Good kids a reason to smile

Young people often get a bad rap and yes, in some cases, it is warranted.

I watched bemused and unsettled a few nights ago as television screened footage of young, often clearly very young, men and women staggering down the early morning streets of Auckland in a world clouded by excessive alcohol.

It was not pretty.

Of course they get the broadside for drinking and acting "irresponsibly" although to my mind the main target of any broadside shots should be the people we elected who continue to believe that 18 is just fine and dandy in terms of a minimum alcohol sales age.

Clearly, judging by the total lack of maturity on show from the teenagers seen staggering into gutters and vomiting at three in the morning, it is not.

But then elected officials are not on late-night duty as part of the challenging clean-up and enforcement crew so what's the problem?

You dangle a carrot to a kid and he or she will take it.

But this week I came across two occasions which led me to smile and say "good on them".

They add to the other good stuff, like the kids at the high schools who embark on team projects devising and developing commercial business ideas. Clever and focused - and that eases my mind a little about the challenging future, as hopefully they will be part of society's overall steering committee.

Last weekend a good young guy stepped in to do his bit to get five not-so-good young guys locked up for burglary.

He saw something suspicious happening but rather than drive on and not get involved decided to tail the group, at the same time getting on his mobile phone to help home the police in on them.

And the front-line patrols did the rest.

Then I came across a programme called Cactus which has started up at a Napier high school. It's about motivation, focus and fitness and the school put aside 30 places for students to volunteer for.

The programme will run for eight tough weeks and the sessions start at 6am every school day and run for an hour - and after that the participants enter their normal school day.

Tough stuff, and the police and army crew volunteering their time running it made it clear there would be no compromises along the way.

Just full-on "boot-camp" stuff.

About 50 kids volunteered to do it. While only 30 could be taken on, I daresay those who missed this time will go on the next course.

And after the first week, despite the dark and freezing start times and no-nonsense activities, not one had dropped out.

That is heartening and I wish them all well, and I'll likely feel guilty on Monday morning when I glance at the clock at 6.30am from the warmth of the bed and consider that these kids are halfway through another daunting session.

Good kids.