I had the pleasure of visiting with my grandparents two weeks back when the topic of disparities in generational responsibility was broached. Now, I have always been fascinated by this topic, constantly inquiring about methods to increase societal responsibility. Does it start with family values or fiscal competency? What happened to the solid nuclear family where life lessons were taught and reinforced within the family? The traditional family unit and individual accountability is disappearing in the United States through the removal of familial responsibility and creation of an entitlement complex.
We learn the basic concepts of right and wrong in childhood, as this is the time when human beings are the most impressionable. Therefore, it is extremely important that these lessons are passed from one generation to the next.
In order to guarantee this, lessons inherently taught by parents generations ago are becoming the responsibility of teachers, and these lessons are to begin even earlier in life. From financial responsibility to sex education beginning in kindergarten, the training of the youth in respect to social norms is shifting. The rationale in pursuing such action is to ensure that no child leaves school without skills necessary for a productive life. However, this not only undermines the functionality of society but also burdens educators, a group that is already under compensated for their work. I foresee two major pitfalls.
1) What guarantees that this information is being disseminated to the youth? From speaking to and observing educators in action, it seems to me that teachers already have plenty to fit into a typical school day without this added load.
2) Also, if the end goal is to create a more socially educated and responsible community, then this model defeats itself. It removes responsibility from the hands of parents and places it into those of a second party, much like handing your child off to an organization to teach him the mandated life skills of which the most important is responsibility. This only teaches younger generations that they can be increasingly hands-off when raising and educating their own children. As a result, subsequent generations become less and less responsible in their actions as parents and ultimately as a society.
The erosion of societal responsibility has been occurring for generations. For example, the average divorce rate is about 50 percent of marriages in the U.S. as compared to European countries, where the rate is merely a fraction of this.
Similarly, out of all the cultures around the world, America possesses the greatest entitlement complex, resulting in the perception that one need not earn and work for something if he deserves it."" This is contrary to the American Dream, which implies that one works through struggle and strife to receive that which he has earned. The phrase, ""Keeping up with the Joneses,"" coined in 1913, only further perpetuates the disillusionment that is the entitlement complex. This complex can initiate a deviation from living within one's own means as is demonstrated by the rampant abuse of credit in the American consumer culture. Demonstrating the early indoctrination to debt, a study in 2004 stated that ""76 percent of undergraduates have credit cards, and the average undergrad has $2,200 in credit card debt (in addition to) almost $20,000 in student debt.""
In many aspects, European countries have the correct mind-frame; the focus is much less on the consumption and possession of material goods. Children are raised on the philosophy of working hard, an element I think is lacking in the upbringing of many Americans. How can we once again instill the most fundamental of values into American culture?
Or, and this is the overarching question, how can we reverse the generational trend and ultimately increase individual responsibility? Is there even a means to accomplish this? One might argue that the current financial crisis could be a model to our generation and generations to come on how to at least be fiscally responsible. For the sake of future generations, I hope this is so.
