How A Little Imagination Goes A Long Way (Or, “When I Was Your Age…”)

So I’m in a counseling session with one of my young clients, and I’m listening to her talk about her interests. And true to form with today’s crop of teenagers, the word “boring”—the personal bane of my existence—inevitably worked its way into our discourse. And no, you didn’t misread…I fatalistically anticipated that my client would assert how easily bored she becomes when faced with the prospect of doing something either constructive or—heaven forbid—as an alternative to inactivity.
Having worked with teens in one form or fashion for the last 15 years, I have observed that for whatever reason, today’s parents have failed miserably when it comes to instilling in the current generation of youth a sense of Imagination. Some may argue that today’s youth have quite a bit of imagination. If so, I challenge anyone to take away any form of technology that become commonplace today America youth and see how imaginatively impotent the average child in becomes.
Just as in my counseling session, when my young client complained how “boring reading” a newspaper and “journaling” were as a means to spur thinking and to focus thoughts (respectively), many of today’s youth have an aversion to devoting time to self-improvement, exploring the realms and recesses of their very thoughts, or just engaging their imagination in simply playing; never mind more complex exercises in cognitive engagement such as abstract thinking.
Simply put, many parents—and adults in general—have become lazy custodians, unwilling to say “no” to the materialistic indulgences and desires of today’s youths. And many are too busy to engage in the responsibility of direct parenting (or guardianship if they are left in our charge). We are too quick to give kids some shiny heavily-coveted objects of desire just to shut up their incessant whining and complaining that “I am bored.”


