Youth stress a sign of declining society

Re Kids face lots of choices, which also increases stress, Opinion July 26 In her article, Catherine Little misses what I feel is the main point. Up until recently, good paying jobs were plentiful and only Grade 12 was needed for most of those jobs. Companies would train the students on the job.

Now young people know jobs are hard to get, the pay is lousy and most of them offer no guarantees of long-term employment. On top of that, they leave university owing up to $50,000.

In another article in the paper, it’s mentioned how university grads are making $57,000 after eight years of experience. Yet in 1996, the average wage was $26,000, meaning wages have barely doubled in that time. Houses have gone up 600 per cent and food 400 per cent in that time.

Then young people read about the CPP and realize they will be getting only a $17,400 pension 30 years from now and a whopping $19,400 50 years from now. You cannot live on that now.

What I take from articles like this is that we have peaked as a society and are now on a downward spiral. I see no politicians on the horizon who will take care of these problems. Is it any wonder our youth are stressed to the max? Gary Brigden, Toronto Seems that every generation is deemed more stressful for our children than the last. Maybe my memory is just a little longer than Catherine Little’s, but for me, Grade 8 was always a “threshold year” when it came to making decisions about one’s future.

When my generation was in Grade 8, we were expected to choose from one of three high school streams: arts and science; science, technology and trades; or business and commerce.

At the same time, we also had to decide if we intended to go to university, taking the five-year program to Grade 13 if university-bound, or the four-year program to Grade 12 if the workplace was your destination.

I was pretty sure I wouldn’t go to university, but being the ever pragmatic one, I hedged my bets and opted for the fiveyear science, technology and trades program. As fate would have it, someone invented community colleges just before I entered Grade 12, so I finished Grade 13 and then enrolled in Seneca College.

I think today’s younger generation are far more capable of making these kind of decisions in Grade 8 than any generation before them. They have far more tools at their disposal and a much better grasp of the challenges ahead. Syd Howes, Whitby