Posted on 06/21/2009 5:28:54 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Baby boomers — which the Census Bureau defines as the group of 78 million or so people born between 1946 and 1964 — are obsessed with grades.
They rank everything: best to worst, least to most, zero to 100, A to F. They grade movies, hotels, beef, municipal bonds and restaurants — for the quality of food, for speed of service, for cleanliness. They mark up school essays and driving tests and citizenship exams. After the release of the 1979 movie 10, starring boomer Bo Derek, men and women began appraising each other on a 1-to-10 scale. The first Zagat survey also appeared in the late 1970s, featuring diners' ratings of cafes and restaurants. Entertainment Weekly, launched in 1990 by Time Inc. (sidebar), grades movies, books, TV shows, video games and other pop culture items on an A-to-F scale.
The latest example of baby boomers' drive to assign grades: the "data-driven movement" in U.S. education. As reported recently in The Wall Street Journal, this push to quantify — relying heavily on gadgets and computations for student improvement and systemwide accountability — is an outgrowth of the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind legislation.
"The high-tech strategy, which uses intensified assessments and the real-time collection of test scores, grades and other data to identify problems and speed up interventions," the Journal reports, "has just received a huge boost from President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan."
In other words, Obama (born in 1961) and Duncan (1964), like George W. Bush (1946) and many Americans of a certain age, just love grading systems. So let's take a moment to turn the tables and issue the baby boom generation its own cohort report card.......
As a BB myself (although barely — b.1964), I say “FAIL.”
May I suggest human nature?
Any very large group of people, born into certain circumstances, will act pretty much the same way.
Lots of kids, lots of money, rapid technological advances, the seeming security of a traditional culture....trouble was coming, but society could not see it coming.
I remember our high school social studies teacher, a PhD and a socialist, saying to a group of high school students in 1969 that most of the girls would be married and have children by the time they were 25. Even highly educated people who wanted change could not imagine the change that was to come. It takes a lot of imagination to see the possible consequences of seemingly benign ideas.
Why? What generation are you?
We’ve (I’m a 51 model) much to answer for I’m sure, but I’ll hasten to point out that the ones who got all the press were not the whole generation. Many of the people who used us as political pawns when we were dumb kids were members of what has been beatified as the ‘Greatest Generation’ (Timothy Leary, Herbert Marcuse etc.) Please don’t think I don’t have reverence for what they accomplished and endured because I do, but spoiled and hedonistic as many of us boomers were (mea culpa), we were not the creators of the leviathan state which has become such a monster in our time. When I measure myself with men like my father, I find myself wanting in so many ways, but I’ve known many my age who could have played in his league.
Ah, the boomer generation.
The generation that received the “better life” our folks worked and fought for — and then, as a group, squandered it. Turned away from God, (worse) turned our CHILDREN away from God, squandered the blessings of liberty and freedom our parents gave us and taught our children to squander them too.
I’d grade us an “S”. It can stand for “we Suck”, “Spoiled”, “Spendthrift”, “Secular”, “Stupid”, “Shortsighted”, your pick.
And, yes, I’m right smack in the middle of that very UN-greatest generation.
Please don’t take my rant personally — of course I’m generalizing. Like a lot of freepers I’m trying hard NOT to fit the mold. But I can’t deny that my generation as a group lacked the character and wisdom of the one that came before.
That's exactly what I was thinking about myself.I consider myself to be basically "respectable" (by today's standards,at least) but I could not now...and have never been able to...hold a candle to *either* of my parents.
>> I consider myself to be basically “respectable” (by today’s standards,at least) but I could not now...and have never been able to...hold a candle to *either* of my parents.
+1
Boomers were in fact the worst generation. Not being one, I feel free to call a spade a spade.
Ugh... where to begin. The boomers were the worst thing that ever happened to the USA. They contributed nothing and laid waste our future because of their failures as human beings.
1940 generation 1965 generation 1990 generation
_______________ _______________ _______________
International Defeat of Hitler, Opposed Vietnam Changed channel
Achievement Communism War to MTV
Judicial Legal system should Legal system should Legal system should
idea support society change society destroy society
Excuse 'I did it for the 'I was upset by 'I was abused'
country' world injustice'
Technological Moon landing Personal computer Beeper, car alarm
highlight
Highbrow Classical Jazz Easy listening
Music
Lowbrow Big bands Rock Rap
Music
Civil rights Martin Luther King Malcolm X Damian Williams
leader
Hero Eisenhower John Kennedy Madonna
Economic Raise 60's generation Satisfy Support 60's
achievement Sophisticated generation retirement
Tastes
Fav' drug Cigarettes Marijuana Crack
Drug most Marijuana Crack Cigarettes
hated
Economic Work hard - get ahead Let your parents/ Prepare for employment
philosophy government support at K-Mart
you
Cartoon Bugs Bunny Bullwinkle Beavis and Butt-head
Boast "We made this country "We are great" "We are better armed"
great"
Sex Monogamy Free love AIDS
Youthful Drag race Demonstration Use AK-47 at school
rebellion
Movie Casablanca Easy Rider Bill and Ted's
Excellent Adventure
Science Einstein Jacques Cousteau Biosphere II
Enemy USSR USA not sure where
country countries located
Influential Eleanor Roosevelt Jane Fonda Roseanne Arnold
woman
Religion Monotheism Atheism Paganism
Enemy Hitler Nixon Joe Camel
Blames Them--> <--Them--> <--Them
(Loses 2-1)
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