Dear Ether, Society or someone who can answer my enquiry,

I always promised myself I would try to be understanding with others, no matter what their background, their situation or personality. Now, I do try to keep that promise – albeit outwardly, however as I get older, I find myself wondering about the youth today.

Am I reaching that stage, at the ripe old age of 30, where one can make general, sweeping statements about those children who so carelessly disregard the need to put effort in to anything at all? Bearing in mind, I now work with students in a secondary school. I am trying my very best to assist the teachers in helping the GCSE candidates complete their coursework. The teachers are spending all hours in school and outside school working one to one with every pupil they can, arriving at 7.30am and leaving at 6pm only to continue their plight through the night at their kitchen tables and at their own offspring’s rugby matches!

All I hear from a majority of the kids is ‘It’s boring’ or ‘I can’t be bothered’ or ‘I’m not going to spend my spare time doing this work. I’ve got a life you know.’ Or if you’re lucky, they look at you like they would a piece of dirt and continue their intellectually stimulating conversation about that cow who said she would invite her to the party but didn’t.

I’m not so old that I can’t remember my school days, and I can’t say that there weren’t subjects in which I talked, but when it came down to it, I knuckled down to get the best grades I could. I stayed in at lunch times and I stayed behind school to catch up with or to improve my work. I knew that when I went looking for work, applicants would be compared by personality and by qualifications amongst other things.

Is it really the fault of the children though? Or perhaps in this day and age, the poor things are so used to being able to do what they want, with no consequence to their little games console and label ruled lives, that they cannot see past the now to the future that could depend on their exam results. If the job seeking situation is as bad as it is now when they go out into the big bad world, then I hope for their sakes that employees overlook the ungraded as a mere hitch and do not associate low grades with laziness or lack of effort!

I really just want to give up. Just like them I guess!

Yours and exasperated,

Rebecca Farley