I got into a very interesting conversation the other day with a fellow basketball player in the suana after a game. We chatted about the rise of violence in the schools and wonderered if it had always been this way, but for some reason, we didn't pay attention to it. I don't remember when I went to high school if I could remember a time when so many people went ballistic and killed their fellow man. Sure, I remember guys like Richard Speck or the guy who killed people at the University of Texas, but never with the regularity it seems we are experiencing. I have no degree, have no experience in social work but I have raised kids and I have been a keen observer in and of the process. We have raised a generation of kids who have no idea what it is like to fail. When they run races anymore, there are no ribbons for first place and the kid who finished last is rewarded as much as the kid who finished first. Where is the motivation for the kid who lost? What about the kid who won? We don't want to mess with their "self esteem". I learned at avery early age that when someone wins, someone loses and if I didn't win, well, that must mean I lost. Kids don't lose today, they don't suck at anything and we keep sending them on their way with their self esteem intact but the reality of life so far away. I have been kicked in the face so many times, I can't count. My heart has been broken so many times that I can (and will) write a book about it. I have had my hopes so high in a number of instances, only to have them dashed on the jagged rocks below the next day. If I hadn't failed numerous times in my youth, if I hadn't lost the race, the girl, the job, the friends, I don't know how I would have handled it. If the kids can't fail, if they can't find out that indeed, the may actually not be good at something, how does that set them up for their lives? I have sucked, and will suck. I have failed and will fail. I just keep getting back up again. Do today's kids know how to do that?
3 comments:
Very true commentary. And it's not only that many have no sense of losing, but many have a sense of entitlement (for no particular deed or merit).
Ditto.
Corporate America is not going to be too pleased with this batch of kids either, I'm afraid. If you think it's bad now, wait until they totally discount hiring anyone of American descent because of their attitude and go overseas to fill their open reqs.
I have to agree with what you have stated. But it is deeper than winners and losers and passing kids on. I teach at a couple of area colleges on the side...one thing that bothers me is that you can't even tell a kid (these are actually adults) that they are wrong, that there may be more than one answer or no answer. They have been passed along so much, they don't even know that there is a "wrong". Next, sports and music. For whatever reason, funding, etc., we took gym class, sports and music out of the schools (along with art and other subjects). Little league and Boy Scouts are gone too. Therein is the problem. No true diversity, not the B.S. race diversity, but life's diversity and diversions. Don't even get me started about religion....we all needed and need a wack or two from Sister Good Intention. Thanks for letting ME rant!
Post a Comment