Teacher Tells the Truth: Kids, You're Not Special

About damn time!  Although I never thought this would happen in Massachusetts.

Teacher David McCullough, Jr. told a high school graduating class that they are not.......special.  They are not.......exceptional.  That they have been coddled and cajoled and counseled and encouraged by adults, and that these young adults will need to realize that nobody else cares how special they think they are.

Wow!  This is a long overdue message to the young people of this country, who are largely a bunch of self-absorbed brats. 

WARNING!  RANT FOLLOWS!

When I graduated from high school over twenty-five years ago, I was under no illusion that I was remarkable in any way, and was quite nervous about the future because I knew that I would be facing competition out in the real world.  (I actually went straight to college, but college was different in 1986.  We were actually expected to learn and demonstrate the level of our learning).  My high school friends and I ventured out on our own, some of us told by parents that we were welcome to visit our old home but not to camp out there.

I look at the young adults I see today and I think to myself, "These punks will never survive the Zombie Apocalypse or any other major change to civilization."  Many have no skills aside from being able to access their Facebook or Myspace account, send texts, or rapidly tap their thumbs on the controller of the latest video game system.

I have personally known 18 to 26 year old young persons who were openly disrespectful of their parents and grandparents, yet could not consistently support themselves and expected their parents and grandparents to provide for them.  These young persons could not hold even the most basic, fast-food, minimum-wage job for more than a few months without major problems, could not consistently maintain a residence, and could not maintain an automobile or insurance.  Yet they were always able to "party", buy alcoholic and "energy" drinks, cigarettes, drugs, and the latest cell phone.  They just can't afford to feed themselves, buy clothes or wash them, or figure out how to get back to their own home at the end of the day.

Either I am joining the ranks of the old people I used to complain about in my youth, or the youth of today are the opposite of what their parents, teachers, and other adults are telling them:  special and worthy of excess insulation from the realities of the world.  At 44, I don't think I am that old.  And I didn't just start noticing how today's youth behaves.

Oh, I could go on and on about how today's young people have no idea what hardship and responsibility are (I actually haven't experienced real hardship myself, although I prepare for it), but I think I'll stop here.  Go read the article about David McCullough, Jr.'s speech to his 2012 high school graduating class.  If you are over 30, you'll be glad you did.