The Entitlement Generation

The other day I was talking to another teacher in my building about the typical woes of the education world, how that students today are not interested in working hard/thinking for themselves/taking pride in a job well done, etc., etc. He had mentioned that his brother-in-law referred to this generation of students (or perhaps young people in general) as the "Entitlement Generation." The idea is (and this theory plays itself out well, at least at my high school) that students aren't interested in working hard to obtain a good education; rather, they feel that they are entitled to certain grades and credits for classes without having to put forth any effort (or at least minimal effort, which translates into just "showing up") to earn these grades and subsequent credits.

Now, this certainly is not true for all students. However, the overriding mentality is that we as teachers owe them something. If the students miss a day, it is up to me to give them the assignment, the notes, teach an entire lesson to them at their convenience, etc. If they don't understand something it's my fault that I didn't teach it well enough. If they are bored with the class, it's my fault that I haven't done something (anything at all, including but not limited to, showing cool math videos (do any of these exist?!), thinking up cool projects to do (but if the projects require them to do complicated calculations then the project is not cool), doing songs and dances, bringing in candy, pop, cake, pizza, etc.) to make it "exciting."

Could it be possible that we as a culture have fostered this "entitlement mentality?" Is the "entitlement mentality" a function of today's American society? Have we really forgotten to show our children the importance of hard work, the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, the virtues of humility and politeness, and just the plain and simple notion of being a nice person?

I should probably say that I myself have been guilty of the same things, and by no means am I 100% qualified to point out the faults of our society, because no doubt, I am sure I've contributed to this quandary, at least in some degree. But it doesn't make it right. I know that at times, I feel like I'm entitled to this or that, but in reality (and here's where my Christian worldview comes in) I'm entitled to one thing: hell.

I really wonder if this "entitlement mentality" stops at 3:10, or if pervades every aspect of their (our) lives. My hunch is that it's a huge chunk of our American personalities (or more generally, our human personalities). I really wonder what that does to spirituality in America. I wonder if it makes their (our) receptiveness to the gospel of Jesus Christ basically nil. I would bet that it does.

This seems to me to be a situation well worth thinking about in greater depth....