Youth is wasted on the young or is it?

I think it was George Bernard Shaw who once said, “Youth is wasted on the young!” or another Shavian way of saying it is "Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children." But what exactly does this mean, one response could be that it means young people have everything going for them physically; they're in the best health they will ever be in; their minds are sharp and clear but they lack patience, understanding and wisdom which results in so much wasted effort. Whereas someone who's lived and learn now knows what to do with all that ability of the body but now doesn't have the body to do it with! Another way of putting that saying is; "If I could go back to (whatever age you like) and if I knew then what I know now, life would be wonderful"

It seems to me that the youth of today don’t have a very easy time of it; Family life can breakdown, a recent poll of couples with children revealed that members of the average British household spend 34 minutes a day shouting at each other, it found that just over half the families argue at least once a day. The shouting persists for an hour or more in 35% of homes, rising to 50% in households with more than one child; If we believed all the media coverage all young people are in a gang, don’t get me wrong we do have some serious problems within  “gang culture” and the lack of good role models fuels this culture. But there are some very good examples of where young people are working hard to put something back into their communities.

In July two such projects take place under the banner of  “engage 2011”; last week in Ellesmere Port  nearly 30 Young People  from the Academy School and Catholic High school worked on community projects under the supervision of  Jenny Owen the Chaplain at the  Academy and Port Reach; this Monday in Chester  we will see Northgate  Church play host to over 100 young people and youth leaders for 3 days. During the afternoons look out for these youngsters in their  “engage 2011” tee shirts as they engage in Community Projects primarily within the Chester city centre. Both these projects are primarily financed and supported by the local churches of Chester and Ellesmere Port.

I hope you agree with me that it's great to see these youth of today in such a postive experience andbeing good news for our commuities, all too often we only read and hear bad news about teenagers!!