"Tweens aim for fame above all else"

I think the difference ---- and what makes this study disturbing ---- is that you wanted to DO something.

Fame worship, and wanting to be famous for its own sake, seems new.

 

My dad's a retired high school teacher. He made this exact observation -- that plenty of kids want fame, but don't want to actually do anything that might earn fame -- about 30 years ago.

The only difference now is there are reality shows that celebrate it. It's hardly a new phenomenon.

 

I think the difference now is that this generation expects to just arrive on the scene and become famous, whereas previous generations knew that there'd be some hard work and dues paying involve to reach a level of fame. I screw around at the open mic night at the local comedy club once a week and it's amazing how many people I see who really are funny but do it once or twice, realize it's not as easy as it looks and then are never seen or heard from again.

 

You've got big dreams? You want fame?

Well, fame costs.

And right here is where you start paying . . .

In SWEAT.

 

I'm gonna live FOREVER!

 

Anyone else think if they had rephrased Financial Success as Rich, that would have won? I do.

The former sounds like you make $70,000 a year. The latter sounds like you can hire people that make $70,000 to clean your bathroom.

 

Very much the case, and the less education one has, the more one can see this. I run into a lot of people at the bottom end of the socioeconomic scale that are hoping to "get the break" that gets them discovered -- someone who shoots in the low 80s at the muni course thinking they'll get discovered by the PGA Tour, guys without high school educations waiting for the NBA to come calling, wannabe musicians/comedians/you name it. There is a total disconnect between having that talent and understanding how to get there ... they just assume someone gets "a break" and gets "discovered" and hits it rich.

Think about sports journalism. How many people really think we just get paid to watch sports for a living, without realizing the pressure of breaking a story, working on a deadline, et al ... and how many think they can be the TV sports anchor? How many can actually do it competently? Not many. You've got to work your butt off to get into that position, and then to stay there.

I see it with my high school students. I've had lots of conversations like this. It always starts with some variant of "why are you trying to sleep," or "you know, you have a 38 percent in this class and haven't turned a homework assignment in all semester."
Me: "You know you have to pass this to graduate, right?"
Student: "yeah"
Me: "So, do you plan to graduate?"
Student: (yes/no/maybe ... answer doesn't really matter, but it amazes me that a student who realizes they have to pass my class to graduate still has no motivation to do so).
Me: "What do you plan to do after then?"
Student: "Get a job."
Me: "Really? in what?"
Student: "My (uncle's brother/best friend's third cousin/some guy I barely know who knows somebody who knows somebody) will get me a job (driving a truck/doing stocking/et al) and I'm going to make $10 an hour."
Me: "You're really convinced that's going to happen?"
Student: "Of course."
Me: "Why were you sleeping in class (or why haven't you done an assignment in 3 weeks?)"
Student: "Because this is boring/stupid."
Me: "So, when you get this job, do you plan on sleeping every time it gets boring? You know, that could get pretty dangerous if you're driving a truck. That's not always very exciting. If you think it's stupid, are you just going to quit and go broke?"
Student: "No."
Me: "So, why do you do it here?"
Student: "This isn't my job."
Me: (whipping out stats on the average salary of HS grads vs. HS dropouts). "What you do in this classroom will determine how much money you make the rest of your life. So, in essence, it is your job."
Student: Silence or "yeah, but school is still stupid/boring."

That alone explains some of the so-called "income gap" we have. It's not about the wealthy stealing from the poor. It's about the poor not knowing how to take advantage of the things given to them (including 13-17 years of free schooling) and how to use that to better themselves in life. A lot of times, they don't discover it until it's too late. Everyone in some way has the "I want it all" attitude. We all want fame, fortune and to be significant in some way.

The difference is, a lot of people don't quite know how to get from Point A to Point B. They waste that free education by sleeping and complaining that "it's stupid" and assume those who have made it have done so because of winning life's lottery. They blame a zillion outside factors for being unable to get even to Point A. They didn't get "discovered," their industry was outsourced to China and without education, they have no marketable skills, the boss who fired me for sleeping on the job is just an ogre who doesn't understand me, I can't get a job because people just don't realize how special I am (even though I pulled out my iPod earbuds during the job interviews I dressed up for by wearing a V-necked T-shirt and cargo shorts).

Meanwhile, the kids who "won life's lottery" did so by working hard in school (it isn't difficult to get a 3.0-3.5 in high school these days), going to college, getting their education, trying their hand at a lot of different things, developing marketable skills and doing the things that put them in front of potential employers to get "discovered" and hired, and continue to develop more marketable skills. It's really kind of sad to see so much potential wasted on the lazy.

When it comes down to it, most people want to be significant in some way. Eighty years ago, being significant meant holding down a good job and raising a family. Fifty years ago, it meant climbing the ladder in your company and becoming a leader, while raising a family. Twenty-five years ago, it meant landing a good job. Ten years ago, it meant landing a job that fulfilled your desires and allowed you the flexibility to do what you wanted in your spare time. Today, it means being a YouTube sensation for a day.

 

This is one of the best posts I have ever read here.

The teaching profession is lucky to have you, and so are those kids.

 

Agree with Dick on both points.

I also remember having very similar conversations with more than one of my teachers in high school. I wasn't sleeping, but I also wasn't turning in my papers.

Good for you Crimson. I hope it makes a difference in at least a case or two.

 

There are lots of reasons I left journalism to teach.

But one thing that continues to floor me is the number of people who have no concept of the way that education and hard work equal success. They really do believe that everyone just "gets a job" from some friend/acquaintance out of high school, and those who are wealthy/middle class/educated somehow lucked into what they have. They really do believe it's about luck, and cannot see that there is a correlation between education/work ethic and employment.

I see the same patterns in my students that I saw when I worked my way through high school and college at McDonald's -- they took it one step further. Couldn't hold a job, were rude to customers, slow, sloppy workers, because they didn't see that the customers paid their salaries and they could get fired at any moment -- they believed they were entitled to jobs.

Unfortunately, the kids learn it from their parents. There are two kinds of kids that tend to be coddled and spoiled by their parents, and the ones whose parents just don't see the value of education because they themselves were uneducated.

I have a relative who was talking about getting "discovered" to play on the PGA Tour despite the fact that he's almost 50 and basically plays muni courses on his days off, and at the same time, was trying to figure out how to get on disability so he could get some easy government cash. Not surprisingly, one of his kids started applying for welfare practically as soon as she finished high school.

 

It's not just tweens. I'm 24 and I've got friends who basically spent college screwing around, majoring in something they liked, and they've got no plan for life, other than living with the boyfriend/girlfriend and working at Target. I almost feel like I'm bragging when I talk about my job, that I got through networking throughout college and basically working my ass off. They just kind of... float. That kind of idleness would drive me insane. I have to be doing something productive.