Don’t Call Me Old School

sletman — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:07:00 GMT

I recently turned 60 years old. I have retired from full time college teaching, having taught criminal justice administration at two major public and private universities for 35 years. I always believed that you should go out while you are on top of your game rather than waiting for someone to ask you to leave. And so I did. Now I am a full time lead faculty in criminal justice for AIU. I am still imparting knowledge to students in a new and exciting setting.

I recently went to a community meeting where a young man that I knew greeted me with "hello, old school, how are you." I was really taken aback by this because I do not consider myself old. This kind of greeting indicated to me how our 30 somethings look upon older Americans. They do not realize that many of the advantages that they have would not be possible if it were not for the efforts of "old schools". Many blacks, Latinos, and well-meaning whites fought for the rights of all of us during the civil rights movement. We sacrificed so that these young people would not have to go through what we went through.

But they just don't get it. They think that our knowledge and experience is outmoded and outdated. We really don't know anything and they won't listen to our advice. They think that they know everything. Anyone over 40 is obsolete.

I guess we created this monster by giving our children too much instead of making them work for what they got. They are the children of privilege and do not understand how good they have it. They are the children of the middle classes who were not originally middle class. Many of us old school people were the first people in our families to graduate from college. We went to school when there were no scholarships, no Pell grants, and no BOG grants. That was the case with me. All of these grants came into existence after I graduated from college. I had to work my way through college, law school, and graduate school. My child never had to work his way through anything. His parents paid for his education all the way through college because we did not want him to struggle like we did. Boy did we make a mistake. We should have made him dig ditches and do construction work in order to really appreciate the value of his education.

I am sure that other old school parents have similar stories to tell. This new generation, whether you call them generation X or generation 0, is one of the most arrogant, misguided, and unaware groups that I have ever seen. They don't know what life is all about and don't have enough sense to listen to their parents or anyone else older than them that could give them some words of wisdom. If this is our future and I have to depend on these people to take of me in my senior years, Lord take me home now

Search results matching tag 'Old School'

Don’t Call Me Old School