When I first returned to Canada I had to do a couple of days work as a day labourer at a steel factory. While there the main boss asked me my opinion of children these days, and of course I told him that kids now are so much better behaved than we were. He called me a liar. I think it is human nature for people to automatically assume their childhood was better than the current generation’s childhood. It is hard to look at childhood objectively as an adult, we tend to remember the good times, not the bad, and yet when we look at the kids today we see the whole picture.

I’d like to set something that is hard for some adults to grasp. Being a kid hasn’t changed. Children still go through the same types of difficulty that we did, and our grandparents did. No matter how many Pink-shirts we wear, there is always going to be kids who bully other kids. There will always be kids that find peace in solitude, or in social gatherings. There will always be kids that are good at sports, and kids that are not. Children still look up to their elders for guidance (We did too, just a lot of kids were not getting guidance when we were young.) They still try to learn about their world. They still believe they know more than their parents.

30 years ago if one of your parents had to travel for work, you saw him once every few weeks or months. He had no parenting influence over you at all. Nowadays, if 1 parent is away, you can still see them daily via skype, or other networking media. They can still help you with homework, and sometimes do. You can still share life with each other. Now there are still parents who refuse to learn such new fandangled technology, but that is like our parents learning to program a VCR’s time. (If you don’t remember VCRs then maybe this article is for people older than you). Kids used to play Super Mario brothers and Street Fighter and Grand Turismo Auto Racing, now they play Super Mario 10, and Mortal Kombat 10 and GTA. We used to sit on the phone talking to our friends (or sitting in silence with them on the line), now they text message each other all the time (on the phone).

What has changed is the world in which the kids are being raised. Parents are becoming more social warriors, and less parents. Most parents work, and with the Canadian economy the way it is, it’s not surprising. But what this means is that in a lot of households, no-one is there to guide the kids afterschool. So instead parents (sometimes) get involved where they can, by advocating anti-bullying days, instead of teaching your kids what is right and wrong and to respect others feelings. They become one-day-heroes, trying to make up for the lost time with a school trip or too. (Our parents did likewise). We as parents do our best to make up for the lost time. And it has become easier to do so in the modern world.

Kids today are being raised in a friendlier, safer, more connected world, and it has had a positive effect on them in comparison to our childhood. They are better educated, have more moral support and have more positive influences than we did. As a result they make fewer mistakes relating to drugs and sex. The awareness of other cultures, orientation, gender and lifestyles has led to less racism, homophobia, sexism, and misinformed bullying. I, as a parent and a teacher am proud of the world we are building for our children, and am looking forward to making it even better as we go.