Teens keep spirits up in downturn

Sixth hour is Emily Wilkins' AP Government class, and the first topic every day is current events.

"Every sixth hour," said Wilkins, 17, "my future gets a little bit dimmer."

The line arrived with a smile. Her friend Jordan Mueller was smiling, too, when she said the fog carries all the way through their next class. But yes, they're worried.

Sixty-plus kids from around the state took part in Detroit Red Wings High School Journalist Day on Friday at Joe Louis Arena. They tossed questions at a media panel, watched hockey practice, took a pizza break and then aimed more questions at some Red Wings officials and players.

They were there to ask, not answer. But I turned a few of them into an informal focus group anyway, and it was quickly clear what the Red Wings had assembled:

A roomful of smart kids wondering if it's stupid to be optimistic about the future.

Every week brings news of more layoffs and more chaos and less value on Wall Street. Suddenly, Chapter 11 isn't an assignment.

Emily and Jordan, 18, are seniors at Farmington Hills Mercy High School. They're bound for Michigan State, where Jordan has been awarded a soccer scholarship.

They're puzzling over things like roommates and majors, the same way inbound freshmen always do. They have a new crop of concerns, though, that the Class of 2008 didn't even need to consider.

When banks collapsed, the student loan pool began to evaporate. That's on the list. So is geography. "Should I move out of Michigan?" asked Emily, whose dad is an engineer at Ford. "How do you get yourself established? I don't know the roads anywhere else. I don't know the fast food places."

She smiled again. But yes, she's worried.

Trying not to worry

Cory Jackson, 16, a junior at Southfield High, was escorted by his uncle, Duane Thompson. Thompson took a buyout from American Axle.

"To tell you the truth, I do worry," Cory said. "Will there

be any jobs open in the

future?"

Dave Cobb, 17, of Northville said he's just enjoying his senior year at Novi Catholic Central, "trying not to get too stressed." His parents have kept him insulated as best they can, and why not? He can't solve anything.

He's noticed his dad working more hours, though. "Politics and the economy aren't things I paid a lot of attention to," Dave said, but they're becoming "a lot more real."

Charlie Cobb, 45, a financial planner, does the worrying for the family. "Every day," he said, "you wonder what your kids will be able to do, how bad it will get."

He has the advantage of perspective. His mom died in October, just about the time of the meltdown. The youngest of his three kids, Dave's little sister, is autistic. That's real life, not economic theory.

"You get up in the morning, the sun's up, you're still breathing," Cobb said. "You've got responsibilities to take care of."

Dave's responsibility is school. That's enough.

Adults help calm fears

At L'Anse Creuse North in Macomb Township, the school paper came out Friday. The banner headline read, "Big 3 in Trouble."

Kim Kozian, 42, teaches journalism, newspaper and yearbook there. "I just lost a student to the economy," she said. "Her family had to move to Kentucky."

Families at school have been booted from their houses, she said. Students have said they can't find jobs, even doing the things students will.

"All of us try to encourage them," Kozian said. "We tell them it'll turn around. It has before."

The adults say, "Goodness, it hasn't been this bad since 1982." Some of the students weren't born until a decade after that.

Jordan Mueller said she's coping pretty well, but she's worried about the Mercy freshmen, starting school amid the toxic fallout the banks and mortgage brokers and insurance companies unleashed on the world.

"You need time," she said, "to be a kid."

Reach Neal Rubin at (313) 222-1874 or nrubin@detnews.com">nrubin@detnews.com.