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Boy have you got my life's work wrong! I didn't invest in THEIR future? LOL! I invested in MY future. My parents split up and went their separate ways when I was 10. I did crap jobs until I was of age and when I married at 20, I was grossing $63 whopping dollars a week. Took one vacation in my whole work life and it was a drive to and from my home state 900 miles away. Living it up, eh? All three of my adult kids are successful at their jobs. I saved every bit of overtime I ever earned and lived within my means along the way.
The younger generation are in for a tough time, but it's not because of 'boomers'. The 'takers' are gonna be on their backs.
Life is what you make it. Opportunities are open to everyone. When you have one come to you - you take it, you don't wait for the one you want and only want to show up. If you do, you'll be waiting forever.
You're right... you get a gold star, no wait, make that three gold stars!!!! Oh what the hell, how about a trophy??? Best boomer ever!
My students who are still considered millenials are CONSTANTLY asking "Did I do this right?". To which I will ask "Would you like me to grade it now???" with a puzzled look on my face. They don't know what to say. They want me to hover over them and tell them every step is right. Um sorry I have 150 students and I just don't have time to do all of their homework with them.
One of my biggest complaints about my students is their complete lack of ability to self assess. They have NO IDEA if they are doing a good job or a lousy one but they think they deserve an A no matter what. I had one student toss a paper at me across my desk and announce "I don't get B's". I handed it back to her and said "Apparently, you do.".
I really do wonder what will happen to 80% of my students. About 20% have it figured out. They know they need to do enough to look better than everyone else but this is not hard. The rest seem to expect that someone will come along and bail them out in the end and usually it happens. My school now does retakes on tests right up until the last day of the semester for the purpose of grade boosting. I even had to allow a student to retake the final exam because her grade wasn't high enough. It is not unusual for the class average to be 50% on the first take. Of course the parents then blame the teacher when the problem is the students don't take the first test seriously. They know they only have to redo the parts they got wrong so they're good with doing it in halves or even quarters with retake after retake. They waste a ridiculous amount of time over the students who just study the first time but they never figure that out. Somehow they think they're doing less work.
We are trying to develop some self reliance. I no longer assign daily homework. I pass out a packet at the beginning of a unit and tell them to do the homework they need to do and that I will be happy to answer questions in class. I have a lot fewer questions in class now. When they fail the test they'll ask me what they can do and my first question will be "Did you do the packet?". The answer is usually no. I've even had students try and argue with me for retakes that I shouldn't make them do the packet for the retake because they have to do a separate remediation packet. They think they shouldn't have to go back and do the work they were originally supposed to do. Apparently, not doing it in the first place has nothing to do with their poor grade.
I am fighting an uphill battle but I hope what I do helps in some way. I cannot imagine hiring 80% of the kids I teach and I teach in an upper SES district. They have the attention span of a gnat and think googling an answer is thinking.
I love how the generation where everyone got a good paying job without a college degree and a house and could afford to start a family at the age of 19 if they so cared (looking at you Boomers) tried to prove how hard they had it by designating those who came after them the everyone gets a trophy generation. As an X-er, I have fought for every scrap of existence I have. No one -- particularly not the oh so entitled Boomers -- gave me squat.
Do you actually believe this crap? EVERYONE did not get a good job without an education. Most of us had to work hard to get an education or work our way up. At 19 I was waiting tables to pay my rent and that was a struggle. Then I took a job in a machine shop where I made about 10% over minimum wage. That job convinced me to go to college. I worked odd jobs through out college to pay my bills but I got grades good enough my first two years to get a full ride for my last two. That was my lucky break. That allowed me to get an engineering degree and for 18 years I had a great job. Then the economy tanked in the early 2000's and I was downsized out with thousands of other engineers most of whom have not recovered from being let go.
Have you actually talked to boomers?
Dh is a front end boomer (I'm a tail end boomer). By the time he was 30 he was making a lower middle class living driving a delivery truck because he didn't have a degree. After we got married and I started college he went back and finished and became a comptroller. He also had about 18 years of a great job before his company went under and he changed careers to computer programming but he never really made much as a programmer.
