It’s Not All Bad — There Are Some Good Kids Out There, Too

As I sit here reading all the comments on the story about the bullied bus monitor from Greece, N.Y., the world seems like a pretty hopeless place.  Kids have been disrespecting each other and are now moving on to the adults.  It's sad what has happened with some of them.  It would be easy to sit here and say that there is something wrong with this generation.  But I have to keep telling myself, not all kids are bad.

It would be easy to see the actions of a few and think that the whole batch is spoiled.  But I know some pretty amazing kids.  I've seen some who do some amazing things.  Kids these days have a lot on their plates.

I know one for a fact that is in my child's school.  He's been helping my son with his reading and has really been a positive role model for my son. He's the "older kid" who's doing something for the younger kid.  My son really looks up to him. And there are probably millions of other kids just like this one who help out and get very little praise every day.

There are kids who visit nursing homes, plant trees, clean up sections of the road, read to the blind and do tons of other good deeds that unfortunately don't make headlines.  But just because they don't make the big story in the news doesn't mean that they should be overlooked or that we should think that the whole generation is a loss.

A bunch of the comments on that bus monitor story said, "If that was my kid, they wouldn't be acting like that."  So then by that logic, there have to be a bunch of kids that don't act like that, right?

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not making light of the actions of the students on the bus or excusing every kid that bullies another kid or is disrespectful to adults.  What those kids do is dispicable and inexcusable.  However, I'm also not going to overlook the ones who are trying to make a difference.  Good for them and their parents for trying to make the world a better place.