Andreea Amariei
ENG101
Instructor: Jennifer Baumgartner
Youth Must Be Served-With Respect
In Youth Must Be Served the author, Robin Swicord, points out what happens to the teenagers when the grownups are the main source of inappropriate education stating: “teenagers are under daily assault, all right-by us, the grown-ups.” He sustains that everything that is fabricated, designed, given and sold, music, guns, clothes, video games nurture the way teenagers behave nowadays. In other words media has an impact on them because now it is focused more on violent movies, murders, bad aspects of people’s lives determining the author to assert that: “ the films we make shape minds.” This is what leads to unacceptable behavior and as Swicord sustains: “stories change lives and we know it, or we wouldn’t be so passionate about writing and producing movies.” Moreover, the author claims that “adults should face the fact that they don’t like adolescents.” This emerges from the way some parents take care of their children or by the educational system which tends to be less effective. The more students in a class, the less chances to get a good education. However, if this happened in adult’s workplace, they would obviously resort and disagree with the system. Additionally, Robin Swicord talks about the commercial assault kids are confronted with. Even in their school material such as textbooks commercial references exist. He believes that teens should be watching movies and shows which will benefit them to learn about future. A Latin expression is very suitable here and that is: repetitia es mater studiorum”- the more you repeat, the more you will learn. Therefore, the more children are going to watch movies again and again, the easier they will memorize the scenes and act similarly. The author gives the example of The Basketball Diaries, where violence and gun shooting is expressed and the effect this movie has on kids. The massacre at Columbine High School is seen as “ an opportunity for us to reexamine what we believe and what kind of cultural contribution we want to make.” In the end, the author calls to an action by stating that people are aware of the power they have and “it’s our responsibility to help reverse the current negative forces.”