Kids Lecturing Adults Shows “Adulting” is Hard
Op Ed By Haney Hong
My wife isn’t going to like hearing this, but my transition to the “grumpy old man” phase of life is well ahead of schedule. I’m only 37, but the youth Global Climate Strike is raising my blood pressure.
Facing the imminence of my own parenthood and the responsibilities that come with it, I’m wondering how this Global Climate Strike even happened at all. Kids across the globe were not sitting in classrooms. Did they get excused absences to go march in protest?
I respect the passion, but I still have questions. How did the teenagers get to the protests? Did mom and dad drop them off? Did a friend with a car bought by his or her parents pick them up? Or did they get the ticket fare for the bus ride through their allowance? I’m sure some paid their own way, but participation was for those with the luxury of resources.
Thinking about my teenage years, I know my parents would have been upset if I missed school. Sure, there were some days I wasn’t there. And my parents were good with that -- they approved when my missing school helped me learn. Perhaps the parents of the teenagers in this Global Climate Strike felt it was important for their kids’ learning and thus supported their participation.
Along those lines, I guess we should give kudos to the parents of Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old girl from Sweden who spoke at the UN this week. She has previously led numerous weekly sit-ins at the Swedish Parliament and sailed for two weeks across the Atlantic to bring attention to climate change policy. Clearly, she’s doing well for herself: a meeting with former President Barack Obama, an appearance on Trevor Noah’s Daily Show on Comedy Central, an award from Amnesty International, and even testimony to the United States Congress.
When I was a teenager, I would have loved to have gathered with my friends to yell at the adults. My college application would have been so much stronger had I had pictures with a president, a TV star, and a video of me lecturing members of Congress. That would have been really cool.
I’m becoming grumpy because like older folks – maybe one generation ahead of me like my parents – I’m starting to wonder what in the heck is going on right now. Kids missing school; teenagers sailing across oceans. Youngsters who haven’t graduated from high school talking about climate science to the Congress.
Why are we letting teenagers who haven’t finished school drive our policy discussions? Is this really the time to get our grumpy selves schooled by children on important public policy?
I don’t think so.
Going back to “adulting” as a future father, would I be a responsible voter today had I not taken the time to study the issues? And then to become truly an expert on a specific policy area, I know I would need a lot of time -- 10,000 hours according to Malcolm Gladwell. My high school teachers started me on the basics, and my college professors helped me further. But even with two degrees and a high school diploma, I still don’t know it all. I have to talk with other adults with civility to develop the solutions to the problems we face.
It’s time for us to look in the mirror and ask if we aren’t the ones being teenage drama kings and queens. We have to be civil and put in the hard work to solve these problems with other grownups.
I hated it when my parents told me, “You’ll understand one day.” But they were right. The world is complex, and it’s easy to pass judgment as a kid when things go wrong. But it takes a lot more than passion to make things right.
Despite what all her critics said, Senator Dianne Feinstein was right to push back a few months ago when a group of spirited teenagers asked her for “bold, transformative action” in climate policy. I don’t always agree with her on issues, but she knows making policy is hard. It takes experience to make it effectively.
I’m not ready to join the Greta fan club, but she did get this right: it’s not up to her generation to save the rest of us. We should let the kids stay in school, though: we adults need to get to work.