ARGGGHHH!!!

I hope I haven't turned into some old fogey who's always saying things like, "Kids today just don't...(fill in the blank with inadequacy here)." Is this some right of passage we all enter eventually, regardless of what generation we inhabit? Is this something I've been noticing in myself just because I work with one of the more stereotypically difficult age groups? Am I just really ready for spring break?

It seems to me like quite a few of my students (not all, or anywhere near all for that matter) have a pretty ingrained sense of entitlement. These are not kids who come from a ridiculous "my super sweet sixteen" amount of wealth and privelege either. Yet time and time again I find myself up against various students expecting that rules and procedures don't apply to them---That if they whine or argue enough about something being unfair (when the real issue is they just don't feel like doing something) that eventually I'll realize it was wrong to hold them to the same expectation as everyone else. I'll realize that it IS unfair of me to want them to actually produce some art. Just because this is Art class, who am I to expect that my students produce art? Its a pretty unrealistic, hair-brained idea of mine, isn't it? (note the sarcasm, please)

Has anyone else had similar feelings about "kids today", or is it just me?

I also suspect that parents today have either created or at least worsened this trend. When I was little, had I ever gotten in trouble at school (I'm a first-born, only child...so it was virtually impossible for me to break a rule), I know I would have been in trouble at home. I hear stories every week from other teachers I work with of parents defending whatever crazy/disresectful thing their kid did---to the point of yelling at teachers. I've had some minor experience with this, too, don't get me wrong.

AND another thing ( :) ) I've asked kids about what they dream of for their future and heard over and over some variation of the following:

I want to be rich.

How?

Have lot's of money.

How do you hope to make your money?

I dunno, but I want a Hummer.

Okay. Clearly I'm a little perturbed today. Honestly though, it worries me to hear so much of what I consider to be misguided, shallow values. What happens if the generations below us care more about bling than they do about the environment? If they care more about money than happiness and fulfillment? If they care more about winning a fight than they do about doing the right thing? More about big cars and houses than helping people in trouble? It's rare that I see an act of compassion occur, and far too frequent that I see kids hurting each other (and themselves, though they don't see it this way) in order to GET more, or BE right. I talk to parents and sense that instilling their kids with character, perseverence, compassion, kindness, self-respect, etc. is not what they view their job to be.

It all makes me sad. On some days (like today), it makes me angry. It's an emptiness in these kids' world that I don't know how to combat effectively. It of course (in my mind) leads to bigger issues and questions about God. Where do these kids see God? How do these kids see that LOVE when they are only taught to want and get MORE. Consume, buy, win, slack. These things are in opposition to everything God calls us to. Give, love, sacrifice. How do I convey to kids who's whole lives have been about getting what's theirs, the indescribable joy that comes from giving, loving, SACRIFICING. How can I expect that to make sense?