<p>Wow- am waking tup to read som eseriouls mud-slinging that occurred last night. This is starting to sound like a political thread…</p>
<p>This thread is now about pretty much anything.</p>
<p>Apologies for the typos above, as usual. That said, Threads should stay on topic. If they are allowed to be about anything, then the point of having forums and subtopics and threads is lost. If someone wants to talk about something off topic, they should start a separate thread. JMO.</p>
<p>but but but coddling and kitchen sink go together?</p>
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What? Our popular cullture is rightfully fuill of tributes to our parent’s generation and its sacrifice for us. Ever heard of “The Greatest Generation.” Nobody I know would fail to acknowledge the contribution of our parent’s generation. In fact, you are the one repeating the popular meme which is that were the greatest and we are worthless.</p>
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The book on the future generations is still to be written. Up until around the mid 2000s, the tuition at UC was not as astronomical as that which you are now complaining about, it has actually gone down at times. So where it goes from here is not necessrily a forgone conclusion. And I continue to insist that the level of tuition at the state flagship is but one relatively minor data point in accessing the performance of an entire group of people. Do more kids attain a bachelor’s degree now than in 1960? Is there more access to quality education for children of color now than in 1960? I don’t know but those would be interesting markers. But still not the whole story. And our generation is still living, mainly, so the entire book has not been written on us either.</p>
<p>Ever heard of the sandwich generation? Because of the life extending advances we’ve made over the last couple decades many of us are now caring for both children and elderly adults. </p>
<p>Many of the college age children of today, just like always, are the progeny of hard working immigrants who came to this country with nothing. To generalize a generation would include them among the coddled masses yearning for something free.</p>
<p>Kids these days are still able to do many of the things on your “list”. As far as the tuition, if I was intending to look out for myself and let the chips fall where they may I guess I screwed myself over because I’m now the one paying for my kid’s school. And I’ll pay for all of it. He’ll leave with less debt than I did.</p>
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You translated what I said into basically “I’ve got mine, screw you” then proceeded to label that the rantings of an entitled ingrate. </p>
<p>At any rate, we’ll never agree. I think all this generalization and labelling is counter productive period. So I’m done responding.</p>
<p>Sure, this thread has followed completely on topic:
- Our children are coddled and entitled.
- No we aren’t, you are.
- Plus you messed it up for your children.
- No we didn’t and you don’t have it so bad.</p>
<p>Makes perfect sense to me, and bovertine put us back on track.
Ignore my posts if you want to stay on topic, I’m easily distracted (look, squirrel!!</p>
<p>I dunno. This thread could use a good weed-whacking. Clients come in for one problem and then start talking about their ex and how they felt burned by the divorce. I bring up the topic of what was on sale at the supermarket just to break the diatribe. They start talking about their bowels. I say, nice weather, huh? You know.</p>
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I felt an obligation since I’m the one who pulled you off-track. After LI’s post, I mentioned the 1% to try to recruit you to my side of the other argument :)</p>
<p>^^Dang it, suckered and manipulated again. I was trying to stay out of the fray and just watch you guys go at it.</p>
<p>Yeah, I do the same thing, PolarBear. Before you know it, we’ll be talking about desserts and dogs, and everyone will be friends again. Or so irritated they have left the scene.</p>
<p>Now, how about those coddled and entitled kids?</p>
<p>Wah. Coddled and entitled child here as I’m 3 hours in to my typical 40 hour work week. Lucky me, I get to go back to school full time this week too! :D</p>
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<p>Here’s a trend on national debt from the latest Fortune that may be related to coddledness, i.e, how much one’s entitled to spend (figure in the middle of pager): [Obama:</a> A president ready for a showdown - The Term Sheet: Fortune’s deals blog Term Sheet](<a href=“http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/16/obama-election-economy/]Obama:”>http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/16/obama-election-economy/)</p>
<p>kluge: Thank you for taking the time to post. I especially appreciate #211. </p>
<p>Besides being practically impossible to work your way through college these days, even finding the work that might make that a possibility is a different proposition than what our generation experienced.</p>
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</p>
<p>[Employment</a> Rate For Young Adults Lowest In 60 Years, Study Says](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Employment Rate For Young Adults Lowest In 60 Years, Study Says | HuffPost Impact)</p>
<p>Anecdotal evidence: I work above full time in the summer, but below in school year. I earn a fair bit above minimum wage. Even at full time (which is impossible to with during the school year because of scheduling conflicts so I only work 30-ish hours), year round, WITHOUT ANY TAXES taken out, I still wouldn’t be able to come up with the full COA at my public U without aid.</p>
