Exposing Children

Alex Bigland
10/10/12
Eng. Tues. & Thurs.
Rhetorical Analysis
Exposing Children
In “The Kids Are Not All Right” by Joel Bakan, it is understood that this generation of children are in crisis with the many addictive pulls influenced by society. Over the years it has been argued that children live in a sheltering generation with all the rules and regulations that have been created today. Society and media is not going to change based off the concerning parents in the world.
Children should be exposed to the real world in order to have an idea of what it entails. A corporation most likely wouldn’t hire a young teenager if they didn’t think they were just as capable to work as everyone else. Joel Bakan states, “Deregulation, privatization, weak enforcement of existing regulations and legal and political resistance to new regulations have eroded our ability, as a society, to protect children”. Corporations care about themselves and doing well in this economy. They have other issues than looking after children. Bakan believes we have failed to provide stronger protection of children in the face of corporate-caused harm reveals a sickness in our societal soul. It is his own opinion that this exposer to society reveals a negative outcome on the growth of today’s children. For example, in the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls expresses the chaotic experiences of her childhood. At an early age Jeanette learned to fend for herself. Even at the age of 3 she was allowed to use the stove without any parental supervision. Her father Rex was an alcoholic, and her mother Rose Mary was known to be bipolar. Her family was poor and would move around a lot to avoid paying rent. Jeanette’s parents treated their children as adults and were anything but protective parents. They could watch what they wanted, eat what they wanted, and go where they wanted. Throughout the many hardships the Walls experienced, Rex and Rose Mary were never negative about their life and...