Radio Commentary
American
children today are influential members of their families.
They exert their
influence on a wider range of household decisions than was true of children in
earlier generations, according to a Roper study.
Parents report that a majority of
children have a say in routine family decisions, including the clothes they
wear, the TV programs they watch, the food the family eats, and what family
members do together for fun.
More
than half of today's young people have a voice in selecting family vacation
choices and restaurants. One third influence their own bedtime, their
allowance, and the brands of food the family buys.
More
than two-thirds of the parents surveyed said their children are more involved
in making family decisions than they were as children.
One
suggested reason for this change is the rise of dual-earner couples and
single-parent families where, by necessity, children assume more
responsibilities and more independent roles.
Another
possible reason is the gradual shrinking of the basic unit of society.
The clan or the
tribe was once the fundamental unit of allegiance. This gave way to the
extended family, and then to the nuclear family.
Today, the
individual has arguably rivaled even the nuclear family as the basic unit of
society.
This
trend demonstrates, once again, that children arrive in today's classrooms with
a different set of expectations than those they carried one short generation
ago.
Attitudes
and learning styles are constantly changing. This is neither bad nor good. It
is modern reality.
