Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/raising-children-in-a-socially-toxic-environment/5012208/
In the early 1960s, I wrote a column for my high school newspaper. One month, I wrote an article in which I criticized the fraternities at my school, an act which led many of my male peers to become angry at me. As a result, some of these angry teenagers pulled up in front of my house late one night a few days later and dumped garbage on the lawn - I was the victim of a drive-by littering.I often think about that incident today when I visit schools and communities. I think about how that incident might play itself out if I were an adolescent today. What might well happen is that I would become the victim of a drive-by shooting. Things have changed.
Some of this difference between now and then simply reflects today's greater awareness of problems. When I was in high school, there certainly were kids using drugs and alcohol. Girls did get pregnant. Child abuse did exist. But, for the most part, these things didn't exist in our perceptions of the world. Looking back at my childhood with the benefit and bias of hindsight, I realize that adults shielded me and my peers from some of life's ...