The New Generation

[styler]

I'm hearing a lot of "Kids these days don't know half the things I knew when I was their age, they just aren't interested", when in fact it would be just as valid for a younger person to say "Older people today don't know half the things that my generation have to know, they just don't see them as important".
I think a lot of this is technology related. The world is becoming more and more automated, technology is becoming a part of everything. I got my first job in IT, about 15 years ago, based on what I'd taught myself about PCs. I'd largely taught myself these things from trying to get PC games to run or trying to make sure my search history was fully deleted... but that's another story...
It's very easy to be blase about aspects of youth culture being a waste of time, if you never actually have to engage in them.

 

[toobfreak]

My thoughts:
I'm not sure who caused the changes in schools. When I went to school, I think ONCE during high school, someone was busted for a knife, and for all I know, it was just a penknife. No one brought guns. It is really scary the number of zero tolerance things schools will ruin a kid's life over now.
Old cash registers just popped up a total. Now they figure the math for you. Tell you what the change is. They even tell you to put the money in the drawer.
Cursive writing is still very important. Many schools are finding out and re-instituting it. Remember reading, writing and arithmetic? It was one of the most important things. Today, books will read out-loud to you, and the calculator will figure everything out, but writing is still very necessary, not only is it part of learning effective communication (look at the people who can't spell, punctuate or capitalize on the web), sign documents, write on pencil and paper letters and notes and things, but people lose sight of the fact that developing handwriting skills is part and parcel of mental and emotional development. Handwriting is an extension of the brain because the brain directs the hand. Kids need to learn how to write and communicate well.
Lord knows a lot of people read poorly and now they can't write either? C'mon! THAT MAKES THEM ILLITERATE. And the school does not consider that important in today's world? The gov. run school system is the lowest denominator in education, anywhere else is just a step up, but at least it is something, but real education starts in the home. Just because the "school" doesn't teach it is no excuse why the parents cannot.
One last thing: it is one thing what the schools teach, but what is often overlooked is called the retention curve; ask a kid one year or five years out of school what they remember. It is scary what they have forgotten. It is one thing to teach a kid how to make it through the next test, quite a different thing to engage a child to really learn, and I think the modern educational environment is often just as demoralizing on the teachers as it is on the kids, and a lot of times, both are just struggling to make it through.
In ten years we are faced with a generation running the world (and our lives) that are poor readers, cannot write, have no idea who the first president was, what country attacked us at Pearl Harbor or who we fought to gain independence from in the Revolutionary War. That doesn't scare the crap out of you?
Think I'm kidding? Then you never watched Leno's Jaywalkers or Watter's World where they go out and ask people on the street common everyday questions.

 

[davet]

Think I'm kidding? Then you never watched Leno's Jaywalkers or Watter's World where they go out and ask people on the street common everyday questions.

We had a TV show in Canada This Hour Has 22 Minutes, one of the hosts did a segment Talking to Americans, he would ask questions about Canada and the responses were hilarious. One I remember was if Canada should outlaw setting our elderly adrift on iceflows, seriously, people were aghast thinking we did that up here :crazy:

 

[jpmcwjr]

I don't think of myself as a hopeless romantic, but I do not believe the majority of folks are shitbags. Am I naive? Too sheltered a life?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

And the school does not consider that important in today's world?

Schools nationwide run from community up. The Dept of Education in DC comes up with a broad range of generalized crap, then the states all rewrite them and send them to local school boards, and then the systems all determine what happens in the classroom. The most powerful influence on the classroom is the local PTO/PTA and school board meetings. You want to make an impact on what is happening behind those doors, you attend, get involved, and speak out.
For some reason these last twenty years, it has become popular to attack schools, teachers, and curriculum, without any basis in reality. People talk like one governing body or person can control the schools. But, the way schools are set up across the country, with just minor differences in funding and whatnot, is for the communities to have a great input into their local schools. Whether you have kids in school or not, this is important. If you think something is going on that you don't like, get involved. Whether we have kids or not, we all have to live with the results of schools around us. If you think that they are cranking out idiots, then get involved. No one wants to live in a neighborhood full of idiots.

Don't complain, make the change.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Think I'm kidding? Then you never watched Leno's Jaywalkers or Watter's World where they go out and ask people on the street common everyday questions.

Total BS. Put a camera on me in the mall and ask me the capital of something, and I am going to act like an idiot too.

