DURING Punahou's first senior assembly, our class officers and cheerleaders tried to stir up some enthusiasm over our return to school. While the cheerleaders performed on stage, one could hear murmurs of pessimism rising from the student body. The entire charade felt silly. Can you blame us
for being cynical?The assembly ended, but the snide comments did not. Yet, all the officers and cheerleaders were trying to do was reinvigorate our school spirit.
I find it unfortunate that -- as one adult said after my last column about President Clinton's affair -- cynicism pervades today's youth. But I have an explanation. The cynicism is a result of an adult environment that has prematurely engulfed our lives. Children today are forced to grow up much faster than in the past.
As kids, we are raised to believe in an idealistic world where everything is nice and clean-cut; this is good, that is bad. The distinctions are easy to point out.
But the real world is not that simple. The real world is not nice or fair. Santa Claus may not give you the gift you want no matter how good you are. Hours of toiling and research may not result in that much-desired "A." Parents are no longer idolized because kids see early on that the people who sired them are not perfect; they do not always come through. It is this realization that causes the fun associated with childhood to go up in smoke.
Because we live in the Information Age, television, radio, the Internet and computers permeate our daily lives, making access to any subject quite easy. These tools of information have broken down the barriers once used to protect youth from vices.
Materials containing violence and sex -- the two most fascinating subjects to a youngster -- smear every medium. Getting into an R-rated movie as a minor is no big deal. Steps on how to pick locks or how to build pipe bombs are just a few mouse clicks away on the Internet. Buying adult items, such as cigarettes, pornographic videos and magazines, are a walk in the park.
Parents decry these taboo materials, so our interest in these subjects peak. And our curiosity can be easily fulfilled. We constantly test limits and find it neat when we can go beyond them.
ANOTHER likely contributing factor to the waning age of innocence is the strain of getting into a big-name college. It seems that every move we make must be geared toward acceptance to an Ivy League school. Several of my peers join clubs just so they can list them on their transcripts.
This makes my stomach churn, but I can understand why people do it. Other students may hold a part-time job, participate in school athletics or join the Boy Scouts just to add another extra-curricular activity to their resumes. We are only trying to give adults what they want.
We cannot appreciate hobbies for what they are. They must have a greater purpose. The demands to be a notch above or to stand out have driven us to lose what purity we had.
I don't think the dilemmas of teen-agers have changed much from earlier generations. We want to be liked. We want to know that we're going to make it. With both parents hard at work, the encroachment of the Information Age and strong college pressures, we have simply become lost and misguided. We have learned different methods, albeit inappropriate at times, to deal with our problems.
Kids are killing kids. Kids are having kids. All of the wickedness, the idiosyncrasies of adulthood, that are not supposed to exist in the fairy tale consciousness of kids, are nevertheless emulated by youths. We have learned the rules of reality, and that is, there are no rules. Everything goes. The art of fighting dirty to advance is a message we picked up early by watching adults.
Alan Khamoui is a senior at Punahou School. Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
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