Kids Today

I don't know if the conversations in our staff room reflect what's being talked about by people across the nation or world, but the popular belief I hear most often is, "families and children are going to hell in a hand basket". A belief I do not share.

I do believe that as technology progresses our choices of free time use change. I believe, as a society, we continue to become more casual with fewer boundaries. I also believe that both prosperity and poverty have profound effects on the world of a child. A prosperous person may believe they alone know what hard work is--> a sign they have never experienced poverty.

One long time work friend is a believer in the "hell in a hand basket" trend. Every year or so I feel the need to engage her on this topic. This time I decided to cite my own childhood and the varied children I grew up with. A week later, she revisited our exchange, but I soon realized she had taken my childhood and turned it into an abnormality,
"You grew up in a rough neighborhood".
"I grew up in a rural mill town", I replied.

My first feeling was to be alarmed how she had deemed my life experience to be something extraordinary. After mulling it over for a few days, I decided that she had wrapped my childhood up in a tidy package to keep it from influencing her belief. Are we all guilty of this? Or does it happen more often in people with a strict dogma? Whatever it is, I find it disturbing.