We are creating a complacent generation, but it's not the first one. I believe we are in the midst of the second complacent generation, and it's because we've dumbed our children down for the last twenty to thirty years...this generation and their twenty-something parents before them; that is, if their parents aren't still teenagers themselves.

We have dumbed them down by concentrating more on political correctness in school than actual school subjects. This has made U.S. students fall behind the rest of the civilized world scholastically. But worse than this, in our enthusiasm to "protect their egos" by never giving them negative feedback of any sort, we have failed to do our jobs of preparing them for this world, and we have created a new mediocrity.

Why try your hardest when even the kid in last place gets a medal? How will you ever take criticism on the job if you've never received any at home or in school? We are already seeing the results of the "positive only" self-esteem theories of 1980's and 90's pop-psychology.

In her 2/16/05 USA Today article, "Yep, life'll burst that self-esteem bubble", writer Sharon Joyner reports professors and employers alike who testify that college students and employees in their late teens or early twenties will burst into tears or tantrums at the slightest criticism. She quotes kids who admit they've become "award junkies".

Joyner's info is more recently backed up by a 2/27/07 Associated Press Report, "College Students think they're so Special", in which Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University is interviewed: "Kids are self-centered enough already," she says after examining the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide (who took the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006).

As if this "reward everyone" philosophy isn't enough, since 9/11/01 our efforts have been so great to show tolerance for non-violent Muslims that our educators have torn down America to schoolchildren, saying America is no better than any other country. Poppycock. Every U.S. citizen should visit a foreign country - and I'm not talking about a vacation spot. I'm talking about the down-and-dirty way people live in some places. Of course America is better. Better for freedoms. Better for lifestyle. Better for opportunities.

But our kids are no longer finding this out. How can they be patriots if they have no faith or enthusiasm for their own country? Parents who have given their kids everything they never had are creating ungrateful little monsters who are unwilling to work hard or take advice from anyone.

Once this happens - once the citizens are complacent - the stage is set for a grand takeover...dictatorship, an emperor, a king or mere anarchy. And from what I've studied about the very ultra-liberal National Education Association's agenda, this is the way they want it.

Learn more about this author, Shari Atwater.
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