Back when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, it was a different world. All us kids looked the same, Davy Crockett Coon skin hats, or a Cowboy hat. After school we put on our sixshooters and went out and played Cowboys and Indians. We all went to school to learn, and did not like or associate with the few who did not want to learn. We respected our teachers, and our elders. If we did not we were taught better when Dad got home that night. We all wanted to make something of our selves. To do better than our parents. We had drive and motivation to reach for the stars.
As the years went by for different reason some of us fell along the way. For one reason or another we were not able to attain our goals, or we lowered our expectations. In many cases we set new goals that were attainable. My goals were to never be a dirt farmer, and to leave Tennessee. Also to go as far as my life experiences would let me. One of my goals was to finish college. But at the age of 40, having retired from the Air Force, and working as a pipe fitter, I reset that goal. Here I was working in the trades, supervising a crew, and making more money than my Brother-in-law, who had an Electrical Engineering degree. I also realized my work experience was worth more than a degree to my career.
My wife and I waited 13 years before having our son. We were both older, and settled in our ways. Our son was born just as I retired from the AF. I stayed home and played Mr. Mom for the first six months. We raised our son to have the same values and ethics we had. We were very much involved with his everyday life. From the beginning we told him he was going to college. We groomed him for college so to speak. He has always understood he was going to college. We did not like what we were seeing in the public schools. Drugs, and a very different attitude than we wanted our son to have. So we struggled and sent him to a private school. Again we were very much involved with the school, and what he did. But being exposed to teachers that helped motivate him, and give him the drive to excell, was a very good decision on our part.
Then I look at the other kids in our community who went to the public school. Alaska has a 65% drop out rate for high school. With no education, those kids can not find work that will pay the bills to live here in Fairbanks. They are soon gone, they go south to someplace in the lower 48, where they can much off Grandma, or find work to feed themselves while they move from shelter to shelter. Yet they seem to be able to come up with money for Tattoos, and Piercings. Of the ones that finish high school, some go on to college, some go to trade schools, the rest find employement around town. Few have money for the wierd hairdoos, plus you can't have a two foot high multicolored mohawk when it's 30 to 40 below, you have to wear a hat. We don't see very many guys running around with his pants down around his thighs. Oh there is a few, during the summer, but when winter comes along, the pants go up.
Some of the young people I see will go far. Yet others are a part of the entitlement society, who feel they are owed something just for existing. That did not exist when I was growing up.
