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ТЕМА № 5 GENERATION GAP. THE PROBLEM OF THE YOUNG 

       Generation gap is a difference in values and attitudes between one generation and another, especially between young people and their parents. This problem was really urgent in the 60th of the twentieth century because such phenomenon as a teenage culture appeared. Most of the problems teenagers were seeking to solve had been created for them by adults. People forget that teenagers belong to another generation, with all the changes and problems which have accumulated with the passage of the years. It is not old problems but also new ones, of which parents are frequently unaware, but which teenagers have to solve.

       It is not a new problem. What had appeared in the 60th, probably for the first time in the Western world, is a teenage culture, a way of life with which teenagers, as individuals, identify themselves and which they find meaningful. The songs, the lyrics, the records, the dancers, the clothes and the like are the evidences of a clear dissociation from the adult world.

       In the 60th teenagers declared their independence of the adult world. And in all this they were encouraged by the world of business. The teenager was a very big business then. Such phenomena as James Dean, the Beatles and their innumerable imitators would be impossible without the support of teenagers and the industry, and a large number of TV programmes are designed for the same market. This mass teenage culture resulted in revolt against the values of the adults. In the survey conducted in 1974 a majority of teenagers reported that they could not “comfortably approach their parents with personal matters of concern'. Forty percent believed they would be “better off not living with their parents”.

       Nowadays the situation has changed. If children are wanted and loved by their parents, why do they fight with them? At least this is one view of families that is presented on TV. The other type of family shown on television is one in which everyone is great friends with everyone else. These families seem to have no problems. In real life, most families fall somewhere in the middle. Talk about a “generation gap” has been exaggerated. Many parents want their children to be creative and question what is around them. In a democratic society children are taught no to obey blindly what is told to them. When children become teenagers, they question the values of their parents. This is a part of growing up that helps teenagers stabilize their own values. In one national survey, 80 percent of the parents answering the survey said their children shared their beliefs and values. Another study showed that most teenagers rely on their parents more for guidance and advice than on their friends.

       When parents and teenagers do argue, usually it is about simple things. The most common reason parents and teenagers argue is because of the teenager's attitude towards another family member. Another common reason for arguments between parents and teenagers is the quality of the teenager's schoolwork. Arguments which involve drug or alcohol use occur in a much smaller group of families. Most parents said they were happy with the way their children are growing up. In America has appeared a new generation of young people who are extraordinary bright, morally earnest, and incredibly industrious. They like to study and socialize in groups. They create and join organizations with great enthusiasm. They are responsible, safety-conscious and mature. They feel no compelling need to rebel. They admire authority. You can't find among them angry revolutionaries, despondent slackers, or dark cynics as among their parents when they were the same age. This new generation is called the Organization Kids. When they asked to rank the major problems facing America today, they name lack of respect for authority and lack of parental discipline. It was impossible to imagine teenagers a few decades ago calling for stricter parental discipline and more respect for authority.

       To sum up I would like to say that this problem - generation gap - is not so urgent nowadays than it used to be in the 60th because both parents and teenagers have been changed during the last decades. Parents became more permissive and give their children more freedom than their parents used to give them when they were teenagers themselves so the most common reasons for conflict and friction between young people and their parents have been extinguished.