<p>I’ve had this discussion many times with friends who are teachers that are my age (born in the 50’s and 60’s). We all grew up in a time when our parents had little to do with educating us, other than paying tuition IF we went to private elementary/secondary school (most of us didn’t) and demanding to see our report cards (and punishing us accordingly when they weren’t good). Other than that, we were left on our own. No tutoring, no monitoring, no keeping up with when things were due, no proofreading (I’d HATE to read some of the papers and lab reports I got A’s and B’s on in high school), NOTHING. Other than, “What are your grades?!”… after the fact. The quality of our work was, I’m sure, less than our children’s. Why? Are they so much more superior? Or perhaps it was because our parents didn’t give a rat’s a** what we were doing in our spare time as long as we didn’t embarass them by getting in trouble, and didn’t flunk out.</p>
<p>Nowaday, middle class kids have a ton more financial support in the way of private tutors and programs, guidance, oversight, and cultivating, than we had, for the most part. I’m sure most educators would agree. This is probably where the “helicopter parent” phenomena has come from. What is it about our generation, the quote, <em>flower generation</em>, that now we come down soooo hard on our children to fill every hour doing something worthwhile? What were we doing when we were teens? Was is so altruistic? I don’t know about you all, but I remember an awful lot of hanging out on the beach, waterskiing, and general lollygagging. </p>
<p>I do believe that we, as a generation, are a LOT more involved in our children’s lives than our parents were in ours. I believe it’s turning into a phenomena similar to the “science fair” paradox- the more parents participate, the more the competition, the more the parents participate, the more competition, etc. etc. It’s an endless cycle.</p>
<p>As for me, I just don’t have the energy or the brains to keep up with what my kids are doing anymore. I relish the opportunity to just be a mom (I learned the word “relish” here on CC).</p>