Is it a phenomenon unique to our school or is is a societal illness? If my philosophical young friend is correct, it is the illness that may well be the death knell of life as we know it.
Warning: I am a little gloomy. If you do not wish to be gloomed upon (or have your thoughts provoked) stop reading now.
Colleague: "I was told to do everything possible to make sure the kids passed. I said, 'I've done everything possible. When do THEY have to start doing everything possible.'"
So if you are playing some sort of competitive sport, and you cease movement ten minutes or ten feet from where you have to be to score whatever point(s) it is you score, is it the coach's fault? the official's fault? Nope. It's all on you.
I find it all very disturbing.
We seem to have developed the cultural notion that we are no longer responsible for our own choices or our own actions, and that we are entitled to (you fill in the blank) simply by virtue of being alive. No hard work required. As a matter of fact, how dare you ask me to work at all, let alone hard.
Sign: "Wanted - people who are willing to work hard."
I feel really sorry for all the entrepreneurs out there in Internet land who are seeking employees.
Don't get me wrong. I encounter on a regular basis students with an outstanding work ethic - kids who work and play sports and still manage to get their homework done and done well. But they are not the norm. The larger proportion are looking for the easy way to get it done, if they opt to do it at all. Yes, adult population, they simply opt not to do it at all.
(I have to giggle a little imagining my fourteen-year-old self waltzing into Mr. Womack's Algebra I class and saying, "I had volleyball practice until 5:00 and went home and crashed." If you know Mr. Womack - or had your own version in high school - you know what I mean. The scary part is I AM MR. WOMACK - figuratively speaking of course - and they don't mind a bit to tell me that they "just didn't do it" and on a regular basis.)
I've come to the conclusion that I am destined for extinction. Like the dodo or the wooly mammoth, my species cannot survive in this hostile new environment. Whoa is...wait a minute. I don't think so.
Regardless of the generation, there is value in hard work and merit in learning that there are consequences for our actions because whether the human race likes to acknowledge it or not, this is truth.
All those great kids with fabulous work ethics will most likely lead successful lives because they possess the skills necessary to do so. The waltzers, well, all hope is not lost. Perhaps, somewhere along the way, some cranky old schoolmarm like me will refuse to accept their excuses and hold them to a higher standard. Perhaps someone who wants someone who wants to work hard will say, "Listen up, kid. It's my way or the highway." Perhaps, before all hope is lost and the waltzer becomes a life long consumer, a drain on the system, somebody somewhere, young or old, will say "enough" and demand accountability.
If not, I'm afraid my young philosopher friend may well become a prophet.
