Those of us who were schooled during the 1950’s through the 80’s were schooled in the paradigm of the Industrial Age, even though the Industrial Age had long passed. We were taught to think via specific processes; processes which served well as our country made its transition from an agricultural society to the “modern age.” Science was our god and anything which did not fit in the boxes of science had no place in our world. If we learned to view the scientific method as our litmus test for what was real and what was not real we got an A+.
Today we look at our world and discover entire generations have been schooled totally differently. To them the Scientific Method was unheard of. The end result is when we look at our children and grandchildren we find they do not think the way we do, they do not have the same value structure or expectations of society as we do.
This leaves us with several choices; complain about “those darn kids today,” perhaps just shut down and shake our heads at how they behave, or see them as Martians.
When I think some of my own reactions to how “the kids of today” think I have to laugh at myself. I clearly hear my own mother saying almost the same thing! Our music was unintelligible to her, our clothing was a disgrace, our behavior inexplicable, and yet here I sit looking at young people locked onto their electronic devices, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings, wondering where it all went wrong. Will you join me in an ironic chuckle?
The truth is; nothing went wrong. To move into this new age in which we find ourselves a quantum shift had to take place, and it has. Is it perfect? No, it’s not perfect, but if we can sit back, live our lives the best way we can and help usher in a different way of being we can still have our A+.
