Generation E

Right about the time I turned 18, my generation was being called the Y2K generation, the generation that was coming of age in the year 2000. We were the first to experience the Internet, the cell phone, text messaging, pager and MP3 players as an integral part of our growing up. Where our parents had taken typing in school we took computer class that concentrated in how to use the whole machine for every facet of your life rather than secretarial etiquette as our parents had. No to mention that all of this changed rapidly, there was always something new. The minute my grandmother learned to cope with the cordless phone, she had to contend with the cell phone, something she couldn't quite wrap her mind around. I'm curious as to what her reaction to we be today to learn of the demise of the pay phone and landlines. 

My other grandmother (who is about ten years younger) came of age not in the depression, but rather in the optimism and prosperity of a post-WWII America, in an age of consumption-ism and new technology that has only been outpaced within the last decade. While I agree that these advances are making us live longer, better, "healthier, " I have to wonder if we have created a generation of children (and perhaps adults) who are unable to fend for themselves. 

Before you go thinking I'm some Thoreausian  worshipper who wishes to withdraw from society and go live a life empty of the advances of society, read further for just a little perspective. I teach 5th grade, in an urban school district, with a population of children with their feet so firmly cemented on both sides of the Rio Grande that they haven't learned to speak (or read) either English or Spanish. While most of this is due to the fact that education policy has changed to rapidly to actually take hold and produce results, these children are also the product of what I'm calling Generation E. The Electronic generation that is no so saturated with instant gratification on the TV, on the computer, in the ear that they have lost, or never gained access to, the fundamentals. You the those things that I took for granted growing up: pens, pencils, paper, the written word, books, and how to read them. I won't even go into how they've been institutionalized in an education system that is such a slave to NCLB that all these children have learned how to do is look for every two or three words, circle this and that, and then fill in A, B, C, or D. Education has no become a business, profit is measured in the test score, not in what the child actually learned. 

Better yet, since these children are immigrants or the children of immigrants, they come from a home where the only option left to them was to come to the United States. They are the "huddled masses". One of my children told me today that they don't have any books in their house. This surprised me because he is one of the few that can read relatively well. On the other hand, because he (like most of the rest of my students) is a child of poverty, reading isn't exactly on the list of priorities. After my initial reaction, I just became enraged. 

Even worse, this is evident in my other classes, the "general ed" classes, even though most of these kids slip back into Spanish so frequently, in the hall, talking with friends in class, talking to me, that there is hardly a distinction between Bilingual and General Ed. In each class always the same thing. The same halting reading, not being able to explain what they just read, and even after being told the answer, not being able to repeat it back to me. I'm convinced that this has to do with the fact that no one ever sees Peter Griffin pick up a book on "Family Guy".  

So in the end, all of these things that Generation Y2K used because they were able to use it advantageously because they grasped the fundamentals, have turned into crutches of Generation E. Why read a book when you can scroll down on the Internet or learn something in a game. You don't need to know how to cradle (and cherish) a book because as long a you don't get the computer wet, it won't break. There is no need to read carefully (or for enjoyment) because all you have to do is read to bubble in a scan tron or find the Buzz Word. Not to mention that on the computer the Buzz Words are bold ed or flashing. There is no need to think, no need to process, just filling in the lettered bubble that corresponds to the right answer. Maintaining the Bottom Line. Then, because you're a child saturated in imagery from the TV and video games (remember no one plays outside anymore) there is no need no pretend or use your imagination. Not only do you not know what to do with the printed word, because you never use it properly, but you find no joy when you do see it because your brain doesn't know how to paint a picture in your head, only how to copy one from a screen. Sure, we're living longer, better, but are we really living smarter? At what cost are we paying for the convenience of 24-hour news and the world at a computer screen? Have we raised our tomorrow to be too helpless to help us when we need it?