Try to change their minds or stop whining
Having spent the past 5 years working with adults and their children from various countries (I'm tired of saying "cultural backgrounds") I began to look into this apparent American value regarding the tired concept of pulling yourself up from the bootstraps. From my own general opinion, I was under the impression that there are obviously other countries who may be known for being more industrious and self-motivated than Americans, especially during the peaks when the U.S. caught the reputation for being fat, lazy, and wasteful. I know this is an old argument that has clung on still, but now I can tell you that reputation has fizzled out for the most part. A different reputation is forming, it seems, and not the one I'm addressing in this entry but maybe another day I'll explore that.
But anyways. In my early years my family taught me that entire populations of people cannot be generalized. Blah blah. Fast forward to now as a working adult, I am surprised at the number of parents I talk to who still think that they want to teach their kids how to be capitalistic, individually-driven, and pretty much a cowboy like American industry leaders apparently are. According to this vision, anyone successful, even just a small shop owner, a manager at a cell phone company, or someone like me who teaches in classrooms, has some magic juice of motivation that has naturally soaked up through my shoes from this country's soil. Any small promotion is given a nod for that person's hard work and apparent smug motivation. But it's different somehow than a promotion if they were still in their home country, which makes me suspicious this is a grass-is-greener phenomenon.
Most of the people I speak with are not out to be the next big name in Nike or secretary of state or medical chemist extraordinairre, but just better than zero. And it's not like the people from the country they migrated from don't have the same interests, it's just that apparently U.S. workers go about it with a different mentality and core motivation. Yet I can't help but call bullshit. Is the American Dream somehow still being advertised at bus stops in certain neighborhoods around town I'm not privvy to? I thought it died a long time ago - and I say this in the most optimistic way possible. I mean the selfish reasoning that came along with it.
Then I turn and look at their kid(s). It's not fair their parents weird adult intentions are already being imposed on them when all they want to do is play soccer, open and close phone apps, laugh, and try not to get picked on or get on the wrong bus. Call me a stuck up college student but I agree wholeheartedly with Nietzsche's criticism on our modern species' debilitating obsession with the past, what was, what we think we can say about "now" because of our memory of what had been. Now THAT topic and all the strong feelings I harbor is a topic for another day as well (as I rub my hands together and salivate like I'm choosing a cupcake). How about creating a new world, a better one than all the cultures' of today and yesterday have ever created before?
Doing things differently than others. Differently from successful people. This will result in innovation and progress, not copying perceived paths and imposing it artificially on children.
But anyways. In my early years my family taught me that entire populations of people cannot be generalized. Blah blah. Fast forward to now as a working adult, I am surprised at the number of parents I talk to who still think that they want to teach their kids how to be capitalistic, individually-driven, and pretty much a cowboy like American industry leaders apparently are. According to this vision, anyone successful, even just a small shop owner, a manager at a cell phone company, or someone like me who teaches in classrooms, has some magic juice of motivation that has naturally soaked up through my shoes from this country's soil. Any small promotion is given a nod for that person's hard work and apparent smug motivation. But it's different somehow than a promotion if they were still in their home country, which makes me suspicious this is a grass-is-greener phenomenon.
Most of the people I speak with are not out to be the next big name in Nike or secretary of state or medical chemist extraordinairre, but just better than zero. And it's not like the people from the country they migrated from don't have the same interests, it's just that apparently U.S. workers go about it with a different mentality and core motivation. Yet I can't help but call bullshit. Is the American Dream somehow still being advertised at bus stops in certain neighborhoods around town I'm not privvy to? I thought it died a long time ago - and I say this in the most optimistic way possible. I mean the selfish reasoning that came along with it.
Then I turn and look at their kid(s). It's not fair their parents weird adult intentions are already being imposed on them when all they want to do is play soccer, open and close phone apps, laugh, and try not to get picked on or get on the wrong bus. Call me a stuck up college student but I agree wholeheartedly with Nietzsche's criticism on our modern species' debilitating obsession with the past, what was, what we think we can say about "now" because of our memory of what had been. Now THAT topic and all the strong feelings I harbor is a topic for another day as well (as I rub my hands together and salivate like I'm choosing a cupcake). How about creating a new world, a better one than all the cultures' of today and yesterday have ever created before?
Doing things differently than others. Differently from successful people. This will result in innovation and progress, not copying perceived paths and imposing it artificially on children.