Class of 2014 Welcome to the Real World?

Every year millions of young people graduate from high school and college. The students change and the times change, but the message given to students has stayed the same. Students are told at graduation that they will now be entering the real world. Gone are the days of good times. It is now time to keep your head down and plow through to reality, but aren’t these kids actually living in the real world? School is no longer a safe haven. Some schools are more akin to a war zone than an institute of higher learning. Guns and knives are appearing with more and more frequency in small hamlets and big cities, Cyber bullying allows perpetrators endless hours to intimidate vulnerable young people. Some teachers have become sexual predators that have easy access to victims that innocently sit in their classrooms. So what part of this is not the real world? Our young people have their feet firmly planted in the real world. Maybe the phrase should be welcome to the work world or welcome to college life. Sadly, the Class of 2014 did not grow up in a Utopian environment. They know the world is a cold place and hopefully during their time in school they have developed survival skills necessary to enter and conquer it.