Huntingdon is a small town in Quebec that does not actually differ from other towns; its citizens use their abilities and ideas in order to improve their lives and provide their generations with safe and sound future. However, August of 2004 was not an ordinary year in the life of this town.
The current mayor of Huntingdon, Mr. Stephane Gendron, offered to accept the law that will ban children’s presence on streets after 10.30 p.m. and till 6.00 a.m. He even presented several rather strong evidences that were able to support his suggestion and prove that his idea was good and effective enough.
Children younger 16 are not actually able to response for each of their actions and cannot comprehend how serious the consequences of their actions can be; the cases of teen vandalism become more and more frequent, this is why it is crucially important to start doing something to stop vandalism and help children find out the right way. Many people rejected this idea and underlined the idea of ageism, inequality, under which teenagers suffer. On my opinion, such kinds of laws are really helpful and have to be offered oftener; it is not very easy to control children nowadays, this is why it is possible to control them, using some legal concepts.
I truly believe that modern youth makes numerous attempts to demonstrate own maturity and life experience by means of power and some abilities, which may be inherent to adults only. For example, some teenagers like to leave some marks on local sights in order to make their words noticeable.
Passing by the monument, where some words or slogans are presented, young people underline the fact that it was they, who put these words on the monument and demonstrate their devotion to the chosen affair. As a rule, such activities are inherent for night times. When it is light, children can hardly break a branch or demonstrate their painting abilities or excellent spelling.
Teenagers should accept this idea as something that may underline their inequality in comparison to elderly people. Of course, youth wants to feel freedom as soon as possible and become involve into the affairs of grown up life.
However, it is also necessary to underline that many children all over the world are deprived of the opportunity to enjoy their childhood and be as naive and irresponsible as possible.
Youth does not want to think about the consequences of their actions, does not want to believe that their interests and hobbies are not that safe, and does not want to accept the truth that their parents are usually right. From numerous psychological and sociological perspectives, the driving forces, which promote young people take risky steps and suffer from injures, are born somewhere inside of human mind and grounded on the relations within a family.
If a family provides a child with the necessary care and support, tries to comprehend teenager’s demands, and wants to help him/her, the child will never consider the idea of being at home at 10.30 as a threat or challenges concerning age inequality.
Adults usually care about children and teenagers, and in their turn, teenagers should be smart and mature enough to comprehend it and support those adults, who help them to take the best from this life.
Online sources
The article by Stephen Fine is a good source about Canadian youth culture and the ideas of how to control teenagers.
The article from the Canadian Press shows how effective the ideas of the current mayor can be.