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Today’s headlines often read like an indictment of our younger generation. We hear that alarming numbers of kids are dropping out of school, getting pregnant, joining gangs, using drugs. We even hear about teenage "superpredators" who kill for the joy of it. But wait a minute. Are all of America’s kids doing these things?

A closer look will show that the majority of today’s young people are, in fact, quite responsible. More of them are staying in school than ever before and even going on to college, and fewer of them are causing problems than we've been led to think. And all kids - troubled or not - could benefit from our collective support and encouragement.

What about drop-out rates? In reality, the proportion of youth ages 16 to 19 who are high school dropouts fell by 18 percent between 1985 and 1993, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Book, a state-by-state survey of children's well-being released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In 1993, 86 percent of 19 and 20 year olds had earned a high school diploma. Despite skyrocketing college costs, more than 60 percent of high school graduates in 1992 enrolled in college, a nearly 10 percent increase over 1982. Contrast that with the generation that grew up in what many people today extol as a "golden era." The California School Boards Association points out that in 1950, only one-third of our nation’s adult population had graduated from high school.

What about rumors of an alarming increase in teenage drug use? The annual National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that illicit drug use began to decrease among kids 12 to 17 years old in 1996, after rising steadily in recent years. However, even at its worst (10.9 percent in 1995), the rate of drug use among adolescents has been considerably lower in the 1990s than it was in the 1970s. In 1979, the peak year for illicit drug use, the rate was 16.3 percent in the 12 to 17 age group. Also consider that, in 1993, 28 percent of illicit drug users were age 35 and older, according to the survey.

What about all those children having children? Teen birth rates are actually declining slightly, according to the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. In 1970, there were about 68 births per 1,000 teenage women; by 1990, there were about 60. And out-of-wedlock births have increased among all age groups. Between 1982 and 1992, birthrates for unmarried mothers increased faster among women ages 20 to 29 than among teenagers.

Of course that doesn’t mean some of our young people aren’t in trouble.

In 1991, children accounted for 40.2 percent of the nation's poor people, giving children under 18 the largest representation in that category, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly 8.4 million children have no health insurance, which affects their ability to get routine medical care. Poverty rates among children have increased from 15 percent in 1970 to 22 percent in 1993, according to the Children's Defense Fund. Poor children are more than twice as likely as other children to never finish high school, even when differences in family structure, race and ethnicity are taken into account. Poor children also have significantly lower achievement test scores than children of high income families.

In 1992, the American School Board Journal asked several experts to reflect on how childhood has changed in the past two decades. "Repeatedly, the answer came back that it’s not so much kids who have changed, it’s society," reported Jo Anna Natale. "Everything around kids has changed, forcing new conditions on them and creating, for many children, a version of childhood that concerns and frightens many adults." Natale adds, "The problem, many experts conclude, isn’t that we don’t know what to do about the situation. The problem is that, for whatever reason, we don’t do it. The United States, child advocates say, ranks children low on its list of national priorities."

The Children’s Defense Fund concurs. "Other nations - even those with fewer resources - have brought their poverty rates much lower than the United States. Those countries have more in the way of child-care subsidies, housing assistance. There is greater access to postsecondary education. There is a view that it's in a nation's best interest to help children."

What can we do as individuals and collectively as citizens to help our young people? Most experts agree that improving our children’s welfare will have to come from collaborative efforts on the part of all of society’s sectors: families, schools, businesses, the religious community, social service agencies and government.

Perhaps the most important way to show that we value kids is to set a good example. Are too many youngsters smoking? Carrying weapons? About 75 percent of teen smokers have parents who smoke, according to the American Heart Association. Nearly 8.7 million youngsters have access to handguns, according to the National School Safety Center. Eighty percent of kids with weapons got them at home. As for academic priorities, are students who make top grades given the same recognition as star athletes? "I think each of us needs to ask what kind of vision and messages we are conveying to our children today in our homes, schools, businesses, congregations and in the public policy and investment choices that we make," says Marian Wright Edelman, author of The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours.

Studies repeatedly show that children do better in school when parents are involved. But we need to do more to help today’s families. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that fewer than 10 percent of America’s families conform to the traditional stereotype of employed father, stay-at-home mother and their children. Today, a majority of mothers as well as fathers work. There are more than 10 million single mothers and fathers. Many American families are not middle class families or suburban families with a school three blocks from home. But many of society's institutions, including some schools and workplaces, are still structured as if "traditional" families were the only type that exist.

In a survey sponsored by Newsweek, Chrysler Corp. and the National PTA, 42 percent of parents said they had to take vacation time from work to attend school conferences and activities. This suggests that schools need to talk to employers about the benefits to their employees and to the community’s children of allowing employees to take personal time to attend to school business. Schools can do their own part to encourage parental involvement by offering programs and open houses at hours that accommodate the reality of working parents.

We need to take a closer look at the messages our young people get from the media. "The average child is exposed to 400 ads a day, many using sexual imagery as a hook," says family therapist Mary Pipher, author of the bestseller Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Lives of Adolescent Girls. "In magazine ads, seminude teens lock in an embrace to sell underpants or jeans. ... Two-year-olds beg parents for products they’ve seen advertised on TV. One mother who came to me for therapy said her son’s first words were ‘I want.’ Another mother brought in her four-year-old’s drawings of beer signs." She adds, "Here is what children learn from ads: that they are the most important person in the universe, that impulses should not be denied, that pain should not be tolerated, and that the cure for any kind of pain is a product. They learn a bizarre mix of dissatisfaction and entitlement. Ads socialize children to be self-centered, impulsive and addicted."

And what kind of message do we send young people when we claim that spending money on schools won’t do any good? In reality, more money usually means that schools can afford better programs and facilities, smaller class sizes and the ability to hire the best teachers. A study by the National Center for Education Statistics has found that schools with better academic climates have higher levels of student achievement, and that adults who graduated from well-funded schools earn more over a lifetime than people who attended poor schools.

Businesses and civic organizations can offer valuable resources to community schools as well, ranging from donation of funds and equipment to time and personal expertise, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Personnel from businesses, universities and local governments can offer to talk to students about careers. Visits to workplaces help students learn how the American economic system works. College students and professionals who volunteer their services as tutors serve as role models while encouraging students to stay in school. News media can promote student success by recognizing accomplishments.

As a society, we need to take a hard look at our priorities. Demographer Harold L. Hodgkinson points out that research shows it is "cheaper, easier and more effective" to keep people out of prisons than to rehabilitate hardened criminals. In Illinois, for instance, it costs in excess of $30,000 a year to house one prisoner; however, even the richest school district in that state spends only half that much to educate kids.

"It behooves us all to make sure that every child in America has a good education and access to a good job," Hodgkinson says. "We cannot, as a nation, afford to throw any child away; we need them all to become successful adults if the economy, the community, the workforce, the military - indeed the nation - is to thrive."

Most of all, we can all practice basic courtesy - both toward each other and toward our kids. Like everyone else, students appreciate hearing words like "please" and "thank you" from parents, teachers and other adults. A smile and an acknowledgment of a job well done goes a long way toward the promotion of self-esteem. And kids with high self esteem are less likely to get in trouble.