Talking to most teens today will make you dumber by the minute. Seriously. Notice how your mind just numbs out after 3 minutes of their rambling about video games, reality shows about vapid stupid people, some viral YouTube video, the Hunger Force crew, who's hooking up with whom (why are they attempting to procreate for Pete's sake?!), how effed up drunk they got a couple days ago, or whatever other idiotic thing is rotting their minds nowadays. It's a disgrace to sound like such an old fart, but as someone who employs teens, I'm on the front lines of this battle. I'm the one who ultimately suffers the consequences of other people's shitty parenting and teaching abilities. The complete lack of responsibility, accountability, common sense, and self-pride in the quality of their work is astounding. I could add that the complete lack of respect is also astonishing, although I'll admit that for the most part, I've been pretty lucky in that department.
Worst of all, they're becoming stupid. No. There's no better word to describe it. For the most part, they're academically and socially stupid. I don't have children, so I typically avoid critiquing other people's parenting skills, but the fact is that the quality of modern parenting has become increasingly questionable at best. This being said, kids spend most of their day at school supposedly learning, so I must bring up the role of teachers in all of this. A teacher's job is not to raise your kids (although they do say that it takes a village to raise a child - or something like that), but it is their job to educate them and based on my interaction with these kids, I'm not impressed with the quality of their work at all.
School just let out earlier this week, so one of my assistants is looking for an additional job during the week days at the bequest of his mom. So he called me a couple days ago to request permission to list me as a reference and of course I accepted. Today at work I called his attention to numerous mistakes he had made and had him correct them, containing the urge to throw a shoe at him on several occasions. The laaaazzziiiinessss is unbearable, but that's another blog. When he sat down he told me everything was done, meanwhile I saw plenty that still needed to be completed and pointed it out. He responded, "Well, that's Andy's job". Oh hell no.
I called "Andy" over and told him what "Mandy" had said and asked him to please respond to Mandy (Andy and I had had this conversation several months before). So Andy happily told him, "Everything's your job and nobody's done until everything's done". I love that kid sometimes. Mandy replied, "Well, why do I always have to wash the dishes? Why can't Andy do it?" I had to explain that I didn't trust him to do what Andy does since I can't even trust him to do his main task correctly at closing time, which is to wash the dishes. Increased responsibility is typically accompanied by increased pay, but that has to be earned. Of course I proceeded to point out at least half a dozen problems in his station alone that should have been addressed during his shift. I love how he tried sneaking out of a specific project I had assigned to him by giving me the "Aw shucks, my mom just arrived so I have to go" face. Hold it right there super fly. Yo' mama can wait.
Then I asked Mandy, "When the people from that job you're applying for call me, is there something you want me to tell them or do you want me to tell them the truth?". He gave me a puzzled look so I repeated the question. Blank stare. "Because if you want me to tell the truth, I could say that you're punctual. Although, I should probably credit your step-dad for that, but still, you're typically punctual." That's when he interrupted me and asked what 'punctuality' means. My jaw dropped, but I told him that it means 'on time'. Keep in mind that this is a 16 year old high school sophomore we're talking about. Then I asked, "How can you not know the definition of 'punctuality'? What the hell are they teaching you kids nowadays?". He replied, "I don't know. I get like all A's without even trying". WHAAAAATTT????!!! What teacher would give this kid an "A"? He can't even figure out how to get the ice machine back on.... and he wants to be a computer programmer when he grows up. Just add water and push the button, genius! A chimp could figure this one out.
This is not my first encounter with teenage stupidity and laziness, but boy did this take me by surprise. How is it possible for an "A" student to make it to their junior year in high school without knowing the definition of a 4th grade vocabulary word? Let's not even get into the spelling. Oh, if you only saw the grocery list he made for me last week. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry due to his deplorable spelling. Here's a small sampling for your amusement:
- paper towals
- nautella
- gava jelly
- swiss chese
- chedder
- mozzeralla
- marinated pepers
I know there are many top notch teachers out there, but for every excellent teacher, there's 9 mediocre ones. If you're a teacher, don't let these kids slide by, you're not doing them, society, or yourselves any favors. If you're passing students with high scores when only a miracle should have helped them pass, then you're the biggest part of the problem. Yeah, they are lazy and obnoxious, but keep pushing them. Don't settle for mediocrity. Push them, discipline them, and be firm. Fail them if you must, but for crying out loud, no more free passes! Just remember, these are the people that are supposed to take care of you when you're an old fart in a retirement home. Scary thought, I know.
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