<p>That’s mind boggling to many who went to college 20+ years ago.</p>
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<p>Especially after some older folks I’ve met who grew up/were adults in the 50’s/early 60’s that many state university systems were free or close to it and/or admissions were open enrollment for in-state residents. </p>
<p>However, the way those states dealt with the influx of in-state residents using heavy state subsidies with academic preparation all over the map was to institute a system-wide weedout policy for in-state students. A reason why around half or sometimes more of the incoming in-state freshman class were weeded out by the end of sophomore year. </p>
<p>It’s also a reason why some supervisors who attended such state universities in the 40’s and 50’s and made it to graduation mentioned how the gap between the academic prep/intelligence of the average in-stater vs OOS student was probably much greater back then. </p>
<p>As a result, many 50’s/early 60’s era students who attended state schools may have paid a pittance or even nothing for their state university educations and received a degree which was highly respected because getting to graduation was so competitive.</p>
<p>Incidentally, while CUNY didn’t have open admission policies until the late '60’s*, tuition for city residents was free until the mid-'70s according to CUNY’s own website.</p>
<ul>
<li>Such policies were eventually curtailed and eliminated from the late '90s till sometime in the '00s.</li>
</ul>
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<p>Well, that’s certainly true and nowhere was it more true than in a computer science class because time on the mainframe was so horribly expensive. I had an instructor who strictly graded on a curve – and constantly recurved your previous tests downward as students dropped the class. This, of course, caused even more students to drop the class as their previous Cs headed toward Fs. I started with a low A and ended up with a C after 80% of the class dropped out. </p>
<p>Much of my point loss was due to replacing a single punchcard in a 4-inch high stack and making a typo on that card, omitting a comma. Since turnaround time was upwards of 45 minutes, I never re-ran the stack before submitting the assignment.</p>
<p>If there’s one place today’s youth are “coddled,” it’s with computer programming where minor debugging can take mere seconds.</p>
<p>Kids today. So coddled. When I was but a tween, and made only nine cents a year, we didn’t have electricity ne’er had we what is called these days the powered machinery. When I wanted an orange frappe, I had to hand-mine my petroleum right from the ground and convert it to plastic using firewood and an hourglass. And then I had to grow the orange from seed, walking 800 miles to Florida and back, each day, to water the precious fruit of the earth. Finally, I had to grow my own cow, and perform my own psychological encouragement of it to perform better in producing milk. That was after I had to develop an ad hoc form of psychology from shreds of greek astrology I gleaned from an ancient forbidden Codex hidden in the catacombs of the Monastery. Oh, and I had to invent refrigeration myself, dagumit, too, to make the ice. All so’s I could enjoy a simple orange frappe that you all now take for granted. And then I got an urge to have some Thai food, so I had to invent the powered helical screw propulsion, and international shipping, so I could transport Thai people to the States…</p>
<p>Kids these days. Just spoiled.</p>
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<p>I can agree with computer debugging being easier than old punch cards. </p>
<p>On the other hand, my point about the weedout issues in 50’s/early 60’s era state universities was that according to those who attended them in that era, the weedout policies for in-staters was system-wide…whether you majored in Poli-Sci, English lit, or STEM…you’re just as likely to be weeded out within the first two years because the state governments, public universities, and to some extent…the taxpaying state residents of the time all implemented incentives to ensure only the top performers among the open-enrollment incoming in-state freshmen are allowed to advance to upperclass years and graduation. </p>
<p>Heard some popular prestigious French universities have similar system-wide weedout policies for their students. Only difference is they cull weaker students till the very last year through curved year-end final exams.</p>
<p>"If there’s one place today’s youth are “coddled,” it’s with computer programming where minor debugging can take mere seconds. "</p>
<p>-So untrue. Systems got so much much more complicated, there is never mere seconds, you are lucky if it take mere couple of days, very, very lucky…</p>
<p>Coddled? There have been 37 people killed in Chicago incidents over the weekend. A kid in Maryland gets killed at school on the first day of school. That’s just this last week.</p>
<p>Honestly, do any of you recall actually fearing for your life as a child? If so, please explain.</p>
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<p>Yes considering I grew up in what was once a working-class NYC neighborhood where muggings were commonplace. </p>
<p>Had an elementary school classmate gunned down coming home from school for being caught in a shootout between two rival drug gangs while coming home from school. I’ve also had the experience of being beaten up on the streets/school/public transit and held at gunpoint in my family’s apartment as an adolescent. </p>
<p>Compared to growing up in the NYC of the 1980’s and early '90s…today’s NYC seems much much safer in comparison.</p>