Pom in Oz with Derek Goforth: Horizon ball stunt highlights how we shouldn’t tar all youth with same brush

As a teacher and as a dad I can often get into conversations about “today’s youth”, which inevitably leads to people running down the younger generation and blaming them for the ills of the world. Take the latest “incident” with the Horizon ball on the foreshore last week. In no way am I excusing or defending the behaviour of the “idiots” and what they did to the ball and in the ball. But as shocked and surprised as I was to see the photos of the clown swimming around like a lost goldfish, I was even more shocked by some of the comments that ended up being spewed on to social media. From people demanding the return of public floggings and stocks, to the dozen or so comments about how Geraldton has “turned to crime and fallen into chaos”. Now remember I am not defending their actions, but really? This obviously points to a larger picture and a scenario that has been played out for hundreds, or even thousands of years — we always look down on our youth and accuse them of being the worst ever generation. That even dates back to ancient Greece. I am no psychologist, but I see a lot of emotions being played out here. Frustration at one’s own lot in life, jealousy about the freedom and exuberance that youth offers and anger at our justice system. Because I can tell you here and now — our youth, as a group, are a solid, reliable and a brilliant bunch of people. Look at our local sports stars for one. Taryn Purcell, star softball player for Midwest Marlins is on her way to the State competition. She gives up her spare time to coach younger kids. Frauke Rawlings, star boxer and Golden Gloves champ, who regularly does volunteer work at PCYC and always gives back to her community. I could name 50 more. The fact is when our youth mess up — and mess up badly — it makes its way so quickly to social media or even the news. But when they do good things — sports, community work and generally just being good citizens — it gets ignored, no one hears about it. So I will try and give a bit of balance, for every five goons who damage and act the goose, there are 100 more good kids out there, doing the right thing and giving back, with no expectation of recognition or thanks. Derek Goforth is a teacher at Geraldton Christian College