Lesson 14

                      Does the Younger Generation Know Best?

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                          The Younger Generation Knows Best

    Old people are always saying that the young are not what they were. The same comment is made from generation to generation and it is always true. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated. They have a lot more money to spend and enjoy more freedom. They grow up more quickly and are not so dependent on their parents. They think more for themselves and do not blindly accept the ideals of their elders. Events which the older generation remembers vividly are nothing more than past history. This is as it should be. Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. Today the difference is very marked indeed.

    The old always assume that they know best far the simple reason that they have lieen around a bit longer. They don't like to feel that their values are being questioned or threatened. And this is precisely what the young are doing. They are questioning the assumptions of their elders and disturbing their complacency. They take leave to doubt that the older generation has created the best of all possible worlds. What they reject more than anything is conformity.

Office hours, for instance, are nothing more than enforced slavery. Wouldn't people work best if they were given complete freedom and responsibility? And what about clothing? Who said that all the men in the world should wear drab grey suits and convict haircuts? If we turn our minds to more serious matters, who said that human differences can best be solved through conventional polities or by violent means? Why have the older generation so often used violence to solve their problems? Why are they so unhappy and guilt-ridden in their pexsonal lives, so obsessed with mean ambitions and the desire to amass more and more material possessions? Can anything be right with the ratrace? Haven't the old lost touch with all that is important in life?

    These are not questions the older generation can shrug off lightly. Their record over the past forty years or so hasn' t been exactly spotless. Traditionally, the young have turned to their elders for guidance. Today, the situation might be reversed. The old - if they are prepared to admit it-coutd learn a thing or two from their children. One of the biggest lessons they could learn is that enjoyment is not "sinful".

 Enjoyment is a principle one could apply to all aspects of life. It is surely not wrong to enjoy your work and enjoy your leisure; to shed restricting inhibitions. It is surely not wrong to live in the present rather than in the past or future. This emphasis orr the present is only to be expected because the young have grown up under the shadow of the bomb: the constant threat of complete annihilation. This is their glorious heritage. Can we be surprised that they should so often question the sanity of t.he generaiion that bequeathed it?


II. Read
    Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

                         1. Problems of the Young

    More than 20 Chinese and American experts discovered that young people of both countries are facing the same probiems of economic and social pressures and lack of confidence.
    Wayne Meisel, director of the Campus Outreach Opportunity League of Minnesota University, said that under economic pressure American young people have to work hard and most students have to take part-time work in order to support themselves.

    "Young people today, ?he said, "are stereotyped as apathetic, selfcentred, and concerned only with making money and getting ahead."
    In these circumstances, he said, young people lack confidence,whicb was not the case in the 1960s when young Americans thought themselves capable of doing anything.
    In spite of the different conditions in China, Li Xuequan, director of the, higher education section of the All-China Youth Federation, said Chinese young people are alsc facing economic pressure and are worried about iriflation and corruption.
Trading has appeared in many Chinese universities as students with something to sell try to make money on campus.

    Moreover, Li said, college students have begun to doubt whether what they are learning in class will help them find work,as many businesses totally ignore students of pure theory.
    So people describe students as "a lost generation tired of study", regardless
of the causes in society that are shaking their confidence.

    In order to resolve these problems, the Chinese and American experts agreed that youth organizations should call on the whole of society to create favourable conditions for the healthy growth of young people, as well as to enconrage them to meet the urgent needs of society and to challenge the assumption that young people are apathetic and uncaring.

    Meisel said that since last year he has sent letters of . "challenge to youth" to many young people, urging them to commit themselves to addressing such needs as feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, educating the illiterate, consoling the lonely and sick, serving the elderly,and preserving the environment.
    The letter says: "Through service, we touch the lives of others and enrich our own. "

                        2. Students' Mental Health

    According to a study conducted in Tianjin, out of 50, 000 college students, 16 per cent have suffered from anxiety, nervousness, depression or problems due to the early onset of sexual awareness. Of students from elementary school to high school age in shanghai, 27 per cent have some kind of emotional disorder,are tired of study, have premature love affairs, smoke or run away from home. In addition, most of them are bothered by impulsiveness, envy, worry or melancholy. Not a small number of students show a sense of inferiority, squeamishness, aggression or strong self-will.

