How Public Education Creates the Generation Gap

[SILVERNAME]

GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Gennady Stolyarov II
07-29-07

The predicament plaguing a tremendous number of school-age children today is too obvious to be overlooked. A preponderance of rudeness, a disdain for the intellect, and a lack of motivation or work ethic are the least of their problems. The widespread tendency toward self-destructive activity – including teenage intercourse, self-abasing parties where alcohol is consumed with drunkenness as the goal and other more damaging drugs are introduced, the frequent desire to put one’s life on the line to “prove a point” or demonstrate one’s “coolness” – is far more disturbing.

Combine that with the admiration that even many affluent young men have for “gangsta” thugs and the desires of many teenage girls to wear clothes that in earlier eras would have made professional “fallen women” blush – and you will start to get a picture of the kinds of forces that actively stymie the futures of so many of America’s young people – before they even have a chance to fight back. The predominant ethos of today’s mainstream youth culture taken to its logical conclusion is one of self-inflicted debasement, degeneration, and death – all for the sake of a twisted idea of “fun,” used to label activities that are not even remotely enjoyable in any profound or enduring way.

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[gilliam]

The predicament plaguing a tremendous number of school-age children today is too obvious to be overlooked. A preponderance of rudeness, a disdain for the intellect, and a lack of motivation or work ethic are the least of their problems.

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People have been saying the same thing for thousands of years.

 

[Julianna]

sounds like my teenage years back in 1975.

SILVERNAME: Methinks thou protesth too much.

I have a great tag line for you.

"Where are we going, and how did I get in this handbasket?"

Life is not all doom and gloom…and homosexuals are not the “alien pod people” ready to take over the world.

 

[SeekerJen]

That article could have been written about any generation by its predecessors, I imagine. It smacks of what I was reading as a teen in the last decade: the slothfulness, apathy, etc. of the grunge-dressed and drug-addled “Generation X”. Well, we grew up, got jobs, started families, and the world has not yet stopped spinning on it’s axis. It smacks even more of what was written about my parents’ generation (they were teens in the 1960s). Human nature is what it is. Doesn’t make it right, but it illustrates very nicely the point that “there is nothing new under the sun”.

 

[edwest2]

This is incorrect. Changes have occurred and gradually. In the 1960s there was modesty, a lack of profanity in public, strict parents and respect for authority. To make the present day in any way comparable to that time period is false. I was there.

You said thank you and please. You said Mister and Missus when you addressed the elderly, who you treated with respect. Many of the adults around me were hard-working, good role models and good family men. If you sinned, you went to confession. Illegal drugs were bad for you. Smoking was considered a “filthy habit.” (I had an adult smoker tell me that,)

When you got older you went to college or got a job and earned a living. You saved money. You got married and had kids. Neighbors helped neighbors. You didn’t mouth off to your parents. You went to church every Sunday.

As God was slowly, gradually replaced in people’s lives, they were attracted to what was bad to them and some got caught up in it. As the world became more important curch attendance declined. And in so many subtle and not so subtle ways, you were taught to enjoy sin.

Face it, my brothers and sisters, especially those of you who were there. Would your mom or dad have allowed you to do whatever you wanted? Cuss at someone else, much less at them? Allowed you to eat any kind of junk at any time? Play Grand Theft Auto?

The only public education that corrupted these people were television and movies. Today, everything is OK. There’s no right and wrong, just a lot of opinions. You don’t raise kids with opinions. Black and white works best.

Now, because of saturation bombing by the media, profanity filled rap music glorifies killing, drugs and calls women b******. That’s cool? Sitting around and rotting your brain on dope? Where is that going to get you? Are any great leaders going to come out of that? A new civil rights leader? I don’t think so.

The only thing that has not changed is the yearly mantra “more money for schools.” Well, if the kids are being raised by the street and doing drugs all the time and having random kids with random women. Well, I think anyone can add that up. They’ll either be dead at a young age, in jail, in the military or addicted to something. Thank God, a few, a precious few, are going to make it out by the power of God.

God bless,
Ed

 

[Kaninchen]

I blame 'the meeja" - it brought the city to the country and nothing’s been the same since.

Seriously, as one of millions who grew up in ‘The Big City’ (well, inner suburbs of a big city), it doesn’t seem to me that much has really changed over the course of my lifetime and I do wonder if the main change has been that country kids today behave much more like city kids and it’s a bit of a shock.

 

[KathleenElsie]

That article could have been written about any generation by its predecessors, I imagine. It smacks of what I was reading as a teen in the last decade: the slothfulness, apathy, etc. of the grunge-dressed and drug-addled “Generation X”. Well, we grew up, got jobs, started families, and the world has not yet stopped spinning on it’s axis. It smacks even more of what was written about my parents’ generation (they were teens in the 1960s). Human nature is what it is. Doesn’t make it right, but it illustrates very nicely the point that “there is nothing new under the sun”.

And things just keep going down hill and those people involved just see it. Why? Because it is the log in your eye and so obvious that it is ignored. It is the oh things were like this in my generation we grew up OK. But many in this generation are not growing up OK they are dead and we see it every day on the TV. Yesterday it was three young black kids killed execution style behind a school and another 14 yo that was shot in the back.

IMHO the world is off of its axis if anyone can think that this behavior is normal.

 

[edwest2]

The basic things about life have not changed. The fundamentals have not changed. Right and wrong have not changed.

Two of the smartest people I know were both raised on farms. Somehow, some people think that because you grew up in the country that all you know about is pitching hay and feeding chickens. In fact, some imply that you are just not that smart if you live in a rural area. I have yet to see a study that suggests your IQ goes up just because you move to a major city.

Here’s a suggestion I saw on a sign at a local church: Avoid Truth Decay, Read Your Bible.

Education happens in school, at home and on the street. Without good, committed, God fearing parents to guide them, kids are less likely to lead a Godly life. Jesus Christ and the people who followed Him were my role models; my parents, my neighbors, they shaped me.

God bless,
Ed

 

[jdnation]

Every generation has been slowly abandoning some values. Sure it’s worse today than it was back then… But it’s funny how people of then balk at youth today in the same manner the generation before balked at their youth while they never thought it so bad. And because of this things are going to keep getting progressively worse and people will hilariously keep asking themselves how it got to this point. Some things have changed for the better, many things have changed for the worst. It’s a very complex situation…

 

[edwest2]

I don’t think it’s complicated. A few things to consider:

Divorce among Christians is as high, if not a little higher, than non-Christians. I think that’s the worst statistic, since the family is the building block of society. Sometimes, especially in the case of Adultery, divorce occurs and is the appropriate thing. I have a lot of compassion for women and children being abused and sometimes, husbands are abused as well.

The “girly” magazines of the 1950s and 1960s did not have explicit sexual content until after 1970. There was an explosion in the opening of Adult Bookstores in the 1970s.

The sexual content of movies and TV programs has been gradually increasing since that time.

At no time prior to the 2000s could you hear the words b****, ho or m****** ****** coming out of the radio.

You did not have games like Grand Theft Auto where part of the game is to kill hookers.

It’s not getting better. My point is, kids are not taught these things at school.

God bless,
Ed