My kids aren't like this either, but I know a whole bunch of students who fit the bill -- and a bunch of them are the "best and the brightest", the ones who feel quite sure they're going to rule the world by age 30.
Are you sure they didn't?
;)
Well, some of the ones who were most cocksure of themselves are still ringing up my groceries at the Food Lion, so I do know about some of them. I've taught some kids who've genuinely gone on to become stupendously famous: One NFL player, one minor rock star, one NASCAR driver, and a whole bunch who've become CEO-types in various businesses ... but the vast majority of them are ordinary middle-class adults now. Of course, I've also taught two murderers and one kid who was sentenced for hate crimes (burning black churches).
I'm planning on being FI shortly after 30, which I'm sure will feel like ruling the world =p. It's less about the generation than it is about how parents raise their kids.
It's
also about how society raises kids. For example, kids raised during Vietnam were affected by that war. Kids born during the recent recession -- even if their parents' jobs weren't personally affected -- were touched by "downsizing" all over the place. Technology, art, shifts in public opinion, availability of products, and more -- they all affect kids. To give one example, today's kids are much less innocent than the ones I taught at the beginning of my career. They've been watching R-rated movies and googling dirty pictures since they were in elementary school, and it's resulted in a more jaded generation. Is this true of ALL kids? Of course not, but the average kid "sees more" than the average kid did a generation ago. Similarly, I see a whole lot more kids struggling with anxiety problems and/or an inability to socialize with other kids -- again, technology. Kids are more aware of dangers than a generation ago, and some of them take it very, very personally. And they don't just plain talk to one another as much as they did a generation ago. A generation ago "everyone" was raised in the church; today it seems to me that about 25% of my students are active in organized religion. A generation ago minorities had fewer opportunities than they do today.
So this is all more than the way parents raise their kids. Certainly being a member of a certain generation
doesn't mold you into a clone of all your same-aged classmates, but every time period leaves its fingerprints on its children.
+1. More nonsense designed to drive wedges between folks in society instead of uniting us toward the need to reduce inequalities (locally and globally).
Why do you see it as a wedge? I definitely see that my students feel this way -- to varying degrees, of course. And, yes, the article made it a bit extreme, but the hyperbole was intended to make a point. The article is an illustration to help understand how Gen Y thinks, not an insult; however, one thing I've observed about Millennials is that they're quick to imagine an insult where none is intended. It's not the Millennials' best trait.