Coffee tonight was rather subdued. Not in a bad way, it felt like more of a decompressing sigh as we all eased into a new week. I think the snow took a lot out of us all. We did have a pretty spirited discussion about elementary education, our experiences, and home schooling. Sometimes, like tonight, it hits me that I'm more conservative than I typically give myself credit. I was home schooled - I think it was a great idea. My parents chose to home school not because they didn't trust the education of the public school system, but because they were/are conservative, evangelical, christians who wanted to protect their kids from the evils of society. I like that. And I think it's a huge part of why I am the person I am today. My family could even be a social experiment of sorts - we stopped home schooling when I was in third grade....so each of my siblings has less home schooling in levels. Just interesting, I think.
Other topic - today's "youth" (which most would say includes my generation). There's this pervasive feeling of entitlement in today's youth. It's the problem of parents not telling their kids that they are good at some things and bad at other things. It's the enabled generation - students who do "B" work but get "A"s because their parents complained until the grade was changed. It's the generation that never heard the word "NO" because their parents didn't want to do any damage to their self-esteem. The sad, disillusioned, result is best portrayed by Time's magazine's selection of their "Person of the Year." Instead of selecting an individual whose contributions to society/America/the world were phenominal, the magazine selected "YOU"...and slapped a mirror on the front of their magazine. (read my friend Tim's comments on this craziness)
While one might think this is a problem for the adolescents of the world and that most people most likely grow out of this disturbing trend - Fast Company would beg to differ. I'm still trying to track down an electronic copy of the article I read, but the magazine claims this trend continues into the working/career world. There are stories of twenty-somethings not getting their "deserved" promotion, crying to Mom/Dad, and Mom/Dad confronting their adult child's boss about this "over-sight".
I'd just like to put this out there - no one is good at everything. And to perpetuate for your child that he/she IS good at everything is not preserving his/her self-esteem, but instead setting him/her up for the worst/rudest/most life shaking wake up call EVER. Maybe entitlement is something that needs to be recognized more often. Is it a secular thing? I still see it in Christian circles. One might think christians would make the connection: "i'm full of sin, deserve death" = "I don't deserve anything in this life". But sometimes, we still miss it, eh?
I appreciated learning at an early age that I am not good at basketball. I can be your Rodman (in the rebounding, defense, elbow-throwing kind of way), but I'm not your Kobe (making all the shots kind of way). And the reason Rodman didn't make it big was for sure because of his inability to contribute offensively. I also realized that I could be good at some other things, if I made choices to focus time and effort on those few things.
I begin to wonder if the current generations aren't just creating problems for themselves through thoughts of entitlement and perfection, but also creating problems for America as a whole. If we are breeding a country of people who are mediocre at everything, and not good at any one thing in particular (because no one's forced them to choose), are we setting ourselves up for an eventual downfall?
I'll admit, it's a thin argument as people eventually settle into one line of work (but again, note all the multiple career changes now-a-days...so is that really a true statement?). Basically, bottom line, I think we need to commit to telling our kids they suck! :o)
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