Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?

I have a concern that is as old as concern itself. Today's youth seem to exhibit some worrisome characteristics, namely apathy and irresponsibility. Now I know that parents have been saying the same thing for generations giving life to a myriad of cliches. But it seems to me that the problem is getting worse. I have daily contact with this age group as I have a 16 year old step daughter, and I teach college undergrads. Now my concern would not be very acute if I was only basing my opinion on my step-daughter's seemingly bizarre behavior. The indiscretions of a single 16 year old are not cause enough for me to claim that the world is coming to an end. The fact that she cares less about her grades than she does about her hair color is attributable to kids being kids. Although the lack of awareness of consequences is a bit alarming. She claims to want to go to college, but makes no effort to even pass her classes. But as I said, I am not going to create a societal judgement using a sample of one. It's my students that are my true concern, because they exhibit many of the same behaviors that my 16 year old does. Apathy is part of it, but the apathy seems to be the result of a larger problem, and that is the belief that they deserve success, regardless of their actual performance. Believe it or not, I have a theory about this. Let's think about it in terms of timelines, working in reverse chronological order.

Todays teens were born from 1985-1991. This means that they have parents who were born, roughly estimating, from 1955-1970. So the parents of our teens had parents who grew up roughly from 1935-1950. WWII era parents raised the current parents of our teens. So how were these parents raised? To oversimplify and overgeneralize, they were raised during hard times, when people were expected to work hard for what little they had. Because they grew up in homes that had little, they grew up saying to themselves "when I have kids, they wont have to go through this." In fact it is every parent's desire, I believe, to give their children a better life than they had. And so their set of parenting objectives includes giving their kids all the things they never had. Unfortunately this mentality has resulted in teens today who are used to getting the things they want and need with little if any effort on their part. So what is to come of this generation of self-proclaimed slackers? When laziness and apathy are character traits that are admired and pursued, what will our world look like 20, 50, 100 years from now?

Maybe that basket weaving class was a good idea after all.....

Until next time, Hershberger...out.