New generation of grads coming
Bill Rea

Summer is here and school is out.

Was there ever a better time of year when we were kids?

The end of a school year, in almost all cases, means a time of advancement for the members of the coming generation. And for select groups of kids, it's also a time of transition, from one type of schooling to another.

I attended a couple of graduation ceremonies over the last week; watching some elementary students move on to the secondary school level. The boys wearing suits that actually looked pretty nifty, sporting ties that I would wager at least half of them would have required some adult assistance to get on (assuming of course they weren't clip-ons). And the girls had gowns and hair styles that made them all look radiant.

I looked at these young people, and felt the jolts of a certain number of realizations.

No matter how great they looked, I realized they were still children. I was putting in 80-hour work weeks and fretting about the growing number of grey hairs I saw in the mirror every morning before any of them had been born. I had already seen my father lowered into his grave before any of them saw the light of day. One of two of them might have had the vaguest recollections of Princess Diana being alive. Few, if any of them had ever seen a record player, or a phonograph record. They have never seen the Leafs win the Stanley Cup, and it's most unlikely that any of them were alive the last time the Jays won the World Series.

This column, of course, is being composed on a computer. How many 14-yearold kids have ever seen an actual typewriter, let alone used one?

I found all these things to be a little upsetting, because it made me realize that I am becoming an old man, who will some day, if I live as long as Statistics Canada would have me believe I'm supposed to live, have to depend on these kids and others of their age group for my very well-being.

My approaching status as a geriatric is what I find upsetting. Thinking about those who will be running things as I gradually decline doesn't bother me in the least. I know they will do a good job. And my contemporaries who have an ounce of sense will readily agree with me.

Has there ever been a time in history when those of age to call the shots in society have not expressed concerns about the up and coming generation? "What's the matter with kids today?" is more than just a song title. It's a school of thought; a school of thought that should probably be dismissed, but almost certainly never will be.

It is true that the coming generation has some growing up to do. There's nothing earth shattering or upsetting about that. It's simply the way things are supposed to be. It's one of the reasons why we don't let people vote, drive automobiles, consume alcohol or do a lot of other swell adult things until they reach a certain age. Give them time. Weren't we all kids once? Wasn't as certain amount of slack cut for us?

As I reflected on these thoughts, before sitting down to my computer to set them out, my mind went back more than 30 years, to when I was in my first year of university. I remembered flipping through an issue of Life magazine, which contained an article and pictorial of The Class of '84.

Of course, this was some years before 1984. At the time, the folks slated to graduate college in 1984 were just starting high school. This was all based in the United States. In this culture, in those days, we still had Grade 13.

I remember the article made a couple of references to George Orwell, probably in an effort to justify the title of the piece. But the thing I really remember was the negative image the story cut of these kids as they were embarking on a new stage of their lives. The quotes that were attributed to these young people made them all appear to be a bunch of uppity, self-centered little brats.

As I thought back to this, I realize how unfair and unrealistic the premise of the piece really was. These kids were maybe 14-years of age. What kind of pearls of wisdom was anyone expecting from them?

One image that has always stuck with me from that piece was the picture of a young girl, probably 14, quite attractive for one of her years, squatting down to tie her shoelace, with a cigarette sticking out jauntily from her kisser. I think I would be very reluctant to take a picture like that today, let alone publish it, unless it was connected with a piece dealing with tobacco use.

Assuming she was 14 at the time, she would be the same age as my wife.

The reason I bring this article up here is based on my reflection that the Class of '84 (in Canada and south of the border) have been actively contributing to society for almost a quarter of a century. True, some members of the Canadian class are probably doing life in some prison, and if they're Americans, they might be on Death Row. But there would be many others holding responsible jobs, running major corporations, saving lives in operating and emergency rooms and occupying public office. They have been performing these functions for quite some time, and doing a pretty good job too. They might not be doing a perfect job, but show the generation that did. So our society is functioning pretty well, thanks in part to the Class of '84, and that's despite whatever concerns a feature in Life may have tried to raise in the fall of 1977.

There have been many pieces written over the years dealing with how out-ofcontrol kids are today. We have all heard comments from adults reflecting back on how they were young and how terrific they were, compared the little stinkers who are up and coming today. I have little use for such sentiments. I was a couple of years behind the group of youths who turned the late 1960s upside-down, voicing protest and defiance to the disgust of a group of adults who were in charge, but who also feared that their power was being threatened. That group of kids took charge eventually, and everything worked out as a result, just as they did with the Class of '84.

By my reckoning, the youngsters I saw graduating from elementary school last week will probably be members of the Class of '16 when they really start contributing. They're going to need some work and seasoning. But what I've been seeing doesn't worry me one bit.