The problem is, when you look at the statistics, you realize that the young are in pretty good shape. Or at least they're in a lot better shape than the young of the early-'70s, or even the young of the mid-90s. Just about any statistic you could think of which is indicative of the depravity, or lack thereof, of the young shows our current times to be some of the most hopeful of recent memory. According to these data, teenage pregnancy rates are at an all-time 30-year low, even as the pregnancy rates for the next generation up, 20-24 year-olds, have remained relatively steady, showing that many teenagers actually do heed the advice that it is better to wait to have children. How about teen drug use? Those numbers are not quite as hopeful, with a sharp rise in drug use among teenagers taking place in the late '90s, but they are still better than their counterparts in the early '80s, and there seems to be a downturn now occuring. Statistics on teen violence can be found here. According to the commentary included with the report, "In 2000 the serious violent crime offending rate was 17 crimes per 1,000 juveniles ages 12 to 17, totaling 413,000 such crimes involving juveniles. This is a 67 percent drop from the 1993 high and the lowest rate recorded since the national victimization survey began in 1973."
What about education statistics? Certainly America's schools need to be fixed. We hear everyday about how bad education in America is, and just looking around a little will confirm the low level of cerebral cortex activity in today's teenagers. Well... once again, things are a little different than the prevailing talk among media and pundits lets on. Here you can find statistics for reading performance for 9, 13 and 17 year-olds in the United States since 1970, and here you can find statistics for math performance for approximately the same groups (they are listed by grade level in these tables). While reading ability has remained approximately unchanged for students in the last 20 years, it has improved since the early '70s. Meanwhile, students in grade 4 and 8 have showed steady improvement in mathematics since 1990, while students in grade 12 improved between 1990-1996, but then went down slightly between 1996-2000. Regardless, across the board, there has been improvement in mathematical ability for all students since 1990.
So, what does it all mean? It means, I think, that there's still room for improvement, and there is still room for worry, but that things aren't so bad either. Of course, teenage pop culture will always be the bane of the older generations, and teenagers' flouting of mores and principles will always cause consternation among polite society. But it's time to cut the kids some slack, trust that if we give them good information (which, given some of the trends during the current administration, may be a big "if"), then they will be able to make good decisions.
