Posted by Jay Livingston
Five weeks ago I asked
| When’s the last time you read an op-ed or magazine article that began, “Kids today are just so much better than kids of a generation or two ago.” |
That post (here) had some data showing that in crime, drug use, unwanted pregnancy, and other categories, today’s youth were doing much better than their counterparts of earlier generations.
Now, the answer to that question (“When was the last time you read . . ?) is “Today.”
Today, Vox has an article called “Today’s Teens Are Better Than You, and We Can Prove It” (here). It has data on the variables I mentioned plus meth and other drugs, carrying guns to school, fighting, and other things most of us are glad to see less of. There’s even an interactive function where you can compare kids today against your own cohort – if you are under 45.
The article begins, “The kids are all right,” an obvious line that I had to try very hard to avoid in my post. But take a look at the data.
The article makes no attempt to pinpoint the causes of these changes, so feel free to attribute the good news to whatever factors you favor.
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