In my school, I find rampant examples of today's generations feeling of entitlement, and ignorance. For the purpose of argument, I will define both terms as used in this context. Entitled: Having intense feelings of certain privileges that are given. I.e. Being given a car on the sixteenth birthday. Ignorant: Unaware of reality or actual events that go on (generally outside of school). I go to a Catholic private school, and the first thing that comes to the eyes is how technologically oriented everyone is. Generally, they all have the latest Iphones or Android devices. That is not necessarily bad, what is bad is the flippant remarks such as "Oh yeah my parents got it for me the day it came out so beats my old crappy Iphone 5." I agree that most parents need to provide the best for their kids, but It has gotten so far that teenagers almost EXPECT the best. As a person who had to get a job, and buy a phone for themselves, I appreciate my phone more, and guard it very carefully. The next thing is driving. I personally cannot drive, even though I am 17 and a senior in high school. My parents feel I wasn't ready for drivers ed until a few months ago. Mostly everyone who is 16 though, has a car and a drivers license. All too often the cars are along the 10,000 to 15,000$ range. The worst thing? Most kids treat it as an expectancy. Its almost become a given, and they do not appreciate them. Again flippant remarks such as "Oh my dad is giving me my car tomorrow, I can't believe I had to wait a week for it." Even though I hate the almost casual handing out of cars, gas money, allowance money, and complete liberty that accompanies this, I wasn't surprised. MOST parents are doctors, lawyers, businessmen, so I thought mommy and daddy would buy them cars so they wouldn't have to chauffeur them around. My dad personally said to me "you have a bike, two legs, or public transportation. Choose one." The one thing I hate the most is the ignorance of students, particularly the student athletes. The general thought process is "I have a game tonight AND I have to study for Spanish class, this is such crap." I hate this line. For one, their sport, which most of them will never play again, is taking precedence over their studies. They think that participation of one excludes them from the other. This is simply not true. I also know that college isn't easier, even without playing the sport. Instead of having "no time to do anything", they will now have lots of time, but no idea where to begin. Any thoughts?
Agree with your sentiments, and think your parents are very wise people. Despite that many of your classmates may feel so, life is not about "stuff," and being given too much stuff without earning it oneself is a road to personal, spiritual and social disaster. Once you have the very basic needs taken care of, the real value and joy in life has little to do with things, as you seem to be coming to realize.
I'm not sure that your private school classmates can be considered a representative sample of today's generation.
My thoughts exactly, although I do remember quite a few entitled brats in the public schools I went to in the late 90's early 2000's
Like the ignorance of previous generations being pretty much the same and the feeling of entitlement that theirs should be seen as special and different? Sorry, that was harsh but I hope the point is clear.
You are in a bubble of privledged people. That is not an attack towards you, just a fact of circumstances. Middle class and higher kids don't live in the same world as lower class kids. It's a mistake to lump an entire generation in with your own experiences.
This is simply human nature given its head. Earlier generations had a sense of duty, responsibility, and sense of self-sacrifice hammered into them by growing up in a war era culture that let the youngsters know that the male segment was very definitely be going to end up in uniform one way or the other at age eighteen. The female half was a bit more pensive as well knowing that her boyfriend or lover would probably end up in harm's way. There's a bit more to it than that, obviously. I'm encapsulating while hitting only the high points. I'm not covering all the exceptions. So that's societal standards as a whole trying to inculcate the duty to nation credo in youths. Next we had the Church (Protestant or Catholic) that pretty much reinforced societal standards as a matter of course. Then we had the school systems (both private and public) doing precisely the same thing. Then we had parents who might or might not endorse generic societal, church, and school systems teachings, but that if they were cultural 'rogues', amounted to only one pair of voices going counter to the full weight of all those institutions reinforcing the general messages. So it's very definitely NOT the fault of your generation, peers, or what have you that they were raised in a time and place that pretty much values none of those former ideals. So it's not even that these particular private school youths have so very much more than youngsters going to public schools, as it is that they can practice over-the-top habits that their less socio-economically blessed generational compatriots have to make do with on a substantially lessened scale. But make no mistake about it, most of them still do the equivalent in most aspects. Now to a great extent life itself knocks a fair amount of those bad habits out of them once they hit the 'real' world with its various expectations that do not take into account the fact that the former youth was raised a certain way with a certain level of self-indulgence not only tolerated but encouraged. So most of them will learn in a personally painful process that the greater world does not give a damn what they want or expect. So most of this is self-correcting in nature, but it also usually begins only after the college years are over. Oh joy! Again, all of the above assertions were mere tree-top style spit-balling. The actual truth is variable to a certain extent depending on region, gender, and -- even among the fiscally privileged class -- differences in nuance in regard to socio-economic status and individual family value systems. So how do I know any of this? I've spent most of the last twenty-five years teaching the privileged off spring of the well to do (varying from merely wealthy to Bill Gates level wealthy) and so I've gotten an eyeful and an earful over the years. It's been a fascinating process.
