This is funny because there is some truth to it. I have spent many nights editing and encouraging my own teens, but have no memory of any similar support from my own parents. There is objective evidence to support my experience: according to research by Jean Twenge, author of
Generation We, as reported in the 11.20.08 Telegraph, today's students do 20% less school homework than their parents said they did in 1975. The interesting part is that they
think they work harder!
Prof Twenge and her team compared the 1975 and 2006 results from an annual US survey called Monitoring the Future which polls high school students about their views on life. They found that a third more 17 to 20-year-olds today believe they work harder than their parents did and will be better than them when it comes to being parents, spouses and work colleagues - earning them the nickname the Smug Generation.
The Millennials I know believe the world is more competitive for them than it was for their parents. They also believe that they will be more successful, despite the greater challenges. Perhaps they deserve the 'Smug Generation' label. Then again, perhaps the parents are more to blame than the students?
This is funny because there is some truth to it. I have spent many nights editing and encouraging my own teens, but have no memory of any similar support from my own parents. There is objective evidence to support my experience: according to research by Jean Twenge, author of Generation We, as reported in the 11.20.08 Telegraph, today's students do 20% less school homework than their parents said they did in 1975. The interesting part is that they think they work harder!
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Well there definitely is some truth behind it.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to point out that I've lived half my life in canada and the other half throughout Europe. My parents are both French and they raised me the
'european' way with a hands-off approach which, I know, has allowed me to grow up much faster than my peers.
This concept of helicopter parents is very interesting but I'm not convinced it will have as many negative effects as it has been predicted. Finely, I'm convinced that it is crucial to learn by trial-and-error to build character!
How, though, is "less" defined?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea where I stood relative to my mom in the number of assignments in school once I got to about 4th grade and on, but she commented many times on how much more difficult and time-consuming they were.
She didn't go to college so there's no comparison to be made, but even as an undergrad she was amazed at the amount of time and effort I had to put into classes.
When you factor in the amount of time she spent working at a job, however, she comes out way ahead on time spent working in the general sense. Academically, however, that doesn't seem to have been the case for her and I.