Just look at our responses on here to someone asking for a suggestion for a tobacco, we play with it. It's fun. Besides, if they had gotten straight faced answers that were all correct, do you think Jay Leno would have showed it? No, everyone was having fun, and is no basis for critiquing schools.
Anyway, I've heard this BS since the 70's. Same crap, different day, and if you are basing your opinion of the kids on Leno and the guy at the register of McDonalds, then... ha ha, over and out :::drop mic::: ::

 

[toobfreak]

davet, that would not surprise me. America has fallen to something like 25th in the world in education. It is not a perceptual thing, I think the next generation is a failed social experiment that will eventually bite us in the ass.
When I was a kid your parents ruled the house and you got your ass handed to you if you got too far out of line. You listened or else.
Today, neither the school nor the parents can touch the kid no matter what, else they will get sued. Sometimes by the kid!

 

[aldecaker]

@jpm- I don't think you're naive or sheltered. I think you're just not a crotchety old misanthrope!

 

[leacha]

jndyer's post covered it for me but I'd like to add the most disturbing trend I have seen.
No common sense.

 

[mso489]

Really interesting discussion, starting with the old "it ain't like it used to be," but unpacking that with some actual examples and ideas. I don't think the parent generation, or even the grandparent generation, can successfully compare their historical growing-up era with today's kids's formative years. Your own growing up is seen through the eyes of a child, and of course, I was never any trouble to anyone. Do you believe that? Of me, or you? Today's kids do live in a different world, it's true, but sussing out what that means is excruciatingly challenging.
One minor point as an example. When I was in grammar school, junior high (middle school), and high school, I was a free range kid. I had a bike and pocket change for bus money, and I was expected to show up for meals and do certain chores. Otherwise, my time and whereabouts were my own as long as no one complained about me. I would point out that the area was not particularly safe. Groups of young kids were found slain in forested areas. A serial killer buried dozens under his ranch house in an adjoining suburb. I don't think my parents were feeding me to the wolves, but they let me know that danger existed, and I was expected to be wary and vigilant. Today, people are much more careful about their kids and most kids spend most of their time in adult-supervised situations. That is not irrational, but it is very different. Add devices with screens and it is a different culture and world. Referencing cursive writing, during my twenties, much of my contact with my family was in cursive writing, another cultural abyss we've crossed.

 

[davet]

davet, that would not surprise me.

It's different up here, there is so much information from south of the border, TV, movies, it just overwhelms Canadian content. I wouldn't be surprised if U.S. history was retained more than our own. I'm certainly not complaining, most Canadian TV and movies suck.

 

[toobfreak]

everyone was having fun

Really? Thousands and thousands of people and they were all just having fun making themselves look like idiots before the camera on national TV? Surely not the only critique of schools or kids by a long measure, but if you want, take some time and watch a few Leno Jaywalkers or Watter's Worlds and tell me these people are all just kidding.
One thing you will note is that as the person gets older, much older, they usually seem to more often know the answers than do the very young. You decide:
Jay Leno

 

[jpmcwjr]

@jpm- I don't think you're naive or sheltered. I think you're just not a crotchety old misanthrope!

Well, thanks.....I guess! I read that as saying I'm a crotchety old misanthrope, but not only that.... At least that's one reading.....

 

[mso489]

...another cultural curiosity ... despite all the devices, many with keyboards or attachable to keyboards, I feel that touch typing has actually declined. It's nearly all hunt and peck, which slows writing down and limits length a lot, fine for tweets and texts, but not more.

 

[aldecaker]

How about, "You're no crotchety old misanthrope"? :D

 

[balkisobrains]

The question-mark instead of the period kills me. I seem to see that much more often within the last 15 years or so.
(Not directed towards your question-mark, aldecaker, you're ok there.) =)

 

[jpmcwjr]

It does????? Multiple punctuation marks gets me as much as incorrect ones. Hadn't noticed the question mark in place of the period, but I will look now. Yes, that's what I will do?
Adding an apostrophe to the possessive "its" is possibly the most repeated mistake.

 

[cally454]

Won't comment on this generation. I do feel sorry for them though. I guess they're stressed out something fierce. Most don't have the normal stresseres most of us endured. They don't marry, have kids, no mortgage, use uber so no car note. Something's going on.

 

[snowyowl]

[this is from the 60s... BC]

 

[disinformatique]

There is a reason you cannot use calculators in schools in India in class and in exams. Not even when you're doing your Masters Degree. Police has no business inside a school or college or even a University. I feel lucky that I studied when schools were schools and mass shootings were unheard of. Looking at US crime rates, I would not send my kids there for studies.
Cheers,

Chris