Factory Teens: The Thinking Dilemma

Most of us have by now heard the opinion that the current generation of kids are becoming a mindless generation. We act and think like we're off an assembly line. We all do virtually the same types of things, eat the same types of food, wear the same types of clothes, etc. But what about the people responsible for the creation of these factory-kids? In today's factories (in the U.S.), who is it that usually makes the goods? Normally, it's a machine, programmed to do only a couple of things. In fact, the number of machines in a factory usually outnumber the human beings by a vast majority. This is the world that adults have created for us. So lets, as factory teens, take a good look at our creators...the robot adults. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to adults, I'm just simply pointing out that the reason that we aren't being individual is because the adults in our lives aren't acting any differently. Recently at school, with all the End Of Level testing going on, I'm seeing more and more examples to support this theory. For example, this year in my English class, we have just started the Romeo and Juliet unit. As a part of the unit, we were supposed to learn a dance. It was a dance that was actually created a couple hundred years AFTER Shakespeare's time. While we were in the circle learning the dance, I asked the teacher,"Why are we doing this? Is there any point behind it?" My teacher then rounds on me and says curtly,"I don't know, just do it." I doubt very much that my teacher even thought for a couple of seconds about what to say to me when I asked her that, and that is exactly the problem that I have with adults these days. I'm not even going to pretend to have an idea on how the adults ended up this way, but it has happened.

You don't believe me that adults are responsible for the mindless teen generation? Well, take a look outside and tell me how many kids over the age of 5-6 you see actually playing. Think back to the stories that all the senior citizens tell you about how when they were 9 years old, they'd build tree houses and act out Robin Hood or something else like that. Now you don't even see very many 9 year olds doing that kind of thing, let alone teens. The reason that kids are like this is because adults are like this. With mass media and instant communication, impressionable kids are given the example of how to go through life like a mindless drone. Kids try to mimic the adult world of being overscheduled and no time to think for themselves. It's a well known fact that kids try to do the things their parents do, and if you're a mindless drone, chances are the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

In my geography class, we are learning about South Africa and the Apartheid. We recently watched and learned about Stephen Biko, a revolutionary black man who helped changed South Africa. While watching a the movie called Cry Freedom, a quote that Steve Biko said jumped out at me. It was,"Change the way people think and things will never be the same." This bit of wisdom is like a two-edged sword; it can move to cut down your enemies, or it can cut you down. If you change the way people think, which in this case is by turning people into mindless drones, then you come out with a braindead population and a easily manipulated society. Is this what we, as Americans, want?