Personally, as a student, I agree with much of this, but I’d be interested to see how parents see the situation.
Well articulated position, I too agree that media has a way of dramatizing situations so that perspective gets lost.
Last summer my family took a long taxi ride to an airport. The driver was a retired HR director of a large company and he did a lot of interviewing via career fairs at a number of high ranking institutions in New England. He said something like, “If you think there is something wrong with young adults today, just go hang out with some of these students at these schools, it will change your viewpoint.” Recruiting at these schools annually was a highlight in his year.
I’ve been teaching high school since 1980.
And I’ve got to say that, in all that time, the one constant has been the kids.
I’m honored to work with such a wonderful group of kids, year after year. I’ve found that teens are giving and selfless. They’ll happily help a friend or a classmate. They’ll get involved in causes that matter to them, and spend their free time helping others.
Want to know what teens are like? Speak to anyone effected by Sandy or any other natural disaster. You’ll find that the teens in their neighborhoods went way above and beyond in their efforts to help. Talk to anyone who runs any sort of a walkathon or fundraiser, and see who comes out in the cold and the wet and the heat to support a cause they believe in. Speak to those who run your local nursing home, and see who attends the “Junior Senior prom” they run. Speak to your local food pantry, and see who is volunteering there on a regular basis.
Do I sometimes get frustrated, both with my students and my own teens?? Sure. I’m human and so are they. But I’ve got to say (and do, every chance I get) that if you’re having a problem with the behavior of today’s teens, you’re looking in the wrong places.
@bjkmom lovely post! Now why doesn’t that perspective make it onto the Opinion page of WaPo? Cuz it doesn’t get ppl riled up.
Well, to be fair, I’ve never submitted it 
I’ll add this one - http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-california/salinas/volunteers-pitch-in-for-cleanup-at-tatums-garden-in-salinas/24618970
I’m surprised special snowflake students are permitted a “safe space” from words or thoughts they may disagree with.
I’m sick of hearing entitled boomers’ complaints about the kids they raised and the society they largely created. Talk about pampered and entitled.
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Katalia didn’t give examples, but I suspect the “we don’t keep score” in games, and eveyrbody gets a ribbon generation may be a problem due to their parents’ upbringing.
I’m sick of hearing about boomers being pampered and entitled.
Its true however that they were largely rotten parents and we live in a cesspool due to their misdeeds.
:-*
Great article kollegeguy
However the Washington post Roth article in the original post- Typical professorial apologist catering to a bunch of politically correct positions except free speech.
He’s the president of Wesleyan, I guess he has to defend the students .
ok, maybe just a little bit harsh.
No, @younghoss, you totally misunderstood. I don’t think college students are the problem. The problem is those entitled (or embittered or envious) whiners complaining about “those kids today” without understanding either the kids - or the issues the kids are trying to address. And yes, many of those whiners are boomers. Who had it very easy compared to today’s college students. I could go into more details, but judging by the level of some of the posts on this thread, it would be a wasted effort.
Young people are, by definition of their immature psychological age, self-absorbed and short-sighted. We were that way, as were our parents before us. However, this generation has the technology to make that self-absorption a habit-forming behavior or addiction that can be displayed in the public arena. Too many of today’s teens are convinced that every trivial calamity or superficial thought will be interesting enough to others to be worthy of tweeting out. “Just broke a fingernail!” “Bought an awesome dress” What we wrote in a diary, they immortalize online.
This fascination with publicity causes them to take a minor interpersonal conflict, blow it way out of proportion, and publicly shame the other person via social media in a mean-spirited way. We saw an example of this in the Yale case, and also in that of the young man who got blasted by the Hispanic girl on his intramural team whom he had inadvertently offended. In addition, the constant photographing and online documenting of this generation’s every move lends itself to the idea that their childish complaints are a social justice movement, when they’re really not.
When I hear these stories, I roll my eyes at the students who are acting like spoiled brats, but my ire is mostly reserved for the adults in charge who are coddling them/enabling them/capitulating to them. I am well aware that these students are not representative of the vast majority of students, but to have administrations bowing to their “demands” is a huge disservice to the majority who are working hard to get an education and are finding ways to work/live peacefully and tolerantly together (which, yes, sometimes means ignoring the microaggressions of life and moving on). It is also completely counter to the intellectual climate that is supposed to exist at college … “iron sharpens iron” … civil conflict of ideas is supposed to exist at college … it forces everyone involved to challenge, refine, and sharpen their own ideas and their ability to defend them intellectually (NOT emotionally). These headlines are quickly helping us develop a list of colleges my DD (currently a HS junior) will not be applying to … not based on the behavior of a few ill-behaved, infantile students, but on the reaction of the administrations to them.
I also saw this in the Yale case, but maybe in the opposite direction from what you are thinking.
Re:#9 - Scores weren’t kept in T-Ball.That’s for kindergarteners. I am unaware of any other level of sport where winners aren’t determined. Every team member gets a medal. That’s true for every level of sport. A player who sits on the team bench throughout the World Series or NBA Finals will get a championship ring. I remember that one obscure bench player for the Lakers in the '80s was described as having two more rings than Michael Jordan at one point. I don’t know why this rankles so many people, and has become such a popular zombie-meme. There was no T-Ball in the '60s. The typical 10-year-old Little League player is probably better for the years he or she has spent developing as an athlete. Anyone who has had a kid involved in youth sports in recent history knows that the competition is intense, and there certainly are “winners.”
I was the vice president of a youth basketball league in the late 2000s/early 2010s. This was a community recreational league mostly geared towards kids who just needed some fun. It wasn’t an AAU team or anything like that.
The parents were insane. I mean absolutely ridiculous. In the youngest league, we didn’t keep score because they were 4-6 year olds (who could move up to the next level if they were ready regardless of age). I still had parents come and complain when their team “lost.” They kept score in their heads. We had parents come up and complain that their kid wasn’t getting enough playing time. Each kid’s time was kept track of because they played in 4 minute blocks and the coaches and a clock person kept track of who was out there. Each kid got as equal playing time as mathematically possible. And yet, parents would complain that X kid was getting more time than their kid and their kid was better and blah blah blah.
I played youth sports from the early 90s up through when I was helping to run this league. It has gotten infinitely more intense over those years and I’m glad I played at a time when it was about fun and less about the parents’ egos.
I suggest you brush up on your math, woog.
College students now, 18, 19, 20, were not raised with T-ball in the 60’s. My suggestion was that some of the problems displayed by today’s special snowflakes are due to how they were raised, which is in fact, by many people my age.
In our area every team member of every sport doesn’t get a medal as woogzmama said.
Was there ever an older generation that did not complain about the younger generation succeeding it acting entitled? Having been taught by baby boomers in high school and beyond, I remember my teachers waxing nostalgic about the best music (rolling stones, hendrix), the noblest causes (civil rights, women’s rights), the most visionary leaders (JFK, MLK, Ghandi) and making negative comparisons to “today’s music” or “today’s kids.” To hear them tell it, the X’ers were squandering the victories they fought for in the 60s and have no idea how easy they have it.