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ARTICLE SUMMARY

Should we respect youth? Or should they respect us!?

You can't put an old head on young shoulders, so the time-honoured saying goes.

LISTENING TO YOU.

30.08.08, 10:36pm

In the cool
celerity of a
diffident young
bird I try
to forget a dying
behaviour, the
sound of a picture
and a luminous
care, easily,
like an earnest
desire.

Francesco Sinibaldi

• Posted by: Sinibaldi • Report Comment

TWO-WAY STREETS, THE ONLY WAY.

06.08.08, 5:12pm

This "respect" problem is just that, a problem. With the celebrity cult of T.V. and movies which seems so important to the shallows, what does the ordinary gal and guy have to do to be respected?. Kids respect strength , and shrewd minds that brook no messing with. I find respect comes automatically if you express yourself clearly and with conviction. It can come easily or hard, and often depends on the brightness of the people involved. An obvious physical strength helps, keep fit and project no wimpish traits. Let kids know that you have respect for their views and feelings - that is an imperative. If people annoy you with ignorance and silly big egos, let them know it with the velvet glove - what is inside is your business. Mutual respect is a great way to interact with people and kids, there should be millions of gallons of it sloshed all over the world.

• Posted by: bluenote • Report Comment

RESPECT IS A TWO WAY STREET.

06.08.08, 6:23am

I have found that respect is a two way street. I do believe that not just with the young and old situation, but with most people. If you give respect you get some sort of respect back.
Now the catch... I also believe thanks to the TV and computers that the art of conversation is dead, and it is only by speaking to people that your able to form some kind of opinion of them, and thereby you are either respectful or contemptuous.
The two main items that must be restored to the British society is discipline and tolerance for all ages, then respect will fall into place.
You cannot demand respect, you can only earn it.

• Posted by: expatpete60 • Report Comment

THICK OR WHAT

05.08.08, 3:26pm

The young have always thought that they know it all. Truth is, if you're as thick as a brick at 18 you'll still be as thick as a brick at 80, only by that time you'll probably have got the message.

As for university tuition fees, so many people get in these days we can't afford to do it for free. Time was only the brightest got to uni, now with the dumbed down education system and lower entry requirements even I could get in. Than god for the spel chequer.

• Posted by: jocelyn • Report Comment

THE OLD WINGERS

05.08.08, 2:09pm

you do not earn wisdom from your house price,you the old think your clever , well you have been good teachers have you not,you had free universities, the young do not, its not wisdom that makes you follow, the masses are in for a shock, the commodity of youth if far better than you old now ,who never fought a world war but give it out as if you had. keep screwing up your young , the next generation of emotional cripples, quote the jam. what goes around comes around, i back the young , they got to pay your debts for the next 100 years, get off back and give em something to do, they only play cricket at knobby schools,you sell of school fields and moan the children are fat.the young aint got your debt desires until you the old give em it, debt junkies taught by the old and wise who are full of wisdom.

• Posted by: colutd1 • Report Comment

WE ALL HAVE TO LEARN

05.08.08, 9:21am

No person is born with knowledge greater than their experience of life. We can be well educated but we still have to learn from life's experiences and at any age we all think we have the answer to every problem which makes listening to our elders something that we do not normally do. To think that the answer to a problem is simple is a big mistake and it is one we often make especially when dealing with our younger citizens. Accepting this experience gap would go a long way towards improving our relationship with them. They think that they can deal with any situation because they have all the answers, we ( the elders ) think that they(the young ones) should listen to us and do as we tell them. If this were to happen we would still be at the Neanderthal stage of our development because no progress would have happened beyond the knowledge of the elders. Even now we still have a conflict of ideals caused by the youth accepting the Internet and the elders hating it, especially the Labour party, It was generally decided that jobs would go because of computers therefore no union members should be allowed to have any dealings with them, what was not foretold was the number of jobs computers would create and because of this lack of foresight a lot of the available jobs in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY are overseas in Asia. I can forgive the youth of today for thinking that we have let them down, WE HAVE !!!

We have put our planet at risk by our greed and deprived young people in this country of jobs because of our short sighted ideas and our resistance to progress. WE SHOULD BE ASHAMED !!! There is no wonder they take no notice of us, WE ARE DUMB.

• Posted by: albertthedog • Report Comment

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GRADUATING FROM THE "UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS" TAKES TIME

05.08.08, 3:54am

Rome wasn't built in a day - and neither is wisdom or simply life's experience. When you get older, get old, you can look back, you have a frame of reference, of good experiences and bad and can change how you proceed accordingly. The very young do not have that privilege.

Where reasonable men may differ, it is inutile, futile, and serves no purpose to state that not all older people are wise, and vice versa. Stereotyping is worthless here. But when you are older, you do have the advantage of remembering times when you didn't act very wisely. For the young, it is still a matter of trial and error to get it right.

• Posted by: Pendragon • Report Comment

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GERIATRIC BRAINS

04.08.08, 5:19pm

i think that age brings with it the ability to look back and see the mistakes that were made maybe a thoughtless word or deed that caused pain to someone and then there are the decisions that we make though life that may not be the one we would make now.Speaking for myself i feel that being older has made me into the sort of person who is a better listener ,taking time out to be extra compassionate to those in need and finally to realize that the most important thing in life is love.

• Posted by: cdrumossie • Report Comment

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