And to be honest, I’ve never quite understood the word “boring.” And while I understand the psychological mechanics of the concept, I just can’t wrap my mind around the idea that in a country where, from birth we’ve been indoctrinated to consume-to-satisfy, today’s young people simply cannot “find” something to keep themselves entertained. From my personal perspective, it’s “bored” people who are “boring.” In fact, I would go so far as to declare that boredom is the result of an untrained, unsophisticated, and unintelligent mind that lacks the imagination to keep itself occupied (or entertained). And like many things that are wrong with today’s youth, we have overly-emotional liberals and conservative we-know-what’s-best parents to thank for uninspiring today’s young people with their half-assed child-rearing.
When I was young (there…I said it), many families didn’t have the resources to buy things in order to keep us otherwise mind-occupied. For that, we were reared to develop and rely on our imaginations. One of the institutions where we learned to use our imaginations was—believe it or not—in the public schools of yesteryear.
Schools didn’t teach for standardized testing; creative and talented teachers had the skills and the ability to instill in us the creative—as opposed to standardized—thinking (even if we as children failed to appreciate their talents at the time). They tended to be older, wiser, seasoned, and not young and inexperienced enough to be our older sisters (or brothers). In lieu of some formal lessons, they could regale us with tales from their youth, and inspire us to work around problems which presented themselves. They inspired us to cut, paste, draw, write and write repeatedly…and we were graded on penmanship (which inspired some of us to be the most creative in adopting the most unique and/or the neatest handwriting). They had the experience to frame lessons in such a way as to compel us to ask questions to supplement what they were already teaching us. They made us want to melt crayons and iron the shape of maple leaves onto paper in order to understand their structure. They made us want to cut paper in the shapes of snowflakes. And like the cavemen of earlier times (which we learned about), the tools we used to help us learn were simple; we had to use scissors, glue, rulers, abacuses and (gasp) books if wanted to know about the world around us. They were given the freedom to teach, and not handcuffed by policy to ensure our “rights” were observed; most seasoned teachers had an instinctual awareness of both theirs and our rights as students. We were not allowed to use calculators. We were taught how they counted and added in ancient times…whether we thought doing such was relevant or not.
Today’s teachers are every bit as quick to take unimaginative shortcuts to learning as the students they rob of imagination. They lack the age-life experience of those who taught my generation. As such, they lack the experience gained through a life of relative simplicity and technological deprivation which imparted into us the appreciation of—and the encouragement to develop—wit as the source of our abilities. This is to say that the lack of technological sophistication which both our generation and the generation represented by the older teachers who taught us put on something of a parity insomuch as our will and confidence to use our heads to meet challenges; a if-s/he-can-do-it, so-can-I attitude. Schools taught those of us within the “X” Generation (as well as the early part of Generation “Y”) not to rely on scripted and imagination-curtailing only-this-way type of thinking in order to find solutions to problems, but to use the lack of technology to develop and arrive at our own solutions. Nowadays, unless they are unusually interested in learning and expanding their mental faculties, youth are more likely to seek any and every shortcut toward the goal of learning. They right-click, cut, and paste in order to “complete” assignments in school. They walk up next to the nearest computer terminal and type in a term, eschewing the legwork and effort of actual research, and simply copy the entry…almost verbatim onto paper. In worse cases—those requiring absolutely nothing in the way of imagination, they appropriate papers from each other. They are encouraged to use calculators. They are too quick to come up with excuses for why learning isn't important…and teachers, often too young and too inexperienced in life, do not have the insight to tell they why doing so is important.
But the lack of imagination that kids today have starts in the home, and translates into many other aspects of their lives. As a child, my own imagination was the best remedy for boredom, inactivity, and —at least in limited ways—a means to address the lack of economic resources which painted my reality. Whereas today’s crop of youth are quick to complain about “nothing to do”—despite their X-boxes, computer tablets, and access to unlimited learning—I had no issue with passing my time walking to the local public library, just reading and learning about the world the old-fashioned way…actually seeking out knowledge instead of sitting on my butt at home on a computer, searching for irrelevant pop culture references. Whereas kids today are quick to become “bored” with all of their electronic gadgetry, I made my own toys; the “unusable” cardboard roll from paper towels, combined cut cardboard strips made a very realistic looking “X-Wing” Fighter a-la “Star Wars” to use with my action figures. And whereas today’s kids are always looking for someone to give them money (or things), out of a misplaced sense of entitlement rather than duty, I would team up with siblings, other relatives, or friends to go out to look for aluminum cans for recycling money, searching the city for abandoned cans and bottles to recover the deposits, or to secure a ride out to farming areas to work the farms for a little summer money. Others I knew had similar hustles, including paper routes, cutting lawns, raking leaves, and other colorful ways of making an honest buck. Having work with children for the last 15 years, I often find myself standing in silent disbelief at the lack of imagination, and by extension, the lack of creative thinking among today’s youth.
As a child, I routinely found myself in the company with peers who were just as imaginative as I. As kids, we would (for example) not just read fiction but use a combination of staplers, paper, creative folding, and actual penmanship to actually make our own “books” to share among each other. We could (and did) scavenge for bicycle parts from all over the city to build our own bikes; as you can imagine, we addressed “boredom,” not complained about it. And we would work together to secure ways to secure money…work together to find (or make) work.
The lack of something as small as imagination among today’s youth has resulted in a generation of lazy, uninspired, and cognitively unsophisticated future Americans. And the more we force them to focus on things, the less they will be capable of developing themselves and contribute to developing our country.

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Yes Virginia, There ARE "Lazy Americans!" (Part 2)

(02/09/12 - Writer's Note: I want to extend my apologies to all of the regular readers of Beyond The Political Spectrum for the delay in posting my latest items. I have just completed a major move and career change over the past couple of months, and needless to say that affected regularly timely posting. Current issues in the news have provided me with much to post about over the past couple of months, so stay tuned for more exploration of these issues).

It’s funny how some things work out. Last posting (which seems like a lifetime ago, again apologies), I chronicled how in fact, Americans were indeed lazy when, in preparing for this follow up I came across a piece in a recent edition of USAToday. The report highlighted research revealing how the internet and related technology has enabled cheating in public schools to go high-tech (“eCheating: Students Find High Tech Ways To Deceive Teachers"). It also validated my previous observation about how lazy Americans (and our children) are.
But education is not the only area where our sloth reigns.


