Having fun...A Generational Look...

Wow, that makes me glad I work where I do. At least I get along with most of my students, even though they are slackers for the most part. They like that I am into old cars and have a lot of pets. And they like when I play old youtube videos during class or play the guitar with them (we have a half a dozen acoustic guitars and few electric guitars).

They are good kids for the most part but I don't think they are very prepared for life after high school. But I try. After all, somebody has to support me when I retire.:celebrate008_2:
 
Albert said:
Wow, that makes me glad I work where I do. At least I get along with most of my students, even though they are slackers for the most part. They like that I am into old cars and have a lot of pets. And they like when I play old youtube videos during class or play the guitar with them (we have a half a dozen acoustic guitars and few electric guitars).

They are good kids for the most part but I don't think they are very prepared for life after high school. But I try. After all, somebody has to support me when I retire.:celebrate008_2:
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My father always joked (really, it was the family joke) about my brothers and I being the "prodigal sons". He paid 100% of our educational expenses through professional school, PhD programs and specialty training. He frequently said to my brothers and myself, "you are my annuity". That never came to pass because he worked until the weekend before he died and loved every minute of it. After he turned 70, it was my mother who made him shorten his workday to 9 to 3 instead of 8 to 5 which he had done all his professional life. She told him it was time for him to practice as a hobby because he didn't need the money. Retirement was not in his vocabulary. I don't plan on retiring either as long as I can do what I do with my present level of skill.


Regarding today's students being slackers, I think the percentage of slackers has remained constant through the years, but their expression has changed slightly. I teach in a very competitive program, so the people aren't stupid, but to see them always looking at their phones you might think otherwise. :D
 
I'm a part of the young generation that people are referring to. I think that I played my first video game when I was 6 years old, and video games has been a huge part of my life ever since. Everything is getting digitized. I do not think it's necessarily a bad thing. People tends to blame media and the digital world for every issue there is : School shootings, pornography etc etc. I think blaming stuff like video games, social media, etc is WRONG. Is the bullied kid really bullied due to social media? Is the school shooter really shooting other students due to video games?

People need to remember that school shootings happened also before video games, and there is a fair chance that you at some point also bullied your fellow student, before the internet was a reality. People needs to stop finding excuses for something to blame, to make sense of things.

The globalization and the raise of the social media has done great things:

You can now instantly write to people, who are at the other side of earth. You can learn religious and cultural differences, without traveling across the world.

It's a very informative era, which has its goods and bads.

When I'm reading some of the previous comments, it feels like people are so afraid of change. Why not embrace the "new" world with open arms? How important is it really, that a teenager can do mental arithmetics when he has a calculator on his phone?

My personal experiences tells me that maybe it's wrong to say to your kid "Go out and play". He might reply "With who?". Most of his friends properly plays video games together online. Another thing could be, is that the kid doesn't have many friends IRL (In real life), but has 5 friends online he enjoys spending time with. Friendship is a strange thing. You don't have to meet your friend in real life, in order to be friends IMHO.
 
BruceLet said:
I disagree about those things not monopolizing people's lives. I know many people who are 100% obsessed with things like Golf, fishing and hunting at a great cost to their families and family lives.
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Have even heard about people obsessing about their stereo, and they're not even kids anymore...[emoji15].

But rather than shielding kids from the gadgets it is important to teach them how to turn them off once in a while. That becomes also much easier if there is some social program or sports to fill the gap.

Just telling them to do something else I find is not enough.


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It's a double edged sword with the education system. To think that kids today need to have iPads and laptops to access the various school programs and interactive websites is good and bad. It's good that they have access to way more information, training and tools. It's bad that we are creating a generation of iKids. If a laptop/iPad wasn't required by the school for our kids, they wouldn't have them. I struggle with this because my wife and I worked so hard for years to keep them away from burying their faces in a computer which ultimately leads to no good - games, predatory websites, advertising, etc.


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I agree this is a difficult topic and there is no one correct answer. Everyone has to define the best way for themselves, also every kid is different and will deal in its own way with the tech.

There are also different ways to keep the adolescents out of harms way, for sure one is to keep them away from the tech long enough until they understand. But one day they will have access and should be prepared.

Another tac is to educate them early on and make them aware of the negatives. That will however require monitoring, as it will take time until they are able to roam on their own.


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