VIDEO: No More Rappers, Athletes, Drug Dealers, Or Politicians: The Life Of Teenagers Ain't No Joke

    WEST PALM BEACH, FL, October 31, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- How many rappers, athletes, and drug dealers does the world need? If you polled our nation's teenagers, you'd think there are unlimited job openings in the fields of music, sports, and crime, yet the youth's blind pursuit of fame and fortune, without regard for education and discipline, and without value for human life, is depleting the middle class and killing generations of future leaders.

Keith G. Wright, a South Florida youth mentor and author of The Life Of Teenagers Ain't No Joke, is on a mission to save families, empower parents, honor women, and inspire teenagers to lead exceptional lives, and his ZERO TO 18 Initiative advances a new vision for successful teen life.

Reinforcing the tried, true, and timeless principles from The Life Of Teenagers Ain't No Joke, the ZERO TO 18 Workbook offers an inspirational daily action plan, helping teens take the required steps toward achieving their goals and dreams. The workbook helps schools, teachers, and youth programs develop essential life-skill curriculums for students, while empowering parents to initiate meaningful dialogue and generate productive action plans with their teens.

Wright says, "I talk to kids everyday who dream of becoming professional athletes, yet they have mostly Fs on their report cards, have a profane laced vocabulary, disrespect teachers on a daily basis, can't seem to pull up their pants or understand why that might be important, and actually have little to no athletic ability to begin with, they're all talk, with no substance, understanding, or vision. As parents, teachers, and school administrators, our mission is to change that mentality."

While the average career length of a professional athlete is 3 to 5 years, and 60-78% of pro athletes are either bankrupt or in financial trouble within 2 to 5 years of retirement, the frightening odds of even making it to the league are 0.08 percent and 0.03 percent, for NFL and NBA wannabes, respectively.

Beyond the blind pursuit of professional sports, the Rap genre presents an even more problematic career choice, particularly for African Americans. Wright believes the Rap Culture is the greatest tragedy of Black America, while slavery, a distant second, pales in comparison to the level of violence, miseducation, misogyny, degradation, and self-destruction of the black family, cycling an epidemic of rising black crime and fading black pride.

Wright says, "Disheartening to me are large groups of teens who model their entire lives and entire souls after rappers and athletes. It's disturbing to see young beautiful children self-mutilating themselves in the name of being hip; mutilating their bodies, their looks, their teeth, their language, their ambitions, their self-respect, and self-mutilating their prospects for a bright future."

With a track record of working in South Florida's roughest neighborhoods and schools, Wright has shown an ability to motivate, inspire, and turn around youth who most have given up on. Through his award winning book, The Life Of Teenagers Ain't No Joke, and his ZERO TO 18 Workbook, Wright teaches teenagers the tried, true, and timeless principles of successful living, and advances the notion that education is not about merely getting a degree and finding a job; the power of education is about seeing what you can become in this world, and reaching for the greatest levels of your potential... as in the case of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, education was never about the degree, but about changing the world, making history, and leaving a legacy of a remarkable life.

For every teenager embracing the ZERO TO 18 Initiative, this is the new vision for teen life; making your 18 years count, believing in something bigger than self, planting seeds of kindness and compassion, embracing education and discipline, and preparing to change the world, each generation better than before.

To learn more about The Life Of Teenagers and the ZERO TO 18 Workbook, visit : www.AintNoJoke.com

Keith G. Wright, author and creator of "Ain't No Joke" Book Series is on a mission to save families, by empowering parents, honoring women, and inspiring teenagers to lead exceptional lives. His book, The Life Of Teenagers Ain't No Joke, has inspired many teens to take a more serious look at their childhood and their future. He says, "It's our jobs as parents to turn on the lights in the minds & hearts of our children... and then we'll see incredible things take place in their lives".

Wright's "Ain't No Joke" book series, is centered on the principles of capturing the life you've always wanted to live, as a teenager struggling to find your way in this unforgiving world, as a parent attempting to raise exceptional children in a degrading culture, and as women fighting for respect, equality, and oftentimes mere survival... a rare look at the way our lives are going and a distinctive answer for reversing that trend today and for the next generations.

Website: http://AintNoJoke.com

# # #