16 July 2008

10 Reasons To Cheer Teenagers

Mark Easton, the BBC Home Affairs reporter, has a "top 10" list to counteract all the "binge-drinking, drug-addled, knife-wielding thugs ready to leap out and stab a granny for a fiver" stories about teens. Among his points:

1. Teenagers are more likely to do voluntary work than people from any other generation. In fact, they are 10 times more likely to be volunteering in our communities than regularly being antisocial in them.
2. More teenagers than ever before are staying on at school after 16 to study.
3. And more than ever are going on to further and higher education.
7. Nearly two-thirds of 10-to-15-year-olds have helped raise money for charity.
8. According to English schools inspectors, bad behaviour in comprehensives is at its lowest level for at least a decade.
9. 175,000 under 18-year-olds are unpaid carers in the UK with some 13,000 providing more care than a full-time job (50+ hours).

Number 9 says a great deal about how our social care/eldercare system is broken, but it demonstrates selflessness.

One of the comments in response was from Andy Hamflett, Chief Executive of the UK Youth Parliament:
"Dear Mark,

I think I love you.

So great to read a (rare) balanced perspective on this issue. I'll make sure I dsitribute this throughout our UK-wide networks. It will certainly be well received by young people.

As we engage every day with the ever-burgeoning youth participation network which supports young people to be active citizens everywhere, I can tell you that young people are sick and tired of being demonised.

We all understand that youth crime is a major issue (but as you say, most victims are young peope, too), and that bad news sells (so everyone say, anyway), but we don't feel that any other group within society could be demonised in quite the same way as young people are, and there's a groundswell to try and do something about it."

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