everybody feels entitled to something. teenagers want their gadgets, old people want their benefits, etc. Really no different than it has always been in that regards. What troubles me more is the nihilism that seems to be spreading like a cancer among people, particularly young people.
not all kids are the same. Look toward families with multiple children, no 2 kids are alike yet they are raised by the same parents. My parents/grandparents would think me spoiled because I can take a prepared meal I bought, toss it into the microwave and be eating within 5 minutes. If I need to reach someone, I pull out the cell phone and call that person and expect them to be readily available with their cell phone. But, the base fundamentals are the same. No HS kid should be viewed that "school is their job" or "athletics at school is their job" One thing that every man/woman/child will do is find things to occupy themselves when they have idle time. That might include 3 hours for homework which should only take 30 minutes but, there was Instagram, Facebook, gaming and IM's whch needed to be done. All of our children had to get jobs and had to maintain a 3.0 or higher. If the grades slipped, it was not work which was trimmed, nope, it was recreation including sports. If you can, get your kid their first car but make them buy the gas, perform maintenance and pay for insurance. If having the freedom of a vehicle is important to them, then they will learn about priorities and associate working to get what they want vs having it handed to them. It instills conservative values into children which is vital as they mature.
Just because the poor don't expect cars and the like doesn't mean they don't feel entitled. It's just that they feel entitled to other people's money, welfare, food stamps, a good paying job without earning it, etc etc
Do NOT believe anyone who tries to tell you other generations were different...that's hogwash, humans are humans and that never changes. But do believe you are in a "wealth bubble" and those kids don't represent all kids or their entire generation.
Hard to take seriously a post that paints all the poor with the same brush....what an ignorant, hateful , dishonest statement.
Oh but it's okay to paint all the kids in his school as being in a "wealth bubble" right? Your hypocrisy is astounding... and noted.
It is a wealth bubble from the description in the OP.......is that derogatory? NO. YOU painted ALL poor with one brush....Hard to take seriously a post that paints all the poor with the same brush....what an ignorant, hateful , dishonest statement.
And so you don't have a problem when someone paints "rich" or "privileged" kids all one way and don't want to point out that it's an ignorant, hateful and dishonest statement to do so. But you get your panties in a wad when someone appears to do the same thing to the poor. Your hypocrisy is astounding and noted. BTW, I wasn't stating ALL poor felt that way genius. I was saying that just because poor people are poor and may not feel entitled to a Jag from daddy doesn't mean that many poor people don't feel entitled to other different types of things.
you must go to a rich neighborhoods school..... what's ironic is many of those rich kids are jealous of the freedom the poor have too, freedom to be who they are and not have to "act" a certain way to fit in, not have to have the latest clothes or gadget to be cool.... just kids being kids, having fun the best way to grow up is poorer and then become well off, but sadly only a few make it .
I attended an all-boys Catholic (Jesuit) high school in the early 80's and I would not say my peers then were much different than the OP. Of course, cell phones did not exist at that time...nor video game consoles, tablets, laptops...etc. So I can't comment on that, but for the most part the average 16 year old did expect a car on their birthday and usually got it. Sports was also emphasized quite a bit and everyone was encouraged to play at least one sport....studies of course were the priority. I don't think the millennials are decidely worse than my generation, perhaps more Worldly and jaded given the instantaneous nature of news, etc. My generation had their share of spoiled brats.
But the one is actually true, and the other is not. Doesn't that count for something, even in politics?
The funny thing about this generation is that they're supposed to be a bunch of entitled whiners, right? And yet, when you do the actual math, what they really are is the first generation that was knowingly screwed over by the previous generation. Sure, nobody changed economic policy thinking that they were hurting their own kids. But they knew that they were hurting somebody's kids. This generation was sold out by the previous generation (mine). And yet, here we are complaining that they want too much, when the real problem was that we wanted too much, so much that we had to take it from our neighbors' kids.
It isn't just the kids of today. The culture of the U.S. is one of entitlement and priviledge and its been getting worse since the beginning of the baby boomer's generation at least. You might find some perspective about this in Frederic Bastiat's "The Law". We have become, as Bastiat warned, a society of legal plunder of everybody by everybody.
What you said was: You are saying that 'they' (poor people) feel entitled to things without earning them. Not some poor people, but poor people. Is that really not what you meant to say?
I also didn't say ALL poor people. You're asserting that. Poor people could mean all poor people or some poor people or 2 poor people.
