<p>This generation of parents – the children of the Sixties and all that – have, rather bizarrely I think, doted much too heavily on their kids. This has made these kids more dependent and turned the parents into a generation of aging busybodies. I say this as a 40 year high school teacher who has dealt with many of them. My own parents never once called any of my teachers to inquire how I was doing. I do admit I had one math tutor for a couple months but only because my math teacher insisted. Today’s kids are more likely to have serial academic help just to survive in school. For my Dad, a look at the report card was sufficient. They did not want to get involved in my high school. </p>
<p>When they dropped me off at Colgate in 1966, they met my roommates, went down into Hamilton and picked up a lamp, a rug, and a waste basket, dropped them off in my room while I was at a freshman class meeting, and left. No tears, no campus tour, no hanging around, nothing. “Have a nice time, son. Bye.” That’s how that generation did things. Short and simple. My generation, the Baby Boomers, seems to have reinvented emotional dependency, perhaps based on our experimenting with sensitivity and touchy feeliness in our younger years. Who knows? It’s not a pretty picture. </p>
<p>As far as taking your child to college, Colgate wants you to leave promptly – just as any other school does. When we dropped our daughter off, though, I have to admit we did hang around quite late in the day and had to drag ourselves away after awhile. Not a good idea. What were we thinking? That she’d be unable to cope? She coped just fine. Now she’s a rugby player who seems to enjoy bloodshed. Who knew?</p>