Age and knowing certain things...

One of the many reasons I stopped teaching after 30 years is my students understood my references less each year. The things they were interested in were usually puzzling or unknown to me. I couldn't relate to them as I once did and I'm sure the converse was also true. I've never seen a Marvel movie because they seem silly to me. I saw the first 3 original Star Wars movies when they were released, but had no interest in seeing them after that. The music my students listened to was nothing I would purposely play. A young person not knowing who Elvis is, seems par for the course. The things we think are relevant are not the same things the next generations appreciate.
 
I used to think my parents were both incredibly ignorant of modern events and stuck in the past.

Then I became a father and found out how much fun it is to be deliberately incorrect about their modern interests and to confuse them with very dated references and it occurred that maybe I was the one getting played.
 
Stelth said:
One of the many reasons I stopped teaching after 30 years is my students understood my references less each year. The things they were interested in were usually puzzling or unknown to me. I couldn't relate to them as I once did and I'm sure the converse was also true. I've never seen a Marvel movie because they seem silly to me. I saw the first 3 original Star Wars movies when they were released, but had no interest in seeing them after that. The music my students listened to was nothing I would purposely play. A young person not knowing who Elvis is, seems par for the course. The things we think are relevant are not the same things the next generations appreciate.
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I can relate. The last few years before I retired, my frequent references to old movies and TV shows became famous in my Department, because nobody else knew or remembered them.
 
Sure, people may not remember “Ironside” or Perry Cuomo, but couldn’t there be a minimum level of knowledge continuity over the years for certain things?

E.g., the checkout lady had a tattoo of the “16 chapel.” Really?
 
annr said:
And they are hoping you are (young enough?) not going to know the difference?
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These are the people that were proud that they showed up ( close to) on time and were perfectly happy to bask in that accomplishment.
 
Ebbtide said:
These are the people that were proud that they showed up ( close to) on time and were perfectly happy to bask in that accomplishment.
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Around here we refer to the "participation trophy"--you get a prize for showing up!

I'm not that old and things were so different coming up the line. The teacher's goal was to wash you out of the program. I can hardly count the times when I heard we were all a bunch of screw-ups, would step in every pile of crap, etc., what soft underbellies we had.... How were we ever accepted (with our ineptitude)? I had one teacher who made me do things over and over and over again (maybe 100 times) until I screwed up: See! You don't really know how to do it. (he had a point, there was no room for error, even though mistakes happen). I think this would all be considered abuse now.

Not long after, faculty were dealt with harshly for criticizing basic skills that required criticism to correct ....but at least those people showed up!:(
 
Maximumbob54 said:
Ate breakfast at a local place this morning and was chit chatting with the manager. He commented he struggles to get the opening staff to show up on time to be able to actually open. I asked why he doesn't replace them. He said it's better than no one. As in that's the best they can get around here.
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That's true here in Brevard co. FL, as most places I suspect. I,m in the Bar Restaurant industry. We may have it worse than other tho.
 
I am getting up there and have a lot of stories from life and work. I know young people who enjoy the stories and others that do not, sometimes they know of the subjects in the story and sometimes they do not. Then there are those times as one gets older that people get bored with hearing that same story for the who knows how many times. Every generation moves on from what the past one thought was so important, especially in art, music and social interests.
I was a professional photographer working in the entertainment field, and yes somethings were better then but a lot is better now. It is all an adventure one just needs the ability to adapt as the world changes. The strange thing for me now is that so many times when some celebrity passes away, one of my images of them shows up on the local news with the story. I do not expect my grand kids to know or remember these people, they were not around.
My main criticism of the attitudes of now, is that many complain of their economic situation, when in fact they are far better off now than many in the past. The thing that has changed is that we have all acquired and bought so much more stuff, then we used to think were the necessities. I grew up in a middle class home, we had one house phone, one car, one tv, two potable radios, we ate at home, the vacations were car trips, we did not buy all sorts of stuff. Saying this does not in any way say I have restrained myself, I have way too much stuff including way more knives than I need.
 
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