<p>30 years ago they weren’t trying to ban Dodge Ball, and they didn’t have AYSO giving everyone that participates a “winners” trophy. Well I guess you reap what you sow, we have got an incredible generation currently coming through the pipes. Full of energy, hope, brains, and way too much of this “entitlement” mentality in far too many of them. </p>
<p>Our Grandparents (if they were in the USA) told their kids all about how it was “hard as hell” to raise a family, to feed and house them during the depression. And I believe those boys and girls raised in the 30’s turned out pretty well.
And boy o’ boy I hope Tom the Cat is a breeder and has some kids of his own!</p>
<p>The difference is that they were making physical human contact rather than over the internet to people they’d never met. See how my prompt to toombs to raise his own kids got him to react? There - I don’t know him and I gave him advice, and he called me a foul-mouthed self-absorbed teen. Is it really so surprising, then, that I was a little angry when he asserted that because he didn’t believe I was appreciative of the sacrifices my family made that I didn’t necessarily deserve to go to boarding school? Look - a 16 year old 'foul-mouthed self-absorbed teen" got a supposedly mature adult to flame him</p>
<p>Tom you can intellectualize all you want, but you are way over your head when you tell a parent over the internet or not, how they should be raising their kids. Of course you are welcome to chime in as you do, but with not much objectivity or long term experience I wouldn’t pay much for your input.</p>
<p>So let’s make a deal - you parents stop criticizing us young kids for not having the same life experience and appreciation for the state of the economy and treating us as if our age makes us somehow inferior, and I’ll quit b*tching you out for doing just that. Then we can move onto a different topic and treat each other as equals as it should be.</p>
<p>Treating equally doesn’t mean disrespecting, Parlabane, unless you are of the opinion that adults here disrespect kids and that that kind of treatment would continue under “egalitarian posting…”</p>
<p>No, and you are not as you say “YOUNG KIDS”. You are not allowed to minimize yourself like that on this board. A young kid is age 1-12. I know your realm as I have boys your age and I was once one myself.
Your life experience and point of view is worth something on this board, but when it changes from inquisitor to teacher you are pushing it.</p>
<p>So because you were born at a different date than us, you deserve more respect? Anyone can do it. It’s not like it takes any talent. Should I respect a 70 year old hobo more than my parents since he’s 30 years older than them? This is the internet, you can’t possibly expect to get any respect by saying “I’m older than you so be quiet”. </p>
<p>What you people have said is so hypocritical. You say we should handle the responsibilities of the real world, you responsibilities, but at the same time want us to treat you as if you’re superior? You want to give us equal responsibility but unequal standing? Good luck getting us to do that. I’m perfectly OK with parents being on here, it’s pretty cool to see that perspective of things, but everyone is equal on here, and if you can’t recognize that, you should unplug your internet modem, because you’re not going to be treated special anywhere on the internet.</p>
<p>It’s not off-putting to have an argument with you or another kid. In fact, it’s usually fun and I have a ton of respect for the intellectual acumen of the kids who visit this site and their willingness to mix it up. Further, adults need to be careful not to sound disdainful when young adults are just feeling their oats. Still, I think it’s important that as a kid, whether you’re in a HADES classroom or on an anonymous Internet Board, you work hard to choose your words carefully. Your “elders” have earned more stripes than you, just as you’ve earned more than a precocious eight year old’s.</p>
<p>Nope. Seeing that this thread has, from the very beginning, focused on the impact of the economy on boarding schools, their students and the parents of those students (see headline from Andover paper displayed in entry no. 1 here, “Economy Strains Exeter…”), I think that we should stay on subject. I am sorry that this difficult and touchy subject has been uncomfortable for some. I suggest that they withdraw from the conversation if they find it uninteresting or discomforting. There are many other subjects eslewhere on CC that they will find more engaging and less upsetting.</p>
<p>Changing back to the original subject a little bit: did anyone notice several colleges are also dropping their need blind policies “quietly”? Tufts was one I believe…</p>
<p>I see no need to change the subject of this thread: the economy and its impact on boarding schools, their students and the parents of such students.</p>
<p>No. I wasn’t on the debate team in high school. I do enjoy, however, discussing subjects of some common nterest. I assume all folks on CC are of the same stripe here. I am sorry that this subject of the economy and boarding schools somehow turned displeasing for some. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. The economy is disturbing for so many of us. I hope, however, we might be able again to discuss it and its effect on BS’s somewhat dispassionately. Maybe I’m hoping for too much. I hope not.</p>