Will Generation 'Gimme'
 

Work for the American Dream?

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1300268927001/

since ww2 every generation has been given things and like all generations some will work others will work some and others will not work at all. The worry I have is their intellectual capacity or lack thereof.

And they keep on breeding and voting!!

How have we gotten to this point? Just a few years ago, I said that I wondered what would happen to the children of this generation of selfish adults we'd raised without boundaries, without knowing the meaning of the word "no" or a sense of starting at the bottom and working for your dreamsI suppose this is the answer to my question. Very sad.

minimalistic values with little or no effort with no less than maximum expectations. Reward for effort and accomplishment have been replaced by an entitlement mentality.

There is no upside to the current direction...in my opinion.

btk

THAT and not teaching (in the home) values, a spiritual base and I could go on and on! There is such a sense of "entitlement" AND wanting to blame others for what affects the person as well.

This is a great exercise this Professor has presented to his students that illustrates my point in another thread of the "incrementalization" of socialist ideology into our mainstream culture. He provides testimony that this is being advanced by our public schools, which we know receive their mandate from the DOE and the teacher's unions.

The schools are by and large not instructing their students on the principles of self reliance and individual achievement that have been the hallmarks of the American Dream, but instead have fostered a climate of entitlement coupled with an inherent unfairness in the American model of self determination.

I see this thread being moved to "Political" very shortly, which will be a shame.

I am related to several educators, and I think they would disagree - the school systems tell them what their curriculum is. When it comes to things related to values and morals, I believe it falls to the parents. IMHO.

What disagreement? The school systems get their curriculum mandates from the DOE and the NEA. So, I think we are more in agreement than not.

Parents, of course, need to instruct their children but the education system is very powerful and the students desire to be accepted by their peers and teachers are very powerful.

Parents are kept out of the loop as much as is possible when it comes to the indoctrination of their children. This is more prevalent in urban than rural areas of our country in primary education. When they advance to college age, all bets are off as to providing an alternative to radical thought.

I haven't lost hope in the next generation....just think about how your thought processes ran at that age. We had a really neat example of the upcoming generation this holiday season. Steve and I were sitting, watching TV when the doorbell rang. Since we have a very large lot that sits back off the road it was surprising. I opened the door to find two young women standing there. They asked if we had any extra gas (for a lawn mower, etc), they were with the brother of one of the girls and had run out of gas in front of our house. Steve, being the kind, wonderful 'fixer' that he is, immediately got a gas can and drove the young man to a station to get some gas. The next night the doorbell rang again...one of the young ladies was standing there with a plate of Christmas cookies and a card thanking us for our "thoughtfulness" and signed "those idiot teenagers". I will cherish the card and no, they are not "idiot teenagers"....they are a great example of many of the young people out there today.

My brother and two sisters in law teach in urban areas, and they do not keep the parents "out of the loop", it is that many, many parents do not want to be involved and do not participate in parent/teacher activities. It is a source of great frustration to the teachers.

Charles Murray writing in the New Criterion News January 2012
 

As republished in Notable & Quotatble WSJ January 7/8 2012

This may explain this dilemma in part:

The members of America's new upper class tend not to watch the same movies and televisions shows that the rest of America watches, don't go to the kinds of restaurants the rst of Americans frequent, tend to buy different kinds of automobiles, and have passions for being green, maintaining the proper degree of body fat, and supporting gay marriages that most American don't share. Their child rearing practics are distinctive, and they typically take care to enroll their children in schools doimnated by the offspring of upper middle class or better yet of new upper class. They take their vactions in diiferent kinds of places than other Americans go and are often indiffernt to professional sports that are so popular among other Americans. Few have served in the military and few of their children either.

Worst of all, a growing proportion of the people who run the institution of our Countryhave never known any other culture. They are the children of upper middle-class parents, have always lived in upper middle-class neighborhoods and gone to upper middle class schools. Man have never worked at a job that caused a body part to hurt at the end of the day, never had a conversation with n evangelical Christian, never had a friend who didn't have a college degree, never hunted or fished. They are likely to know that Garrison Kellior's monolgoue is the source of the phrase "all of the children are above average" but they have never walked on a prairie and never know someone well whose IQ actually was below average."


These folks are running our educational Institutions.

These folks are employed in key power positions in the government

These are the people who run our entertainment industry

These are the folks hat have labeled themselves the "liberal elite"

:agree:Absolutely:agree:

Yes, because these parents, our children!s generation, first developed this attitude of entitlement for their children --and they grew up under a couple of Republcan regimes so this s not a political issue--this is a parental issue!:ohdear:

I agree.

It is silly to blame schools. It is ultimately the parents responsibility to teach values. But the teachers that I know and my children and grandchildren had were mostly wonderful examples. I know that because even as a grandparent I stayed personally involved with our school system....which was and is...drum roll please, Lakota Local in West Chester, Ohio. It is worth a google.