Hello, everyone! Long time, no blog...sorry about that!
Having worked with kids/teens/youth for the last 15+ years and now raising our own, Susan and I have often discussed our culture's disposition to push our children in unhealthy ways under the guise of 'giving them opportunities we never had,' and how quickly things have shifted in our culture from letting kids be kids into making them into mini-versions of grown ups. Following is an article released from the Psychology Today website on this recent cultural phenomenon, with a particular focus on the recent travels of 16 year old Abby Sunderland and her desire to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world.
This article in interesting in that it hints at the next phase that we now see occurring in this process-and it has experts alarmed; the shift from parents pushing their kids into too much/too soon, to what is happening more recently-kids pushing their parents to assist them as they set out to achieve their own dreams of competitive success and fame. This idea aligns perfectly with numerous other studies that now report that kids no longer want to be nurses, doctors, teachers, firemen and lawyers as they have in previous generations, but instead, just want to 'be famous.' Sadly, just recently, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, I heard a young girl from a good home (age: 5) tell her mom that she wanted to 'be skinny' when she grew up. I don't' know about you, but that gave me the chills when I heard it.
Kids want fame, not education: [http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/02/19/fame.junkies/index.html]
Wherever you land within this conversation, I want to encourage you to take a few moments to read the following article. As parents, teachers, school administrators, pastors and heck-adults, we all have a share in serving as the guardians of the emerging generation-a generation that will have more major national/international conundrums to navigate, problems to solve, and issues to address than perhaps any that has preceded it. And somehow, I don't think wanting to be famous when they grow up is going to set the trajectory for their success in a world that has gone mad. I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Have a great week.
