Rise In Indiscipline, A Legacy Of Failed Elders

“ Gone are those days or the good old days.” These are some comments made by some elders to express how life was in some years ago. some portray how disciplined people were and the orderness of that time. When you listen to some stories, it seems that those days with the kind of upbringing children received, discipline rate was high.

What do we hear today? Some elders are heard saying that people of today’s generation are indisciplined. Things have changed, the crop of youth coming up today are totally different, there is no seed of discipline in them. Discipline is declinning because youth of today are growing contrary to the norms of yester years. Where did this elders received this special training that made them so disciplined and who brought up these indisciplined youth of today?

You will agree with me that, a youth of today was trained by an elder of yesterday. What is being displayed by today’s youths were impacted into them by the elders that brought them up. The society that trained them are contiminated by coarse elders who have great influence on them. M. Scott Peck, author of “ the road less travelled” said that the first God of every child is the parents. A child presents what the parents give him/her and is influenced by the environment he/she finds himself or herself.

Teach the child how he will grow so that he will not depart from it. The training our elders received from our grand parents and great grand parents, how did they transferred to the youths of today? What has gone wrong? Is it modernisation that has caused our elders not to administer those morals unto todays generation or it is irresponsibility on their path? I do not accept that modernisation can detoriate our moral standards and discipline rate, if anything it should improve upon it.

Elders of today have failed to maintain the status quo hence they should stop complaining but rather look for a remedy to the situation. Yes they have failed to handover the treasure of disciplined they received from our ancestors to the youth of today, what a pity! The way some elders behave today, they cannot have any moral right to correct any child.

From the international level to our local level, look at the way some elders are behaving. Listen to the radio or watch television and it will surprise you to hear some “words” being used by people who are supposed to be our role models. Politics of insults!!! Can you imagine on the recent UN summit?

The act of indiscipline in society today, is a virus that has affected the elders who are transmitting it to the youth. To have a more disciplined society once again, learn to behave as a responsible adult, elder and a person.

By: Jonas Owusu Ohemeng
Development Communicator / Social Commentator
Security Analyst