'Generation Me': Living the Lives We've Taught Them to Liv

[nebula]

'Generation Me': Living the Lives We've Taught Them to Live

By David French , CP Guest Contributor

February 14, 2013|4:58 pm

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. . . "Kids these days" – measured by their actions – are more selfish than at any time in recent history.

But lest we pile on the kids too much, let's not forget that they're living the lives we've taught them to live. We may have been less-selfish kids, but are we less-selfish adults? Let's look at my own generation's track record:

-For almost a full decade before 2008, by our actions we taught our kids that you can and should buy whatever you want, whenever you want (on credit, no less), and when our own individual decisions to over-extend resulted in an inevitable economic crash, then the sole blame rested with far-away bankers and regulators – who apparently should have stopped us from getting what we so obviously wanted. Yet the crash of 2008 wasn't just the government's fault, or the bankers' fault, it was also our fault. Millions of bad mortgages require millions of bad decisions – decisions we made and are now only too happy to blame on others.

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-As illegitimacy rates soar, and divorce remains rampant, millions of parents teach their kids that you never really do grow up, that sexual fulfillment matters more than fidelity, and that your own happiness matters more than the lives around us. The principles of the sexual revolution are quickly supplanting the ideals of the American Revolution as the defining moral characteristics of our Republic.

-We teach our children that the suffering of those around us is someone else's problem, and that we do enough for our fellow man if we merely support and vote for our ever-expanding (and destructive) welfare state while maybe, just maybe, writing a (modest) check or two ourselves.

-We devalue true virtue and hard work by over-praising our kids' slightest accomplishments, sheltering them from even the smallest consequences of sin, and grant them grace on the cheap – all in the name of love.

If the youngest generation truly is "Generation Me" – and the data indicates it is – then we can respond by wringing our hands about "kids these days," or we can do what we should: Repent of our own sins and resolve to model the selflessness that we long to see in our own children.

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[Guest]

Amen~!

[Guest]

It strikes me that every generation things the next is rotten. They're lazy, don't respect their elders, and so on. Nothing new under the sun I suppose.

January 10, 1912: Warrenville, Illinois Sylvester E. Adams shot and killed teacher Edith Smith after she rejected his advances. Adams then shot and killed himself. The incident took place in a schoolhouse after the students had been dismissed for the day. A month later the students refused to go back to the school saying it was haunted by ghosts, so the little schoolhouse was torn down and a new one was built.

October 2, 1953: Chicago, Illinois Patrick Colletta, 14, was shot to death by Bernice Turner,14, in a classroom of Kelly High School. It was reported that after Turner refused to date Colletta he handed her the gun and dared her to pull the trigger, telling her that the gun was “only a toy.” A coroner’s jury later ruled that the shooting was an accident. http://en.wikipedia....e_United_States

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The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. P

[nebula]

It strikes me that every generation things the next is rotten. They're lazy, don't respect their elders, and so on. Nothing new under the sun I suppose.

Almost 10 years ago, I interned with a high school teacher who had taught for 30 years. He had first hand experience with 3 generation of teens, and he testified of the decline he and other teachers have encountered.

[nebula]

Does an instructor need to be close to the teenage years in age in order for teens to show respect? Is that why he perceived less respect from the students towards him, education, etc.?

[JTC]

Basically I do agree with this. Sometimes I get to talk to young people who listen, and I clearly admit to them that my generation, the one after me, and a little the one before, created this messed up society that now they have to try and straighten out.

I think many of our young people can feel society isn't right. Many are very smart and need our encouragement to try and straighten it out.

The young people are scared. They can see society going the wrong way. They ask me if I think they can fix it? I say yes, but it won't be easy and you'll have to do what isn't popular.

Yes, they are living the life we taught them to live. But now they want us to teach them how to change it. They want our encouragement. They need for us to believe in them.