“Always we hear the cry from teenagers, ‘what can we do, where can we go?’
“My answer is this: go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons and after you’ve finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun.”
“The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in sickness and lonely again. In other words grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a backbone not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are important and you are needed. It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday. Someday is now and that somebody is you!”
It’s the summer holidays and a college principal offered those words from a judge who regularly deals with youth.
And as Sardar Patel, India's first Deputy Prime Minister said at Indian Independence, ‘The future belongs to the youth, but education without character is of no value’.
As you read about GCSE results and A'levels – remember this:
I thought it was some achievement to get straight As....yeah this girl Malala got straight As...and the Nobel Peace Prize....hmm...some kids! Even when I was at school...always the immigrant kids going one step further and making the rest of us look ordinary.
Just imagine if there was like a country filled with immigrants, I wonder if they'd end up being like the biggest most powerful economy and country in the world...oh wait...there is...it's called America.
What is it with immigrants with their hunger and desire to excel and work hard and drive? Next thing you know they'll be risking their lives in little boats with their children and families - like swarming the country. Too much drive.
Don't want any more of them making native privately educated kids birthright of straight As looking mediocre. Gotta stop them. Send em back...tell em we are full. We ain't got the dosh....gave it to a load of bankers...now that's who we need more of...bankers...Cos banking, that's really hard to get right...evidently.
Ohhhh....and she had half her face blown off. I don't begrudge little Johnny and Little Jane getting their straight As from the straight A factory that is private education...but seriously...if they don't win the Noble Peace Prize as well....I'm just "meh"
Whilst all that was going on, I found myself cc'd on an email chain which started off commemorating Indian Independence, and soon degenerated into attacks on Hindus, Sikhs – what the hell is wrong with people over a certain age?
So the battle-cry of the faithful youth this summer should be: we are not only more industrious, but younger than you, cleverer, more industrious, more connected, more networked, more resourceful and we come in legions. We are a confident people. Our time has come. We will earn our rightful dues and respect.
