Hubby and I were having a conversation last night after dinner at our son's place. He's taking a new job and moving up north to Loomis, but will commute home on weekends. This will be hard on him, especially with a 6 year old son and a 4 month old daughter. I worry about him...
Anyway, hubby asked this question: "Are we the last generation to THINK?" Huh? Both of our children, now in their mid-30's ARE critical thinkers and we are proud of them for that. I'm a late "baby boomer", since I was born in 1952. Hubby was born in 1950. However, we both went to the University of California and we BOTH grew up during the Vietnam War. But, our generation WAS the one to say, "HELL NO, WE WON'T GO!" during that time. We BOTH lived through the assassination of President Kennedy, as well as that of his brother, and of Martin Luther King. We both watched the Watts riots. We BOTH worked as campaign workers in 1972...yes, for Nixon. BUT, we are both independents and independent thinkers. That often gets HIM in trouble at work and it occasionally gets ME in trouble at my school. I only have a couple of years left to teach, so I'm at the point I really don't CARE if I'm in trouble or not, and he is 65, so he doesn't care anyway, and frankly, he doesn't suffer fools AT ALL.
But, I look at the students I'm teaching today and I wonder, "HOW in tarnation are these kids going to make it?" They don't CARE about anything. They don't care that they can't read or write. I sit with them and give them strategies, but, as the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." They prefer just to SIT and do NOTHING. I guess it is easier that way than having to actually THINK? I had parent conferences a couple of weeks ago and not one parent, out of the 17 that came (that's 17 out of 26!) questioned anything I said. NOT ONE. Hmmmm.....that's troubling in itself. And, I did talk about reading with the parents. A couple were concerned, but the rest couldn't be bothered. And, NO, they don't have books at home for their kids to read and NO, the don't have Internet access either, or a computer or tablet so that their kid can practice reading books online. OYE VEI!
"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." — Harry S Truman
Their indifference shows up in their writing. 'Cuz instead of because is frequently seen. OYE VEI! Don't even get me started on their, there, and they're. I've given up TRYING to teach those! If I make an assignment, the first question is..."HOW many sentences do we HAVE to write?" Well, gosh, darn, I don't know...maybe a FULL PARAGRAPH?
Lazy, lazy, lazy...indifferent...callous...how else can I describe them?
A friend of mine, a few years ago, did a survey of her class. She asked them, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" One girl answered, "I want to be on welfare and have LOTS of babies." REALLY? You do? You WANT government support? You WANT to be lazy? Gosh, that's inspiring!
Every day hubby has to deal with "corporate drones". I see future "corporate drones" in my classroom. These are the kids who don't question ANYTHING. PERIOD.
I fear for our country and I fear for our grandchildren, that they will be a part of this. THEY won't be drones, not if we can prevent it. But, what about the other 99.999%?
And, now I worry about natural resources. WILL there be enough to support our grandchildren and their generation? Will there be enough water? Food? Housing?
What about you? Do you worry about the future?
I wrote this at 2 a.m. this morning...Reading through it again, I want to add one thing: While at UC Riverside, I took a class, "The History of Science". It was the hardest class I EVER took, and I took statistics while in college. My professor (yes, a FULL professor) was Dr. Tobey. HE made me think. He taught me how to write. I had 3 quarters of that course and 3 quarters of Dr. Tobey. Sometimes I cried. I often spent days and nights rewriting my papers and cursing him. BUT...I came out of that class a much better person and a highly qualified writer and thinker. Thank you, Dr. Tobey!
