For several years now the newspapers, television’ and radio have been quick to lash out at the college-age crime rate, dope peddlers, dope users, hippies, draft card burners, student stand-ins, sit-ins, protests and riots and much has been said to degrade the American youth.
If a person were to heed these reports alone, surely he would think this generation must be a sorry lot.
In the past ten years I have taught students from the second grade through sophomores in college. My experience has all been in the Texas school systems, so I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but in this area, I feel that these new reports are highly misleading and unfair to the great majority of our young people.
Students in our classrooms today are the greatest generation of human beings the world has ever known: they are inquisitive, aggressive, alert, responsive, dependable, healthy, and their educational background is the best we’ve ever known.
General Westmoreland has made similar comments about our young fighting men in Viet Nam. In my going to Viet Nam to bring back the dead and wounded, I expect to see once again where we have portrayed the picture of American youth falsely.
I feel that it is time that the true strength, courage and devotion of our American people be brought to light to rectify the trite labels that have been unjustly placed upon them.
James Parsons,
Assistant Professor, Biology