Henry David said and I quote
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.”
To all of those in favor of liberty, do you really want to
be stamped as the disobedient or would you rather prefer the antonym? I, for
sure, would like the latter better.
Liberty for the teens is certainly an idea which ought to be
shunned to encourage the appropriate development of young minds today. What is
liberty actually? Freedom? The power to do anything without any supervision?
Have you ever seen a puppet show? Can the puppets entertain
their watchers and serve their purpose without the strings attached to them?
No… the better the hands holding the strings, the enriched is the
entertainment. Teens, similarly, need to be directed towards the path of righteousness
and this is not possible without an upper hand of adult.
I once heard a person saying,
“Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-o to a tree”
This shows how difficult and mind-boggling this job is. Why
would this be said if the teens ought to be given full freedom. Surely this
would ease off the burgeoning responsibilities on parents. But would it satisfy
the needs of a well developing child? Surely not. A teenager is a ripening mind
and unless it is provided with good care and conditions, it fails to create the
sweetness and innocence it deserves. A strict hand is required for this purpose
which means giving liberty at this fragile age is a bad idea.
Today, the concept of TV lounge has been eradicated!
Unjustifiable liberty to young fellows has diminished family values. Today
every other teenager likes to sit in privacy hidden behind the laptop screen
sowing seeds for themselves. Good or bad, who knows? In early times, families
used to spend time together and the use of TV, Internet, Computer, and
Telephone was strictly under parental guidance. But unfortunately, the teens
today have no idea of right or wrong, obscene or well rated, good or bad. I ask
the question why? Because in this modern world of ‘society cliques, wealth
worshippers and fake statuses’, the parents have granted superfluous of liberty
to their kids.
Teenage, as in high school, Allan Bloom rightly said
‘Only Socrates knew, after a lifetime of unceasing labor,
that he was ignorant. Now every high-school student knows that. How did it
become so easy?’
In schools, a person has to face a lot of new personalities
all with a different grading of ignorance. Some are completely foul, while
others a little bearable but some are plain victims of an infection which is
widely known as ‘peer pressure’! A teen would give anything for popularity. But
if the child is under the right guidance, they may refrain from falling into
this trap. Having the most extravagant, appealing cloths, the most popular and
wealthy group of friends and in some insane cases, even having the best looking
guy’s cellphone number counts. Who can prevent this type of misleading among
teenagers? Of course the strict check and love of parents or guardians!
In America, an average of 1.3 million students drop out of
schools annually. According to another research in USA,
Underage drinking
costs the United States more than $58 billion every year. 63 percent of the
youth who drink alcohol say that they initially got the alcohol from their
friend’s homes. 20 percent of 8th
graders report that they have tried marijuana. 28 percent of teens know a
classmate or friend who has used ecstasy. More than 60 percent of teens said
that drugs were sold, used, or kept at their school.
But the point which I would like to highlight the most is;
Teenagers whose parents talk to them on a regular basis
about the dangers of drug use are 42 percent less likely to use drugs than
those whose parents don’t.
Do I further need to elaborate that how much parental
guidance matters?? I don’t think so. The statistical report speaks for itself.
Liberty? Doesn’t seem very tempting now, does it??
But in countries such as Pakistan, this condition is not
very common. Because even today parents are held responsible for the upbringing
of their children and I proudly say that teenagers in our country turn out to
be much better than those abroad even though the restrictions seem pinching at
early stages.
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