Relationships

Perhaps no segment in American society illustrates our laziness more than our approach to relationships. Some of us change partners with greater frequency than changing our underwear, with no time in-between romps for assessing ourselves (or what went wrong in the previous relationships). Leading the way among industrialized nations, America’s divorce rate is second to none. This reality is based on, in part our laziness toward the effort it takes to make relationships last beyond our selfish realization that our partners don’t measure up to our internalized expectations. Divorce has simply become too convenient, and is the only aspect of this insanity that we are (ironically) willing to put work into.

In a time of exaggerated self-importance—exemplified, if not spurred, by the proliferation of personal web pages, personality-driven “reality” television shows (making everyday people famous-for-nothing), and You Tube—the selfishness of the me mindset has infected relationships to the point where anyone who doesn’t cater to our selfish desires and/or expectations are summarily dismissed. The institution of marriage notwithstanding, the notion of “compromise” is usually not given even a brief consideration. Men have grown too selfish and uncaring in the consideration (or lack thereof) and respect for their female significant others. While women have grown too demanding in expecting men to cater to a Hollywood-ized sense of romance, as well as selfishness in making their feelings the primary issue in relationships.
Compromise has become one of those moralistically-attractive words used by individuals who soap box about how about how relationships can be made better, but are often just as guilty in being a part of the same mindset of lazy selfishness. When we’re fed-up with our partners, many of us are too lazy to inform them that they are about to be trashed (totally unaware, in many cases, that they themselves are perpetuating a cycle whereby the dumper is doing what was done to themselves sometime prior). The feelings of another have become disposable casualties of our laziness to see or empathize beyond ourselves, work through issues, consider our partners, and/or work through our own individual issues before jumping seeking out (another) romantic relationship (why put forth such effort when it’s so much easier to blame another for either not living up to our idealized expectations or catering to our impatience). And such sloth has created a cottage industry of “relationship experts” whose private offices, magazine and newspaper columns, and television segments have multitudes of people lining up to seek their advice—instead of looking inward and applying a little common sense effort to our relationships. As with many things, we look to others to do the work we ourselves should be doing.


Child-Rearing

How we raise our children is a subject I find myself writing about often…maybe because I have spent much of the last 13 years working with and observing them. Simply put, many Americans have put the onus for instilling desirable values in their children on elements of society rather than taking personal responsibility, as common sense dictates.
During times past, when most of society shared the same level of constructive and positive family values, America as a society—institutions outside of the nuclear family comprised of schools, neighbors, churches, and extended family—could be trusted to supplement in-home child-rearing. In school, we were taught about the negative effects of alcohol and drugs use, and corporal punishment was an occasionally-used option to keep unruly and disruptive children in-line with the rest of the class. Teachers were every bit as respected by children as their parents.
Truant (or assigned police) officers could be trusted to keep a vigilant eye out for children who suddenly forgot the direction to their school.
Neighbor s didn’t mind—indeed felt obligated to—“being nosey,” and informing responsible parents about the illicit shenanigans of their children.
Respect for adult authority was a foregone conclusion.
And in the home, parents lived up to their moral (and legal) obligations to directly parent their children. Education was reinforced (and cherished) more than sports or extra-curricular activities; school attendance was closely-monitored.
Teenage pregnancies were rare occurrences which brought a level of shame to a decent family.
Responsible parents not only knew their children’ whereabouts, but the names of their friends (or at least a family member) they ran around with. They were able to look their children in the eyes and tell whether or not they were lying, so activities like drugs and cigarette smoking were non-starters.
At the time, parents didn’t coddle children in an effort to protect them from themselves. Bruises, scrapes, black eyes, even more serious potential injuries were a part of growing up. The word "no" had meaning, and children were not allowed to question "why."
Children were raised to be tough, to accept hardships as a part of reality...without whining about every little hangnail or papercut.
Children had structure, chores, an understanding for the need to work around the neighborhood in an effort to earn extra money, and a sense of duty to help keep them out of trouble.
And parents actually did the caring and raising…not video games, not cable-music television, and definitely not other individuals.
But with lazy parenting now the norm, children today have a sense of entitlement rather than duty. This is partly because lazy parents often indulge their children in order to receive momentary compliance, or as a guilt-filler for perceived deficiencies. Parents are unable to discipline their children in the traditional manner of occasional whippings because people lack the will to collectively challenge the authority of (arguably) well-intentioned but ineffective elected officials and New Age clinicians who have revised this parental obligation.
The lack of real options in sanctioning unruly children has today’s children thinking they are the equal of adults. Indeed, many children take the vacuum created by making in-school and in-home corporal punishment illegal to assert blatant disrespect and disobedience toward their parents, even verbally threatening to call the authorities if a parents dares to exercise their right to punish their defiance. It’s no wonder why so many teens become parents, equating puberty with adulthood.

