My Generation Scares Me.

I am a 20yr old female, surrounded by people with more air then matter between their ears. (I graduated in '09 and work at a retail store, surrounded by people my age and younger, oh joy ). I had a manager (mid 20's ) who didn't know what moth balls where and a coworker who thought the Wright brothers made pop corn (Orville Redenbacher). Don't even get me started on the mess that is a 21st century American High School ( moved three times, went to three different ones.). We watched more movies then read books and barely learned anything in History or English. (We didn't read Macbath, we watched the movie!) Half my class couldn't tell you who FDR, Lincoln, Grant, Rosa Parks, or Gandhi where, yet they can sure as hell tell you who Paris Hilton, Madonna, Brad Pitt and Brittany Spears are. I swear out of a class of 30, only me and three other people where awake when we watched Glory (no sex, gore or profanity = boring).

And Reading? That's a lost art. When we where required to read something, people where acting like they had been asked to walk barefoot across glass. I'm not talking War and Peace, I'm talking three paragraphs on a sheet of paper.

I don't even want to see what the kids born in this decade turn out to be like. I've already seen: 5 yr olds tell their moms to "F off", prepubescent girls wearing tight pants with words across the butt, parents allowing their kids to skip school "because its boring", and more feral children then I can count.

 

Its a sad situation aint it? Most people I see here do not read books yet they have those damned ipods and other hand-held toys always stuck in their ears instead of paying attention to whats going on around them. I mean, I love listening to music and such but the level that people take it to here is really rediculous.

 

My dads told me the same thing, Grandpa told him "This country is going to hell in a hand basket!", since my dad wore his hair past his ears and women weren't wearing long dresses. I just wish I could meet those people like me. The only people I have interesting conversations with are the old vets who come to the store. And most of them are an inch away from the grave, my grandpa included. (He has battled the Koreans, four types of cancer, a heart attack, and is minus a lung. He requested no more chemo, he has prostate cancer now.)

 

Welcome to the forum TexasRanger! Always room for more Texans!

 

I know how you feel TR. In a college US History class, right before the final exam, I had to describe to a girl next to me what Pearl Harbor was and it's significance to our history.

However, as Lou stated, every generation has those fuddy-duddys.

 

If you see how most History is taught, and the History books that must be used, you will find that few get good exposure to some of our most important history. WWII is often left out if the class is a bit behind. It had a great influence on our society. I think the most expensive wars for people lost should get coverage. Government is a subject easily left out(due to the fact that it is hard to make it entertaining). It is difficult to entertain our students today as that is the only way children get taught in our spoiled educational system. We don't expect our children to engage in any of the work of rote learning. Our foreign competitors do however. If it isn't provided in an entertaining fashion in our society no one has to pay attention. You may give your student a text book but he only wants to listen to the teacher to gather enough for a test rather than read any of the text. In this way little by little we dumb it down, blame the teacher for how today's parents spoil the discipline of their children with entertainment and wonder why we fall behind other countries. We have an added danger today, where unacceptable theories of life and fringe interests can be found on the internet to take the curious down dangerous fringe thinking associated with the movements of the day that are fringe inspired and harmful. Only after crimes are committed does anyone bother to observe what study an individual may be pursuing. Parents rarely look at what a child explores while on the internet. As a successful former teacher I am a bit opinionated about this subject as you may discover but it is because I care and gave 5 years to the low paying profession before I began to worry about myself and my future.

 

How about this finding from comparing all fifty states in levels of education in each one? Here is a rather surprising "top 10", a group you wouldn't want to find your state in.

Goto:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...nning-out_n_820472.html#s236856&title=10_Utah

Check 'em out.

 

Agree about this all, good input guys. I'm 17 years old and attend Waltham High School and the lack of knowledge in my history class is jaw droping. I believe its only really me and this girl named Michelle who really know our history at all. Quite Sad to say

 

That's all very true. I'm 13 and there's kids that can't even tell you the 7 continents. A few weeks ago we had a Holocaust survivor come and talk to us about her experience, and kids were goin on and on about how boring it was. I wanted to smack them upside the head. Half the kids my age don't care. They're disrespectful little brats, who need to be spanked by their parents.

 

I graduated college in the late 1980's. Just about graduation, and soon after, it came to my attention that a wide swath of students had bought their research (and other) papers. I know because I saw people I graduated from college with fail fourth grade reading exams when a company placed them in a room with the test, monitoring them.

I did see a number of them go to work for daddy, so I know that they had been taught only what they needed to know for their line of work.

 

I'm the same way, every day I go to school I see nothing but a bunch of people who are disrespectful and a bunch of losers. I will tell them my interest in history and all they do is call me a nerd, and because I like to learn about the German side, a Nazi. There are some people I know that aren't like that, and it's a shame there's not to many of us that are really interested in the past. The main cause for all of this is because the media has taken over, mainly music. It's easy to spot out who listens to what, and it disgusts me how people will dress simply because a rapper or band dresses that way. I know every generation has their own thing, but our generation is horrible.

PS-I know I'm not a very popular person here at the forum, but I've been gone for awhile for various reasons, depression being the main one. I hope to post more here at the forum.

 

I want to encourage the young who have participated in this thread! I realize we need to improve so much in our educational pursuits and it is the job of both young and old. I will point out that we are being served at war by a great generation of soldiers and I am proud of my nephews that are and have contributed. Those who serve also give me hope. I want everyone to realize that those who may study this forum may be tomorrows most informed leaders of others that may have not excelled so much. That sometimes is the way life goes. That makes it necessary for our older vets and participants, perhaps the old rogues to keep finding things of interest and significance to bring up in contribution. If we keep things in good order here this can serve as an educational portal for those seeking to study what has happened in the past in war and in keeping peace. In short to the young I say, stay encouraged by what you can learn and do for yourself and don't be too discouraged by what others around you fail at. Your performance may be the needed edge our country needs for tomorrow.

 

This generation is made by the former one. And it seems that their parents haven´t learned the basic things in decency and education. Most of the young ones over here are OK but some are more victims of the stupidity of their parents. That should show us that we have to make it much better with our kids.

 

Buck up tex, I'm 19 and a college girl too. You're not the only one out there, though I do have to agree with you. Some of the questions being asked about basic history in my contemporary Germany class make me absolutely sick, but with the vast amount of nut jobs, bums and forever disinterested, disrespecting blockheads out there, there are those like you and I who care and have a good mind about us. Don't get discouraged, you're not alone.
The best one can do is try to educate those that'll listen to you. If you've got someones ear, tell them about history, or common sense things or about what they don't know, Cos if all we do is shake our heads at said people, they're still as clueless as they were before. When I walk around reading my classic war novels and someone asks about it, you can better believe they're getting a history lesson on that book, the events in the book, those preceding it, and if they're still around what happened as a result of it. Sure it might be boring to them, but at least you've told them something they didn't know. and who knows how far that could go. Thirty years down the road they might remember what you've said to them and be able to apply it, as history repeats itself when people neglect it.
but don't be discouraged, we all deal with those sorts of people. Patience is a virtue and all we can do is spread our own knowledge.

 

Teaching history takes a certain flair. In fact, teaching in general does. If you don't thoroughly understand the material, cannot convience your students that you really know what you are talking about, and cannot present the material in a fun and interesting way you are doomed and so are they.

I guest lectured at the Univ of Az for a prof in military history a while back before he retired. His classes told me, unsolicited, that they learned alot from me because I cut all the ... well BS.. out and presented things in a concise way. Adding colorful language and stories helped I suspect......

 

I agree, adding applicable stories and examples always help me remember concepts. I would love to take a mill. history class, lucky students those were.