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Today, I participated in a Youth Forum for the Parkes Shire Council, I attended a meeting regarding the opening of dental & midwifery services in the town of Parkes for Aboriginal people and I cast my vote for the final two candidates for the Youth Premier of the YMCA NSW Youth Parliament. Young people are amazing. Heck, people in general are amazing – but I have a point to make here.
Although they may not have the experience of their elders, although they may have only been on this planet for what may seem like the blink of an eye, young people do have ideas, and good ones at that. They also have their own specific issues, that have never been faced by any other generation before mine, and the one coming into the world even more recently.
Young people everywhere have something to offer now, today. So why are they segregated into education institutions? Why are they, for the most part, ignored by wider society? I salute the efforts of all organisations and governments to further consult and involve the youth of today, but we still need more!
Young people have something that many others who have been around for longer don’t: fresh eyes. They think completely different to everyone else, they have different solutions and different priorities. And, they’re more than willing to offer these ideas up. You’ve just got to chase them. Most of them are not going to walk around looking for opportunities to share their ideas and perspective on things. They’ve got school, sport, friends and TV to worry about.
If society would like to benefit from the innovative thinking and views of its young people, it has to approach the youth at the youth’s convenience and ask them. Sure, there are a minority of inspired young people who will go out looking for somewhere to share their ideas, but if we only listen to those few we completely miss out on the ideas of the majority.
Although they may not show it, young people take a great interest in the world around them. And they do think about the issues when they hear about them. Perhaps it’s young people who should be being consulted on issues such as climate change and population growth? After all, it’s them who will have to deal with the consequences of their elders’ decisions.
It has been over a month since my last blog post, and for that I apologise. I was lacking in inspiration, or determination, one of the two. I should be posting on a regular basis again now.
Jason O’Neil
