This is quite a popular thing to say whenever we look at a new generation and think, “What the heck is going on with them?”

But consider this conversation with one of my students:

“My uncle told me he was homophobic, but not racist. For the 70s, that was pretty good.”

And he’s right that it was good for the time, but I also appreciate the recognition he gave about how things have changed. This generation of young people have a much better handle on those problems. Even more so than my generation (I give ourselves a solid 6/10).

Despite what you may see in the media, racism is something we’re hyper aware of and challenging, even on a systemic level. Homophobia is another systemic problem we are slowly edging towards a better place every day. This is thanks to the young people today.

My observations over the past ten years is that kids these days haven’t changed much, but there are a few things that have changed with them.

In person, they’re actually a lot nicer.

I say in person because people’s addiction to online services, I’m speaking specifically with social media, have a tendency to bring out their inner troll. However, that just doesn’t apply to young people–it’s everyone.

They’re are a lot safer and many things in the world are a lot better. For instance, they have access to technology that we could only dream about growing up. Also, extreme poverty and violent crime is at its lowest since we’ve been tracking it.

We can’t blame them for having these comforts because we created a society that gave it to them. What I hope (and see) is they figure out how to use this inheritance for the betterment of the planet and everybody in it.

So yes, kids these days…

Sometimes I look at my classroom full of hormonal teenagers and just shake my head.

Other times I get pretty frustrated with them.

But most times, I just smile. On the inside, I know the future is still looking pretty good. Provided, of course, we don’t kill ourselves before getting there.