Re: Kids.....(Easy scapegoats aren't they?)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Mary Shaw" <mary.shaw () gmail com>
Date: November 17, 2008 8:16:02 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Kids.....(Easy scapegoats aren't they?)

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for  
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place  
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their  
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They  
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties  
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

This was attributed to Socrates by Plato (according to Bartleby.com).   
It is a customary activity of each generation to complain about the  
younger generation, just as it is a customary activity of each  
generation to cause shock and consternation in the elder generation.

That said, Anthony Watson makes a number of sweeping and overreaching  
claims.  Rahul and Christian mentioned several.  Another is the bit  
about social security -- I've been paying full freight into social  
security all the time I've been at the university, and I also pay into  
a private retirement plan that I plan to use to support my  
retirement.  I have had many excellent students who worked to learn,  
and I have also had my share of students who want me to "give" them  
grades they have not earned (sorry, I don't "give" grades, you EARN  
them).  Brashness and exaggeration is another customary activity of  
youth (would that more people grew out of it as they enter the next  
generation). and beating back the exaggerations is another privilege  
of age.

Mary Shaw

On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 6:24 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:


Begin forwarded message:

From: Christian Huitema <huitema () windows microsoft com>
Date: November 16, 2008 8:12:03 PM EST
To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>, ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: RE: [IP] WORTH READING    Kids.....(Easy scapegoats aren't  
they?)

To provoke thinking is one thing, to forward urban legends another.  
The attribution of the "message to kids" to Bill Gates belong to the  
second category. Check http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm 
 for a debunking. According to this page, the text itself a pared- 
down version of an op-ed piece that appeared in the San Diego Union- 
Tribune on September 19, 1996. It was written by Charles J. Sykes,  
best known as the author of "Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American  
Children Feel Good about Themselves, but Can't Read, Write, or Add."   
Drastically edited by person(s) unknown, it began making the email  
rounds under Bill Gates' name in February 2000 and is still, as of  
this writing in 2005, far more often attributed to Gates than to Sykes  
— which is unfortunate, but, like the man said: Life isn't fair; get  
used to it.

-- Christian Huitema

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