I'm a boomer. Dh is a boomer. My brothers and sisters and friends are mostly boomers and our lives were not as you describe. Few people walked into good paying jobs at 19 and could start a family. Most of my friends who started families before they were 25 used some kind of welfare. The truth is our reality was actually closer to what young people face today. Yes there were good paying jobs in automotive but you had to know the right person to get them and there weren't enough to go around. Most of us floundered until we figured out our way. For dh and I it was getting an education that was our lucky break but it didn't last because the economy tanked 20 years before I was ready to retire. So now I'm making $45K as a teacher and probably will never make any more than that as they have completely stopped giving teacher's raises. At 55 I can't change this. The age bias in hiring is working against me so I'll be working two jobs to make ends meet for the next 10 years until I retire.
Man I wish my life was what you paint the life of a boomer to be.
Boy have you got my life's work wrong! I didn't invest in THEIR future? LOL! I invested in MY future. My parents split up and went their separate ways when I was 10. I did crap jobs until I was of age and when I married at 20, I was grossing $63 whopping dollars a week. Took one vacation in my whole work life and it was a drive to and from my home state 900 miles away. Living it up, eh? All three of my adult kids are successful at their jobs. I saved every bit of overtime I ever earned and lived within my means along the way.
The younger generation are in for a tough time, but it's not because of 'boomers'. The 'takers' are gonna be on their backs.
Life is what you make it. Opportunities are open to everyone. When you have one come to you - you take it, you don't wait for the one you want and only want to show up. If you do, you'll be waiting forever.
We all have to make our own way in life. No one owes it to us to invest in our futures except us. It's nice if parents are in position to help (or not if it results in a sense of entitlement) but it's not required. Once you're an adult you're on your own.
I have gotten to take a few vacations but only because I worked my way through school and had a good job for 18 years. That was nice but it didn't last. Now I'm with you. A vacation is driving to a relatives house. It is what it is. I'm just glad I've managed not to touch my 401 from my engineering days. I can't add to it anymore but I haven't had to touch it. I now need a second job to avoid touching it but getting one is better than touching it. Fortunately, I'm finding that many of the lower wage employers are happy to see someone my age who actually knows what work is.
My students who are still considered millenials are CONSTANTLY asking "Did I do this right?". To which I will ask "Would you like me to grade it now???" with a puzzled look on my face. They don't know what to say. They want me to hover over them and tell them every step is right. Um sorry I have 150 students and I just don't have time to do all of their homework with them.
One of my biggest complaints about my students is their complete lack of ability to self assess. They have NO IDEA if they are doing a good job or a lousy one but they think they deserve an A no matter what.
We need more teachers who resent students asking for feedback and reduce achievement down to a single letter in archaic grading system.
Good grief. Isn't getting feedback from a teacher about whether something is done right part of learning? Maybe if they had a little more feedback, they wouldn't be surprised at their grades.
Maybe you were too busy crapping on your students in a public forum to notice your own contradiction. So, are you one of those excellent teachers who doesn't want any feedback on your performance either?
Isn't it time for this overused meme to die a swift death? What generation are people actually talking about when they use this slogan? Does it have any sort of basis in reality whatsoever? The only people who seem to promote this idea are right wing pundits who throw it around without citing any real world examples. I'm a late Gen X'er, born in 1980, and I have never seen this so called phenomenon with people in my generation or the one after (the Millennials). Further, every generation has had its share of those who are lazy or "entitled."
I was the tail end of the boomers. When I was in youth sports not everyone got to play in every game or even any game necessarily. You earned your playing time.
When I got into high school sports not every team member earned a letter. You had to have so many quarters playing time or so many contacts to qualify for a letter. Out of 55 guys on the varsity football team I think 30 something got letters. It made being a varsity letterman mean something.
Physical education classes got letter grades. But then someone decided it was unfair to the Wimpy Diaries types so it became pass/fail and showing up everyday and dressing out got a pass whether or not you could do any of the skills.
