Youth Is Wasted on the Young
But not for the reason most people think
I’ve no idea who first said that, but I’ve thought about that saying for many years. What does it mean? Is it an empty piece of rhetoric, or does it say something about the human condition? What does it really mean?
I’ve taught university courses for a long time, and my spouse works as a writing tutor at a university. We deal with young people all the time. This past week, the personal struggles of students we work with made it clear to me what the saying really means.
The Cliché
It’s a stereotype that young people are foolish, that they can’t be trusted to make intelligent decisions. We therefore don’t give much responsibility to young people. I’m not talking about children; I’m mainly referring to people aged 18 to 24 — college-aged students. It’s a demographic coveted by some corporations and marketers, but not out of respect for young people’s maturity and wisdom. Quite the contrary, they may be interested in exploiting young people’s immaturity.
The cliché is that the young have all the energy and stamina of youth but are too foolish to take advantage of it. Certainly, young people do some pretty foolish things, as we did when we were young. Young people make mistakes, make irrational decisions, and act immaturely…
