<p>Hi garland:</p>
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Drosselmeier--my H and I missed the whole campus protest thing (went to school in the apathetic late 70s) but we did bring up our kids to put their lives where their values are, and I'm sure we're not alone.
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Of course you are right. But how did you teach your kids to put their lives where their values are? It seems to me when kids witness people they respect, often their parents, sacrificing for some ideal, they tend to grow up also holding that ideal in great esteem. Protests erupt when people sense their ideals are somehow at threat.</p>
<p>I am sure you and your H have modeled sacrifice for your kids quite well (You have an H, for example, and that automatically means you have been engaged in some serious sacrifice that your kids likely have seen all their lives). I think most CC parents model this, which is why they are here in the first place.</p>
<p>But (and please understand I am not just moralizing here. I think what I am about to say is largely why we dont see a lot of protests today) I think too many kids are seeing parents who sacrifice more for their jobs and for other things like that, and less for the things that we think should be causing protests (like the war, etc.). As long as the war doesnt seem to threaten what our kids have learned is most important, they are pretty much fine with it. Yeah, maybe they have some ideological bent against these issues. But I think the issues at this point are so abstract, compared with the relatively concrete possibilities of getting a good job, lots of money and a big house, the kids dont exactly feel compelled to protest anything.</p>
<p>So, we may talk about making the world better, etc. But I think mostly the kids see right through it. I think we over idealize the sixties. I am not sure the situation then was any different than it is now. Likely the draft did more to cause young righteousness in the sixties than anything else.</p>