Then we started mainstreaming kids with mental disabilities into regular classrooms even though they had zero chance of doing the work. Then someone decided it wasn't fair they couldn't walk in graduation ceremonies even though they were not getting diplomas, so then they devised a piece of paper to hand them and walk them with people who had actually earned degrees.
A 4.0 was the highest GPA you could get and you took AP and Honors classes because you wanted the challenge and to prepare yourself for college. There was one valedictorian, one salutatorian out of a class of 514.
These are minor examples of the gradual slide from rewarding accomplishment to rewarding participation. They are not the same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WestCobb
I love how the generation where everyone got a good paying job without a college degree and a house and could afford to start a family at the age of 19 if they so cared...
You are describing more the Silent Generation (1925-1945).
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
I would agree. I'm a boomer and when we turned 16 there were jobs available at the supermarket, McDonald's, Burger King, the movies, delivering the paper. Those were all jobs done by teens in school. Today all those jobs are held by adults.
There are very few openings for that 16 year old to get their first experience at working.
So many of them don't and just continue schooling. Now you have college graduates that have never worked a day in their life.
I think the point needs to be made that a lot of those adults are immigrants and I will venture to say a lot of illegal immigrants.
The other side of the equation is so many 16 year olds not having to work because their parents support their lifestyle. My first car was an 11 year old family hand me down and I was thrilled to get it. I had nothing remotely like a smartphone where my parents paying $50-100 a month for me. I didn't go to Starbucks everyday and order a $4 drink with a $4 pastry and pay with my credit card. At lunch I brown bagged until I got a job and could afford to go to McDonald's or Burger King a couple of days a week.
While the jobs may or may not be there, I am not sure 16 year olds want those jobs, at least not in the area I live.
I was the tail end of the boomers. When I was in youth sports not everyone got to play in every game or even any game necessarily. You earned your playing time.
When I got into high school sports not every team member earned a letter. You had to have so many quarters playing time or so many contacts to qualify for a letter. Out of 55 guys on the varsity football team I think 30 something got letters. It made being a varsity letterman mean something.
On the wrestling team in the 80's you had to not only show up but win and win with a certain number of pins, to get a letter. The antithesis of the "everyone gets a trophy" generation, only winners were rewarded.
Not only that but wrestlers put a pin (safety pin) on their jackets for each pin they got in a match, like WW2 fighter pilots painting Japanese flags on their planes. That would probably get them expelled today, 1) for carrying a "weapon" (the pin), 2) bragging about success over other people.
Isn't it time for this overused meme to die a swift death? What generation are people actually talking about when they use this slogan? Does it have any sort of basis in reality whatsoever? The only people who seem to promote this idea are right wing pundits who throw it around without citing any real world examples.
I'm a late Gen X'er, born in 1980, and I have never seen this so called phenomenon with people in my generation or the one after (the Millennials). Further, every generation has had its share of those who are lazy or "entitled."
This is not a myth. It has been studied extensively and the tide may be turning that the focus on self-esteem is simply wrong. Two examples:
The root of this movement is generally considered to be a book written in 1969 by psychologist Nathaniel Brandon. It drove parenting beginning in the 1980s.
It is still present - I see it with children in sports, school, and driven by their gutless parents.
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It is not unusual for the class average to be 50% on the first take. Of course the parents then blame the teacher when the problem is the students don't take the first test seriously. They know they only have to redo the parts they got wrong so they're good with doing it in halves or even quarters with retake after retake. They waste a ridiculous amount of time over the students who just study the first time but they never figure that out. Somehow they think they're doing less work. 
When they fail the test they'll ask me what they can do and my first question will be "Did you do the packet?". The answer is usually no. I've even had students try and argue with me for retakes that I shouldn't make them do the packet for the retake because they have to do a separate remediation packet. They think they shouldn't have to go back and do the work they were originally supposed to do. Apparently, not doing it in the first place has nothing to do with their poor grade.