Low-paid convenient store employees are expected to expand their responsibilities and take on the role of parents to police young people looking to illegally buy cigarettes.
Truancy and dropout rates have exploded, almost reflecting a level of apathy or fatalism among adults today who are not up to the task of ensuring children are attending school
Teachers are disrespected scapegoats for irresponsible and uneducated parents who expect classroom instructors to their children without parental support or discipline from home.
Doing drugs is no longer an activity to be shied away from, but—in extreme cases that I’ve seen—an activity to be shared between young people and “cool” adults…including irresponsible parents, too lazy to bother fighting against their children’ need to fit-in.
In truth, our youth are the way they are not so much as a result of the choices they make, but because of the influences of irresponsible adults, lazy parenting, and a society that has forgotten that things were better when everyone worked to make sure that young people did what right, and not concerned themselves with children liked.
Again, our quality of collective laziness crosses beyond the lines of the family and relationships.

…To Be Concluded.

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Yes Virginia, There ARE "Lazy Americans!" (Part 1)

Early last week, President Obama received a moderate amount of flack because of a remark he made—within the context of a speech about whether America is doing its best to compete against other economic powers globally—about how Americans have been “lazy” in regards to focusing on our economic priorities. And naturally politicians (being the creatures of opportunity they are) and other assorted talking heads wasted no time in highlighting (or rather crafting) the president’s implied lazy American “insult” in official statements and opinion pieces. Republican Party presidential nominee candidate Rick Perry has even misleadingly parlayed Obama’s “insult” into a television campaign ad.



Sadly, predictably, and ironically, taking the president’s overall message out of context to form a straw man argument is a tried and proven method for conditioning mentally lazy Americans—those who make up a great many among the potential voting electorate who don’t objectively research issues—into believing the worst of an ideological opposite. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of employing this tactic.
But despite the distortion of the president’s message, the reality is that Americans are indeed lazy! Part of this stems from our desire to squeeze as much economic profit from so little effort or investment of what resources we have to utilize, whether they be mental, monetary, material, or spiritual resources. The remainder of the reasons derives from the erosion of the values which propelled America to the zenith of global and military dominance.
To the contrary, those in denial are usually quick to reassure us that America is [still] #1 in virtually everything we do. Common sense (with a helpful dose of reality) dictates that this isn’t true…far from it in fact. The recent trouble with Detroit’s auto industry proves this in the realm of auto manufacturing. When it comes to health care spending as a portion of a country’s gross domestic spending, other countries spend far less than America…and manage to cover the majority of their citizens—without the pretense by some political quarters that (somehow) our “rights” as citizens will be in jeopardy if all Americans are somehow covered by affordable health insurance. And depending on which survey/study you read, there are at least 14 countries whose student’s standardized test scores—as a reflection of the quality of their education and student motivation—are far ahead of lagging American students. In many ways, American arrogance is sorely misplaced.
And when such shortcomings are pointed out by souls brave enough to withstand the predictable barrage of oncoming criticism for their “anti-patriotic” overtones, they are invariably glossed over (read: ignored) by those who would portray themselves as defenders of American idealism. These people do themselves and the country a disservice when they attempt to stir a sense of national pride in American ingenuity which is fit more for memories of a bygone era than as contemporary “proof” of what we can do as a country. Instead of being ashamed when comparing ourselves to the rest of the industrialized world, we gloss over failings with misplaced patriotism, which touts innovation which rarely applies in the current world.
Why this conclusion? In many areas, the reality speaks for itself.

