I am often dismayed by the relative lack of culture in society, and by how starkly my comparitively rich and varied background contrasts with the fairly narrow and uninspiring upbringings of many of those around me today (no offence intended!). Looking back at a photo album of my childhood (which my family put together for me as a 21st birthday present a few years ago), I see lots of wonderful activities, including clubs, sports, theatre, outings, and much more. I got a great chance to do many things, and I believe I am a better person for it.
I knew somebody who did youth work in a YMCA for many years. I seem to remember they once worked hard to put together an adventurous trip for the kids, involving things like rock climbing and canoeing and so on, but instead of excitement, the kids couldn't care less. They couldn't see the point.
I believe the richness of a person's upbringing has a great impact on their future attitude towards life. I have often shocked and surprised people by even the most trivial knowledge of areas outside my usual sphere of involvement and interest, and yet to me, such breadth and diversity of knowledge and experience is a wonderful privilege which should be pursued. Instead, many people seem to push away everything which they don't need to know; it's creating societal ruts which entire families and generations are falling into.
My conclusion? Promoting diversity and stimulating broader interests in the lives of young people is crucially important. This theatre initiative is a great step, and is naturally in keeping with the idea of making museums and libraries freely accessible. What we need now is more encouragement to use these facilities, and positive demonstrations of why they are useful. Many of the problems of violence and drugs and such like in some communities are attributed to there being "nothing else to do", when perhaps there is actually plenty to do, but there's just nobody telling them how or why.