Wednesday, July 2, 2008

What High School Students Face Today...

It really saddens me how soon High School students (or all students, for that matter) begin to experience things nowadays, whether it be the death of a close friend or family member, experimentation with drugs or alcohol, intimacy with the opposite sex, or even the incorporation of defamatory language in every day conversation. Kids today are growing up too soon, and who is to blame?

My mind immediately develops a theory that the media is solely responsible for all this ungodly behavior. There are so many movies, television shows, and songs that blatantly encourage underage drinking, sex before marriage, etc. The media glorifies beauty in ways which force girls to dislike themselves and seek approval and validation in other ways or defame women to the point that men begin to treat them like meat. Whatever happened to the shows I grew up with, like "Saved by the Bell" or "Full House", that had positive morals imbedded in each episode? (Positive for the most part, anyway.)

But then I begin to doubt the control the media has on its viewers, and I begin to think about the actual ROOT of all the temptations and expectations surrounding students today. What is the cause of this instant maturation of students? And how can we help students who struggle with this temptation?

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