and the media are the worse culprits in sponsoring this way of thinking in our society. Most of the shows directed towards children and young adults are heavy on the sex, drugs and violence. Look at 90210, Cougar Town, and Family Guy these shows are protected by the first amendment and yet we have no law for common decency. Movies and video games such as Grand Theft Auto and American Pie actually have kids playing the game where they can pay for prostitutes and kill for the joy of it.

Another breakdown in our society is communication between each other. Texting and e-mailing now has its own language, every word seems to be abbreviated or has had the spelling changed to fit into our electronic world. As we continue to write in these technological short-hand methods, we begin to lose our ability to spell correctly or use appropriate grammar. Our advanced technological society has created a world where our children can barely communicate in the others socially, have problems differentiating between right and wrong, and most do not have a good enough education to get into college without taking refresher courses first.

As Southern gentlemen and parents, it is our responsibility to teach our children by leading by example. We must use appropriate grammar and spelling when we communicate. We should read classic literature to our children early on in life and provide them the opportunity to be able to read it themselves once they are old enough. What child would not want their father to read some of A Christmas Carol each night during the Christmas season? Trips to the Art museum are a great family outing as are historical sites. A classical concert with the whole family dressed up helps show our young ladies and gentlemen that dressing up is a sign of respect for the event and others that may observe us.

My father may not have liked all of the cultural events that I mentioned but he opened all of the doors to let me decide and I have never closed them. Give your children a chance away from the computer and get them into a good old book and they may never close the door either.