Lately, there has been a common thread in most of my discussions with others about the state of education and the attitudes of young people these days. Everyone agrees that today’s young people have this warped sense of entitlement as if the world owes them something. Gone are the days of setting goals and working hard to attain those goals. In its place is a whole generation of slackers that walk around with their hand out.
As an educator, it is evident to me in the behaviors that I witness from students year after year. Day after day, I find myself supplying children with things like pencils and paper because they regularly come to school unprepared. I often make the comparison between their not being ready for class and a doctor going into the operating room without a scalpel.
One might argue that they seek supplies because they are economically disadvantaged, however, time after time I meet with parents who assure me that they have purchased the necessary school supplies for their children. Ironically, these same students never forget to wear their designer clothes or name brand sneakers. This indicates to me that it’s more a question of priorities than economics.
It goes back to this sense of entitlement that I mentioned previously. Young people these days feel that it’s their parents job to keep them in the lap of luxury and that it’s the school’s job to furnish them with materials to assist in their education. They don’t comply with their job which is to study and get good grades because they feel that they don’t have to work towards anything.
This epidemic is extremely unsettling considering that these youngsters are our future. What kind of future could we possibly hope for with so many of them lacking the drive and ambition to make a life for themselves and be independent? As an educator, I ask myself this very question every single day. The truth is that I am terrified for them because experience has taught me that the world can be a difficult and unforgiving place.
Exactly who is to blame for an entire generation that is lacking the basic skills and drive to become productive members of society? The truth is that we adults all probably are to blame in one respect or another. In my opinion, one major contributor is the breakdown of family values. This simple foundation that outlines the difference between what is right and what is wrong is simply lacking in today’s youth. They have no boundaries and don’t understand limits and respect.
Additionally, we have instilled a love of material things without teaching that material things don’t define individuals and that they require hard work and sacrifice in order to attain. This disconnect has our youth thinking that there is an endless supply of money and that items are somehow owed to them and they don’t even have to do anything to earn them.
We have to figure out how to motivate our young people and inspire them to set goals and to have dreams. Once they taste the sweet taste of accomplishing those goals and realizing those dreams, they will realize that it is much more rewarding to earn the very things that they have felt entitled to all along…
© 2012, Tough Cookie Mommy. All rights reserved.
Love this topic! But not in the “I just love this entitled generation” type of love…more like, “I would love to see this attitude change b/c yeah, the world is an unforgiving place and nobody owes you a thing.”
By and large I think it’s a breakdown of priorities, including parents/caretakers failing to instill good manners and a hard work ethic. I remember working at an alternative educational program and a couple of the students asked me for a grant to pay for their high school exit exam. Mind you, the manicured nails held a mobile as that hand stretched out for that freebie. Entitlement begins at home.
It’s time to up that P-game, folks…