Tyler laments 'fragile' kids | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Top teenage speechmaker Tyler Batchelor knew he had his audience
when he saw mothers nudging their embarrassed and well-groomed sons.

Tyler, 16, from Chanel College, won the intercollegiate public speaking com
petition at Solway College last week, by speaking about ``the fragile generation''.

``It's a society where it takes a boy longer to do his hair in the morning than
a female, where 90 per cent of conversations are made through electronic messaging, and where soccer is played more often on a TV screen than
in the backyard,'' Tyler told his audience.

At this point he looked up and saw mothers nudging their sons, many of
whom had straightened their hair that morning, and who were ``looking a bit
embarrassed''.

``I thought, `I've come to the right place','' Tyler said.

The judges thought so too, putting Tyler at the top of a high-performing
field of young orators from around Wairarapa.

Brian Bourke, chairman of competition sponsor Trust House, said it was
``the highest standard I've seen in years''.

A version of Tyler's ``fragile generation'' speech was first aired when Chanel
competed for the O'Shea Shield in New Plymouth in May, and he worked with
his teacher to expand his topic up to the required seven minutes for the Wai
rarapa competition last week.

Tyler spoke about a world without real experiences  such as climbing trees,
that was creating a generation ``unprepared for life''. Targets included the
``really soft'' parents who followed children around with  hand sanitisers _
stunting the development of their immune systems _ and who couldn't
yell at their kids in case it left them ``emotionally traumatised''.

Technology took a pounding, with Tyler lamenting the anxiety caused by
internet networking sites.

``The whole Facebook thing has them too fragile, worrying too much about
their public image, and not enough about being kids,''