When Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain intoned the lyrics “Here we are now, Entertain us” in the song Smells Like Teen Spirit, he effectively summarized what many Pickens County teens, parents and community advocates have been saying for years.
In other forms, this sentiment pops up as “There’s nothing here for kids to do” or “If kids had more to do, they’d get in less trouble.”
Everybody likes to have something fun to do. It’s much easier to let someone “entertain us,” than to think of something to do ourselves or for our children. But with movie tickets nearing the $10 per person price, we better start thinking.
At issue with creating youth activities is whether it’s really a duty of government and the community.
There is a dire need for outfits like Boys and Girls Clubs, summer camps and afterschool programs. Below a certain age and maturity, children simply can’t be left alone to entertain themselves.
And, while there is considerably more for anybody to do hereabouts than there was ten years ago in this county, there is also a much different family dynamic prevailing. Don’t look for standard sets of grandparents, aunts or neighbors at home to watch kids after school. You probably won’t find many.
Lacking any regularly scheduled public transportation in Pickens, there is also a problem with leaving kids alone at the far reaches of the county with no way to get to anything. Organizers of youth groups here often cite transportation as one of their biggest challenges.
Before anyone suggests walking, ask yourself if you would walk along Highway 53 from Ingles to downtown Jasper? When grandpa walked ten miles to school in the snow, he wasn’t sharing the way with eighteen-wheelers and SUV’s.
Something is badly needed to fill the gaps in youth activities during summer months. Groups like the Boys and Girls clubs and, to some extent, church summer camps fill that need. But more is likely needed.
Just not too much more. We don’t want to sound like a killjoy or anything, but it’s first the duty of youth to discover activities that entertain.
It’s not the duty of county government or the local community to grant these whipper-snappers ready-made fun, though we’ll grant that maybe it is the county and community’s rightful responsibility to provide a safe place for recreation, some opportunities and structured team play.
Kids since the yo-yo have whined about the lack of anything to do. That’s nothing new. What’s new is that somewhere along the line parents and others began to take these complainers seriously––as if it is the common duty of an advanced society to provide recreation for youth.
Despite pleas of boredom, it’s definitely not a failing of our county commissioner, recreation board, mayors or councils, chamber of commerce, churches or any other agency to think up something fun for kids to do.
There’s a second, more pragmatic argument against creating more for kids to do: Who can say exactly what it is kids want to be doing? If a private business, (arcade, bowling alley or movie theater) opens, that’s a capital venture. They can take a risk on the teen market to see if they turn a profit or not.
But it’s not for the county to dump money into programs for teens, other than by making our parks adequate and adequately equipped. At present, they are not, by the way.
This summer when kids or parents call for the community to create more activities for kids, the reply should be: “Let’s not entertain them. Let them entertain themselves.” |
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