Personal Journal Writing Assignment: These Questions are in
your E-Mail Journal:
Module #3 - Topic 1: The
book 13th Gen charges that older generations
have systematically tilted the odds against the young: "Take
a generation of kids, give them crumbly families that don't allow
them much time to learn skills that aren't immediately useful;
give them inferior schooling to tarnish their reputation for competence;
surround them with media that teach them to distrust any institutional
avenue to career success. Then, when they're all ready to enter
the adult labor force, push every policy lever conceivable - tax
codes, entitlements, public debt, unfunded liabilities, labor
laws, hiring practices - to tilt the economic playing field away
from the young and toward the old." Try to step back from
your own family and friends; in thinking about our youth in general,
what is your reaction to these charges? Surely the authors are
missing dimensions to how we treat our young, in the home, school,
churches, recreation, and entertainment. In your view what is
good and what is poor about our treatment of the young?
Module #3 - Topic 2: Try
to address the concerns of a teenager of today by "giving
advice" about how to approach the end of high school, possible
higher education, jobs, and personal relationships. Draw upon
your own experiences, as well as the readings thus far, to lay
out this advice. Remember that there are no "right"
or "wrong" answers in this course on this question.
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Perceptions often become reality, at least until
new information changes those pre-conceived notions and ideas.
Today's youth, to the extent they are aware of the environment
within which they are growing up, the world they will inherit,
are hearing many negative things about themselves and their generation.
This situation aggravates the intergenerational "gap"
which exists between adults and young people. Our job at this
point is to start sorting out fact from fiction, perception from
reality. Do we buy the image of today's youth? Do we believe
that adults are systematically "putting kids down" and
handing over a hostile world? Or do we see signs of immense misunderstanding
about what is happening and how it affects the young?
Please reflect back on the readings thus far, as
well as your earlier E-mail journal entries. The first topic
for your journal asks you to assess what society is doing to our
youth culture and their prospects for the future. Please then
in the second topic condense your wisdom into a letter, or other
format, which allows you to give some advice to a teenager today.
Draw upon all that you have learned and experienced to share
with a typical teenager your ideas about how to approach the future:
one of uncertainty but also great promise at least for young people
living in the US.