Posted on 09/29/2007 7:20:26 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine's brother
Diana West, syndicated colunist for The Washington Times, has written a booke entitled, The Death of the Grown-up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization. Hot Air has posted a two part interview of the author by Michelle Malkin. I believe that the interview is worthy of your attention and time and gives us all something to ponder.
Michell Malkin Part 1 Interview of Diana West about Death of of the Grown-Up
The Death of the Grown-Up, Part 2,
I've always believed that adversity calls forth virtue while surfeit breeds vice.
Some other signs that she’s right are the many adults who, for a few decades now, want children and their children’s friends to call them by their first name, and not Mr. or Mrs., no salutations that acknowledge age or generational difference.
Another is parents who want to be a part of, or intrude into many of their kids activities. I was surprised to learn that many places most parents go (and are allowed to go) and hang around junior/senior proms. They just have to be there to share, or intrude upon their kids’ big events.
And the bizarre cases where some mothers dress of the style of their teen daughters.
Working in sweatshops was better than what was there before, working on the farm. And illiteracy is forced upon children now with this look/say -- whole language garbage taught in schools.
Great post.
I don’t think that fact that people are in school longer and are on their own at a later age is a problem, but it’s how people act once they’re on their own and should be assuming the role of adults in American society. All too many still want to be one of the kids.
Look at the way the world is moving — everything has to be quantified, even the people. The highest salaries go to those with the high level skill sets.
Alexander Hamilton was 27 when he was elected a member of the Contental Congress from NY, 29 when he founded the Bank of New York, and 33 when he wrote the Federalist Papers. This was all after his military career in his 20's where he worked his way up to serve as Washington's Chief of Staff.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence ranged from 26 (Edward Rutlege, South Carolina) to 70 (Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania). Jefferson was 33, Adams 41. I think that's a pretty similar range to Congress or most state legislatures today, but with more older folks because people are living longer, staying healthy longer and staying in office longer.
Some of the "senior" military officers, most notably Alexander Hamilton (21 when the war began) were a bit younger; Washington's preferred leadership style was to surround himself with bright young men, more formally educated than he, whom he created like surrogate sons.
It was in the working class that, as a matter of necessity, adulthood started earlier. Children in the middle and upper classes had schooling, at home or in a formal setting, then college or an apprenticeship. They embarked on their careers at about the same age as adults do today.
What public schooling has done is make the middle- and upper-class version of childhood available to the working class. And it's created a grade system with mileposts at 5,14,18,22 where in the days of private tutoring, homeschooling or one-room schoolhouses, kids just started when they were ready and finished when they were done.
But to me, that's not the heart of the issues West raises (I haven't watched the whole interview -- is there a transcript?). That's a result of the sheer size of the baby boom, which gave rise to the youth-targeted marketing culture; the GI Bill, which opened up college as an option for millions in the middle and working classes (which then led to more colleges and the expansion of existing ones, which meant there was a lot of capacity for the Boomers); and the general prosperity of the '50s and early '60s, which allowed the World War II generation to provide for their children the kind of extended childhood that was previously reserved to relatively few.
And a whole lot of the "peter pan" phenomenon comes not from the schools at all, but from the home. The low birth rate of the Depression and war years meant that Baby Boomers didn't have a passel of younger siblings to help care for. Prepared food and kitchen machines meant Mom was spending less time cooking; and other machines drastically cut the time required for everything from laundry to yard maintenance to household repairs. More people shifted from farming to other fields of work, and on the farm, too, automation led to a reduced need for labor. Family farms wiped out in the Dust Bowl years came back as consolidated large-scale farms.
Put simply, Boomers grew up doing fewer chores because there were fewer chores to do. Before World War II, the only children who didn't perform at least a few hours of labor per day were those whose families could hire domestic help. After the war, that became the norm. Many kids still had after-school jobs, but it was for luxuries, not to help sustain the family. For kids younger than about 16, summer camp replaced summer jobs. The WWII generation had its kids hitting the books or hitting a ball rather than pushing a plow - something all parents for many generations back wanted for their kids, but a vast umber more could now provide.
Not buyin' that. Kids on the farm worked outdoors, supervised by their parents. Kids in the sweatshops worked around and in incredibly dangerous machinery, supervised by people who did not know them and cared little for their safety.
I don't think a lot of families chose the sweatshop over the farm as a better place for their children to work -- the sweatshops hired kids from the tenements, not the fields.
And illiteracy is forced upon children now with this look/say -- whole language garbage taught in schools.
If you're talking about an era when most folks got married at about 14, you're talking about an era when many couldn't sign their own name or read a sign. I'm not talking about folks who don't read thick books or know what a simile is.
>All too many still want to be one of the kids.<
And too many “adults” consider their elders kids with gray on their heads while ignoring the wisdom inside of those heads.
otoh, the LEFTISTS did "tune out". their elevators STILL don't go to the top floor. PITY.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
imVho, there are NO real "grandfathers" left, at least NOT the sort mine was. he was called "the Senator" by almost everyone (except me of course), as a sign of VAST respect for his WISDOM, HONOR & general all-around DECENCY.
i PITY the next generation, who will NOT be guided by such hands!!!
those who want to KNOW what a REAL grandfather was like should read THE OLD MAN & THE BOY by Robert Ruark.
"the Senator" & "the OLD MAN" could have been twins.
free dixie,sw
self ping
Can you cay, "Morlocks and Eloi?"
Looking at the trends can be scary. Society over-sexualizes our children (see: hoochie clothes for three- and four-year-olds) and infantalizes our young adults (see: college-aged "kids").
....never having grown up myself...LOL...and had a great time not doing it!! Guess I'll be eating cat food in my old age.... Back before I was born again (as a Christian and as a conservative) I never thought I'd live past 30! Now my idea of somethin' hot is a bowl of soup!
I think it's television. For generations now we've been using the TV as a babysitter/educator.
I have heard of studies that show television itself - regardless of content - alters brain chemistry, especially in young people. But I don’t know how conclusive those studies are.
Drugs, on the other hand, certainly affect brain chemistry.
Thanks for the ping.
Looks like I, too, have another book to put on my Christmas wish list.
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