Education

Education has not always been easy of access like it is today and many people fought to be able to have access to an education. 


Education is very important in our society, then again, a lot of youngsters seem to drop out of school for so many reasons and put aside their education, to find a minimum wage job. Most of these students who drop out say that school is boring, that they are not motivated or that their personal situation is the cause but the major reason is that the classes are uninteresting. Influence by peers is also a factor that brings students to drop out of school. It was proven that boys tend to drop out more than girls do. As a matter of fact our education is quite discriminatory towards boys because they seem to be more kinaesthetic than girls, which means that they need to touch things and manipulate things in favour to be able to understand.  As a matter of fact, a majority of men have manual careers, such as construction workers, electricians, plumbers etc. These methods are very rarely used in schools; on the contrary, traditional methods are used and made for students who are more visual or auditory learners.

Why do some kids become bullies?

Bullying among children in schools, school buses and parks is a growing phenomenon that has pretty much always existed. Many factors explain why certain individuals tend to become bullies and others the victims, while some are neither bullies nor bullied.

First of all, the personality and temperament will have a lot of impact on whether or not the child will bully others. Bullies are known to be very confident, violent, impulsive and are not very empathic towards other’s feelings. Another factor that influences children to become bullies is the environment at home. This implies the way they were raised by their parents which is usually based on violence. Usually, parents of bullies tend to be more aggressive when time comes for discipline. Sometimes these children even witness domestic violence between other members of their family and somehow neglected.  In school, in some cases, only very children who perform well in a discipline are rewarded, which can bring the others who have difficulties to be revolted and some might become aggressive. Peer groups also have an effect on the children’s behaviors and might even reinforce them. All these factors may explain, in some cases, why some children become bullies.

Usually, children start bullying at early ages, which implies that it is easier to correct the bad pattern that they have started. First off all, they should always be supervised by an adult who will restructure his or her aggressive comportments and should not have any contact with his victims unless they want to apologize sincerely and under supervision once again.

Youth crime

 According to the Harper government, “out-of-control young people”[1]should all be classified in the same category. This means that sex offenders and drug dealers may be punished equally, while the drug dealer has not endangered someone’s life and in my opinion, is not considered dangerous for our society. This does not mean that they should not be punished, on the contrary, they should be punished, but in other ways than being sent to prison, such as fines. Sending youngsters to prison, for every single illegal act committed implies building more prisons because a lot more people will be imprisoned. It will also cost more money to keep the prisons running and provide food for the prisoners.


This new law might not be the solution for youth crime. Instead it will only be more expensive and it won’t even educate the criminals, on the opposite, they will probably be even more likely to, once out of jail, start again. It would be preferable if those young criminals were sent in institutions that prevent and treat youth crime to solve the problem as fast as possible, before they become too dangerous for our society and incurable.


Sending young criminals to jail costs a lot of money and that money comes from us, the society. It was proven that the annual cost of detaining a youngster is of about $100 000 compared to $50 375 for an adult. This means that we pay for these people to be locked and taken care of because they have a lot of services at their disposition.

[1] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/weighty-tory-crime-bill-targets-drugs-refugees-parolees-and-terror/article2172621/

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Genereation Y

Generation Y, which includes people born between 1982 and 2002, is known to be less involved in community and more sell-centered. As a matter of fact, in 2008, it was shown on a renowned TV show that people of that generation was described as ¨cynical, unaccustomed to hard work and having fragile egos because their childhoods filled with trophies and adulation didn't prepare them for the cold realities of work.¨ This generation prefers to concentrate on their studies, relationships and well-being, so that they can be successful in life. As a matter of fact, it was proven, by a study lead by the  University of Michigan, that college students from generation Y are 40% less empathic than students from 1970. There are certainly a lot of youngsters who seem to be self-centered and non-caring about anything else but themselves, but there isn't just that type of person.

Personally, I think both volunteering and service learning are good and should be valued. Community service is beneficial for both, the person who helps and for the person who is helped. First of all, the person who gets involved will acquire experience in their work field and at the same time, it is a feel good accomplishment to help people who are in need.

The best way to  encourage people to get involved in their community is, to, in my opinion, pass over the value of helping without expecting anything in return. In school, I think there should be more emphasis put on this value. Children should be initiated to volunteering at early ages ansd should be strongly encouraged at school.