"You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God:
I am the LORD." (Lev. 19:32) "Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up
the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, 'Go up, you
baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!' So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a
curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and
mauled forty-two of the youths." (2 Kings 2:23-24)
"Our youths love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority - they show disrespect
for their elders and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants
of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their
parents, chatter before company, gobble up food, and tyrannize teachers." (Socrates, 400 B.C.)
In a phone poll of 504 principals attending the National Association of Secondary School
Principals convention in Orlando, Fla., 89% say they face profane language and provocative
insults toward teachers or other students on a regular basis. (From USA Today, 3-11-97, p. 6D)
It sounds like youths haven't changed much over the years!