Our cities and towns are rapidly becoming home to increasing number of desperate young people.

Our young people are our hope, our guardians of peace and leaders of our prosperity. But, how are our young people really growing up?

Youth crime is growing in our cities and our towns. We have records available from certain ministries and government agencies. Alas, records we have access to are way too old and irrelevant! Some of the government websites that are supposed to give us fresh information have materials of 2012 as their latest update.

We talk about youth, about their promises and their problems, all too often. Are we giving them all that we owe them as parents, though? The argument is that schools and teachers should play the vital role of educating our young people. But the real education begins at home.

When homes are not conducive for the wholesome growth of our children, schools and teachers can do only so much. We need to understand when, where and how to shift blames.

Changing city lifestyles are giving rise to various manifestations of development. Good many things that we receive as change are not needed or desirable, however.  The problem that we face today is that we are incapable of understanding what we ought to do as senior citizens for our young people who are the keepers and advancers of our dreams.

We do not have a dream, simply. That is the fact, a sad fact indeed.

Here is the scenario: Unemployment is rising. Divorce cases are going up, too. Inflation is getting at the neck of the citizens year after year. We are not a major manufacturer or exporter. Thus, often, our trade deficits get us hard where it hurts the most.

Family stability is weakening in this our fast-changing society. We do not need records to prove this fact. It is all too obvious, especially in richer homes. Greed rules with power more than our time-tested values should. And, hence, the picture of our society as we stand witness to today!

Our hopes and our dreams are going to the ruins because we are unabashedly too self-serving. We do not think about our future. We do not consider beyond our immediate pleasures and our gains.

Teachers and schools play their part everyday, and earnestly at that. But, the foremost educators should be the parents.  If parents fail, children do not succeed. Look at Kuensel’s narrative of the five young individuals in this issue who resorted to criminal activities even as they started with a clean and high hopes.

Where did we get wrong, and how, is loud and clear.

Parents, bring up your children well to let them succeed with their good and beautiful dreams. Only then will our nation succeed. One of our own philosophers and educator put it thusly: As I am, so is my nation.