Kids these days...

Although for ten months out of the year I surround myself with teens, overflowing with opinions and fashion, I keep finding myself saying, "Kids these days..."
Am I that far removed? I see kids in the streets after dark and automatically assume they are up to no good. I pass a pack of teens in the supermarket, being loud, tossing a box of cereal to each other and I am ready to reprimand them. When I see them wearing hats, especially on weekends during the school year, I am tempted to have them take them off.
It wasn't long ago I was a teen; hard as it is to believe. It was seven years ago and apparently I'm older now and they trust me to teach kids. But we are different. Now in our mid to late twenties, we grew up with no internet, cell phones, text messaging, iming, myspace, i-pods, music downloads, 500 channels and crazy video games with secret sex scenes.
So what do I see in the classroom? Most kids want a good grade, whether or not they work for it is up in the air. Many of them manage a million things in and out of school: homework, soccer practice, gymnastics, yoga, Spanish tutoring, class council, choir, the list goes on. They are high stress, over achievers and not as creative as they should be. They care more for the right now, for the A, but not so much how to earn it.
Last year I had my 9th graders read an article called "The Echo Boomers".
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/01/60minutes/main646890.shtml
It essentially categorizes this generation of kids, born 1982-1995 as echo boomer or generation Y. We (1965-1982) are generation X and our parents (1946-1964) Baby Boomers. Echo because they are the offspring of the baby boomers.
The article talks about how kids these days deem immediate results, while putting little time into things. They want immediate satisfaction in all aspects of their lives. I see this to be true in the classroom. They want to know how they are going to be graded before they even know the assignment. It no longer seems to be about the experience, but rather "What do I get out of it."
And these kids, after reading an article like this were pissed! This brought about a record debate in all classes amongst kids who were down right offended to be categorized as such, and kids who kinda agreed and were embarrassed.
Overall these kids are safer, less violent, not getting pregnant, more patriotic, more trusting of the government.
Yet businesses and major corporations argue that their employees nowadays, "can't think long-range. Everything has to be immediate...And they have a lot of trouble sort of doing things in a stepwise fashion, delaying gratification. Really reflecting as they go along." ("The Echo Boomers" article, Oct. 3, 2004). I couldn't have said it better myself. Everything is so fast and now with drive thrus for everything from a burger to medicine.
I only hope that it doesn't completely destroy the creativity that I see diminishing amongst kids. They want structure and deadlines and "exactly what is the teacher looking for" questioning. I purposely don't give deadlines sometimes and say, "We'll see how long this take us. I really want you to do well on it." The kids, they panic. "What do you mean you don't know when it's due?"
My favorite is when I make them come up with the rubric (grading scale) for a group assignment. They argue back and forth, "Writing your name should get you 50 points, " says class clown. "Funny, I chime in. I agree. Considering FIVE of you didn't write your name on the last assignment." (including the kid who made the suggestion)
So they sit and they debate and they argue and they finally agree on a fair rubric (one much tougher than the one I would have given them), but what they think is silly and should be something I decide is actually teaching them some higher learning skills that they will be able to take with them into whatever field they decide to go into. What's important is to nurture their creativity and their thinking. They need to realize that in my class becoming a good writer does not happen over night and that by the end of the year, then they can reflect and see what has improved. "So long? A year?" they ask. Yeah a whole year!
So why all this, and why now? Getting back into the swing of things and preparing myself mentally for school, I have to remember what I am going back to: a class full of teens who want bigger, better, faster, more efficient, effective, and productive. All they get- is me. Someone who can only hope to make them realize that there is more to the world than chatting online or texting a friend to meet at the mall. Someone who wants to see them think and not the ads and commercials that feed them daily. Somoene who wants to foster creativity and enthusiasm about learning something new. Someone who expects them to be competent enough to be able to write a sentence without using AOL slang such as "b/c" or "ur funi". An English teacher can dream can't she.