Our video starts out with
difference between me, my parents, and my grandparents, and their differences.
There are some differences—but also some similarities. Many of these
similarities are called traditions. Grandparents usually train their children
to be honest, have good moral character, be well educated, and overall good
citizens. My parents wanted the same for me, just as your parents wanted that
for you. If you are a parent, you probably want to pass those and other characteristics
on to your children. How do you pass those good traits on to our children?
Brothers and sisters born a year to eighteen months apart can be so different.
Methods tried on one child, may
not work on your other child. There are many variables to consider before making
generalized or stereo-typed conclusions. Peer pressure is a very real variable,
friends may use a jargon very different from what another family may be used to
hearing, and families need to be careful not to be hypocritical or judgmental
about diversity. When it comes to slackers there are some in every generations.
It also depends on what your definition slacker. I don’t teach school, but I
deal with children and young people in my church and they have a lot to deal
with.
Teaching a Sunday school class a few years
ago, there was a wide range of students in grades 2nd through 5th,
at times it was difficult to hold the attention of some of the 2nd
graders, and on the hand, keep from boring the 5th graders. Once we
found a project that kept the attention of the 2nd graders and didn’t
bore our 5th graders it made the job much easier. Age differences and
the maturity of the students play a vital part in teaching. Getting to know the
students and listing to them as they entered the classroom as to some of their
hobbies, and not looking at generational differences to really any great extent
helped us choose a different strategy. I
would rather make decisions based on the content of their character and that
takes getting to know them.
Solomon once said, “There is
nothing new under the sun.” If what one of the articles states is true that
more recent homeland generation is starting to returning to extremely
protective parenting, traditions, academic achievement, and a renewed focus on
social development. It looks like the generations have took a full turn and
coming back to those basics of what a lot of many parents. They are smarter I
have had students who could not or would remember to bring their Bibles to class,
but with the smart-phone the Bible could be downloaded and they can’t leave
home without it.
Another tool we want for our
children and students is for them to become independent learners and thinkers.
We don’t want them to brain washed by falsehoods. As teacher’s we should not be
fooled either. Don’t look at little Johnny and say, “that sound like little
Johnny.” We don’t know what other variables are happening to little Johnny.
A friend of mine is a teacher,
one of the objectives she has for her students is to become independent
learners, where they will investigate thoroughly articles like the “Prensky” so
they become categorized or stereo-typed, nor deceived. But think more in terms
of what Professor Thomas C. Reeve’s article, Do Generational Differences Matter in Instructional Design? Values,
habits, and motivators are important and birth year is only one factor for
laboring generations and that research shows that history does more to shape
individuals.
