Kids These Days, Part Two
Posted August 17th, 2006 @ 04:49pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Are kids these days - high school kids - so different from when I was in school 10-12 years ago? Apparently they were. Yesterday, having called a penalty on a kid on the golf team I assistant coach, I was both flipped off and sworn at. Then the kid failed to accept the penalty.
After the coach had a talk with the kid, he apologized, but come on! The ways in which kids have changed since even a short while ago is appalling.
P.S. I just noticed that I wrote something else called "Kids These Days" last year about the golf team. It's here.
Donate Life
Posted 18 Aug 2006 at 5:07pm #
This is just one of the natural consequences to a society that accepts no limits on an individual's actions.
Posted 18 Aug 2006 at 8:49pm #
When we grow up with an "I'm the center of the universe" attitude that is reinforced by parents there are bound to be problems. Glad you were able to deal with it.
Posted 19 Aug 2006 at 6:31pm #
I'm not so sure it has changed _that_ much the last 10 years. I think you'd have to attribute some of the changes you experience to the fact that:
1. You are a lot more grown up, and "live in a grown-up world".
2. You are an assisting coach and will have to interact with a broader selection of youngsters.
What I mean is.. When you were younger you probably interacted more closely with people closer to your way of behaving, and even if you noticed the more "fuck you grow-ups" kids, you didn't take much notice because _you_ weren't the one being told to "go f*** yourself".
And this is not coming from "one of the cool guys". I'm on "your side" when talking about behaviour amongst younger people. But I've been a soccer-coach myself just 4-5 years ago, and frankly, the kids I trained was quite rude even being 10-15 years old!
I do think from time to time myself, being as "old" as 23, that "kids" these days are a lot more disrespectful than me and my peers were.. But I guess I've softened just a bit and written some of it off to the fact that I'm older and more "grown up".
Don't get me wrong.. I still think the younger generations these days have a lot less respect for the older and more experienced. But I think you should get more "used to" being "flipped off" sometimes these days if you are coaching kids..
Sorry for the rant.. I'm inbetween your age and the kids you coach, and felt like taking the middle road in my response as well 😉
Posted 19 Aug 2006 at 10:31pm #
I keep hearing this from people. This is only one kid, and know of a few adults that act like this. I don't think it's enough evidence to think our society as a group is allowing kids to be like this.
I think every generation of "old" people think the younger generation is getting less respectable. I'm not exactly a young man anymore nor am I old but I know plenty of good kids that would never act like this.
Posted 20 Aug 2006 at 8:00am #
Frode, as much as I'd like to think it's simply a matter of being on the other side, this is golf we're talking about. I was accutely aware of any behavior that wasn't very "golf-like" (i.e. gentlemanly behavior with respect for yourself, the rules, and others).
In my three years on the team, we had one person each year who acted like this, and one of them was kicked off the team.
The team(s) these years seem to have four or five of them. And I'm not sure any of the kids in my day would have ever argued about breaking a rule and not taken the penalty strokes.
I added a P.S. above, too.