With the news that a fifth of all school teachers in the UK now want to bring caning (corporal punishment) back, my mind turned to peoples thoughts of teenagers, or youths as they were known before 1965, through the ages.
Most appropriate because of its final two words is this,
“Our youths love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority –they show disrespect for their elders and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food, and tyrannize teachers.” Socrates, c.400 B.C (attributed to him by Plato).
and 1600 years later, this ....
"The world is passing through troubling times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behaviour and dress."~Extract from a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274.Probably apocryphal.
But as Machiavelli wisely says;
"Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results." Machiavelli
Youths or Teenagers have always been a worry to their elders, and no doubt always will be because there truly is 'nothing new under the sun'.
"Don't criticize what you can't understand, your sons and your daughters are beyond your command." - Bob Dylan
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| Whack-O ..... 1950's Britain |
Most appropriate because of its final two words is this,
“Our youths love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority –they show disrespect for their elders and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food, and tyrannize teachers.” Socrates, c.400 B.C (attributed to him by Plato).
and 1600 years later, this ....
"The world is passing through troubling times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behaviour and dress."~Extract from a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274.Probably apocryphal.
But as Machiavelli wisely says;
"Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results." Machiavelli
Youths or Teenagers have always been a worry to their elders, and no doubt always will be because there truly is 'nothing new under the sun'.
"Don't criticize what you can't understand, your sons and your daughters are beyond your command." - Bob Dylan