Public Education

What can be said about the public education system in America which hasn’t already been said? Too much government mandate. Too little regulation. Too much or too little local control. Government control vs. private innovation. Bad teachers. Good teachers who aren’t compensated enough. Too much or too little parental involvement. The list goes on. But whatever side one takes or whatever reasoning one assumes, the bottom line is that Americans put far more effort into bickering, arguing, and comparing ideological schools of thought on how best to fix our schools than actually remedying even the most fixable of basic roadblocks hindering an effective (and competitive) education.
Anecdotally and realistically, the curriculums in most American public schools are not challenging enough, nor are the learning environments in many schools functional enough for the formation of a globally competitive citizenry. We’ve known this for the last generation, but we lack the collective will to make the hard decisions as public servants, parents, politicians, and concerned individuals to change this. We know that our public school students’ performance as a nation is well below that of other students from “second class” countries; the comparative standardized test scores don’t lie (but I’m sure that those who don’t agree will find some “flaw” in the methodology). Having spent a great deal of time in and around colleges, I know firsthand that many foreign students take their studies in American colleges far more seriously than their American counterparts. This is a reality is based in part on the fact that many—if not most—of these students hail from countries whose public/primary school systems prepare them to face education abroad with a love of learning, disciplined structure, and in many cases the cultural banking of respect for teachers (as well as authority figures). Even in countries ravaged by war, civil strife, and other calamities, there are instances of children compelled to make their way—some by a sense of duty or personal conviction—to schools some distance away from home in order for them to learn.
One the other hand, we Americans program in our children a sense of entitlement rather than duty. Working currently with at-risk teens at an alternative school, I can’t tell how many times I’ve silently sighed in exasperation as I experience daily how pampered and lazy American children are academically (and in most other ways which count). Many, if not most middle and high school students—especially in urban and city schools—view books and reading in general as a chore given as a form of punishment. Trying to get some students to write is comparable to trying to bathe a house cat. And the respect for teachers is anything but…. Our schools are brimming with lazy students, too uninspired and unmotivated to open their minds to anything beyond the misplaced sense of self-importance and self-absorption their parents helped to impart them with. American students are (somewhat in many cases) indulged by having economic and material resources diverted to creating and maintaining morally and philosophically questionable “investments” such as police/resource officers, accommodation for special needs, and so forth. Such resources are financial and material burdens placed public education by bad/lazy parents who feel they have “rights” enough to allow their disruptive children (discounting those with bona-fide handicaps. What I’m speaking of are the many students over-diagnosed with afflictions such as “Oppositional Defiance Disorder” and other similar “disorders”) to negatively impact the education of those striving to learn in otherwise challenging environments (See: Related Article).
And those students who do take their studies seriously, some are too lazy to actually take the time and effort to learn. Many American students have been socialized with a new but warped set or moral imperatives that compel them to seek the quickest, least labor-involved way to carry out their study requirements. Online term papers, cutting and pasting, and half-hearted efforts are only few of the usual ways that American students showcase their lack of initiative. Once the sole province of a relatively few “slackers,” in our public schools, cheating, taking shortcuts, and/or just laziness has become the new norm in most public schools throughout America. Just last month, several New York area university graduate students were arrested for their involvement in a scheme in which they were paid by high school students to take the SAT college entrance exam for them. In another example, law enforcement authorities and college officials have been made aware of the growing trend of high school and college students obtaining by illegal pretenses (or purchasing on the black market) the ADHD prescription drug Adderall.


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Sometimes called the “smart pill,” abusers are taking the drug as a way of increasing concentration needed to complete multiple assignments so that, in many cases, they are able to engage in more extracurricular activities. Finally, the recent reporting of several standardized testing scandals—aided by public school officials—in public school throughout the country attest to the new culture of thinking that many of our American students have latched onto. It’s no wonder American students seek shortcuts and embrace laziness; they are learning their laziness from adults (See: "And Now A New Standardized Testing Scandal" and "A Scandal of Cheating And A Fall From Grace").

To Be Continued

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