I didn’t feel the Mindset List was as entertaining as
it should have been even though it did contain many culturally significant yet
extinct circumstances. As my children are still in elementary school, when I
think of differences in our upbringing, I often refer them to times when I
would walk to the toy store in our downtown, or the 5th Street Mini
Mart so my friend and I could buy cookies and whipped cream and mix them all up
when we made our way back home. In fifth or sixth grade another friend and I
used to spend long summer days riding our bikes with little fear of anyone
hassling us. We had an entirely different life perspective. We had freedom to
make our own choices and learn from our mistakes. Even modern moms who are highly
trained in early childhood development often make the mistake of smothering
their children or not allowing them to fail. I foresee a generation of kids who
can rightly blame their parents for so much of their life because we’re there
for everything.
I also long for the days when a book was the purest
form of entertainment. My seven year-old son must be forcibly removed from his
Xbox each and every day after the allotted time has expired. He doesn’t play
video games all the time. He watches other people do exciting things and seems
to think we live in a world where everything is either disposable, i.e.,
someone else is paying, or is a prop used for a grand experiment. He’s not alone.
Many kids in this generation, I believe, will suffer effects from too much
screen time that are beyond what we currently have research to describe. I also
think the family dinner is even more absent than it was a decade ago. If a
family has a parent staying at home and the second parent is home every night
and doesn’t work retail or second shift, chances are someone has a meeting or
an activity in the evening. No one is exempt except a small few resolute to
maintain that vestige of a grand tradition. People from all walks of life are
filling their evenings with running here or there in some shape or form.
This generation also doesn’t know what it’s like to
not know the answer to something. Everything is on the Internet. Sir Ken
Robinson mentioned that “knowledge is about what you don’t know” (Robinson
2014). What happens when we think we know everything? Will we still have an
intense desire to seek answers? As I’m a bit older than many of my classmates,
I grew up with vastly different teaching styles than what the current research
and standards call teachers to embody. In my particular field, I would imagine
that I would grow and learn along with my students. The questions and problems
a historian, economist, or political scientist could seek to uncover are rather
limitless. I think that in a world that is living in someone else’s reality and
lacking practicality, it’ll be important to teach students how to frame a
problem and quickly devise a workable solution to find a solution. In this
insane age of online media where we’re bombarded with information, students do
need to be able to quickly discern whether they’re looking at information that
is credible and how much so. It can be a very grey area. I’m looking forward to
the challenge!