   Bad psychological health causes serious repercussions in a teenager's individual development. In tliree main high s.chools in the southwest of China, of students leaving school, 74 per cent left due to bad health and 42.2 per cent of those suffered from emotional problems and stress.

    During puberty, teenagers go through a period of "changing times? During this time, most teenagers' bodies and sexoal desires develop. They are beginning to mature both physically and mentally. But most of them can not become mature in both these areas at the same time. Some teenagers' emotions remain childish, dependent and impetuous. hf we do not resolve the problems that face t.eenagers, they not only will suffer from them, but they will also probably go astray.

                     3. Worries Induce Emotional Problems

    More than 16 per cent of Chinese college and middle school students have emotional problems caused by concern over exams, poor relationships with their teachers and a lack. of enthusiasm for their studies.
    Some students feel depressed, fearing they fall short of their parents' expectations.
    An unhappy family Tife can also lead to depression.
    These conclusions are the result of research into emotional problems among college and middle school students.

    According to a study of 2, 961 urban,and rural college and middle school students,. problems arise most frequently in two groups: students in their first and second year of junior middle schools and those in their last year at senior middle school . or the first year in higher-learning institutions.

    The survey also revealed that emotional problems increase as students get older.
    The percentage of students with emotional problems in junior middle schools is around 13 per cent, while the figures for students in senior middle school and higher-learning institutions are 19 and 25 per cent respectively.

                             4. Eager to Be Off

                           5. A Room of One's Own

             6. "Intimate Elder Sisters" Allay Teenagers' Worries

    Xiao Lin, a third year junior high school student from Beijing, packed his books and clothes and left home, with tears in his eyes.
    He felt his divorced parents never loved him. He felt lonely, but he did not know where to go.
    He thought of 440779, a phone number to reach the so-called "Intimate Elder Sisters".
    That day was a day to remember in'his whole life. One of the sisters came to see him, and to his utter enjoyment, spent .the day playing with him .

    "She told me 'The world is not as cold as you think it is. There is so much love here. I love you. Your friends love you.'"
    Xiao Lin stayed at home, trying to fill it with the love he got from his Intimate Elder Sister.
    Actually, the Intimate Elder Sisters are Wu Ruomei, I.u Qin, Ge Shujuan and Huang Xiaopo, editors o# the China Chiidren's News. Since they opened the hot line in March 1988, they have received mor.e than 10,000 calls from children across the country.

   "We hope to ease their troub(es through heart-to-heart chats," said Wu Ruomei. Many of the children they talked to were disturbed by secrets they felt obliged to keep from both their parents and their teachers.
    Children reach the Elder Sisters every day by phone with a wide range of funny or astonishing questions. "I' m growing into a fatty, sister, and I don't want that," and, "What do children on other planets look like?"

    The questions are not always small and easy to solve. Yet, " Even if we just listen to these children' s sobbing, we' re helping them out of their loneliness," Wu said.
    When Iittle Yanni called her Elder Sister in Beijing from Wuhan, she was weeping. "Mama is dying from cancer," she said. "I don't want her to leave me."
    After comforting little Yanni, her Sisters informed children in other parts of the country, who sent Yanni and her mother letters and gifts, encouraging them to fight the disease courageously.

    A Beijing boy refused to be identified on the phone. But he told his Elder Sister his cousin had accidentally injured another child and had to pay all the medical fees. Afraid of informing.his parents, he had stolen 110 yuan from a classmate's home and was discovered later. He was in great distress, but did not know what to do.
    Wu said to him, "The boy's actions are forgiveable. Once he clears up the situation, he'll.win the trust of others.?Her sense told her that the boy was talking about himself.

    After the call, Wu wrote to the boy's father, asking them to help the boy.
    A few days later, a boy appeared before the editors. It was he who had taken the money. Now, a good student in No 20. Middle School of Beijing, he often visits with his Elder Sisters.
    During the past year, Wu and her colleagues also opened the hot line for a short period in eight other cities in the country. In Nanning, capital of South China' s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, they received 509 calls in three days.