The Corey Story

As I was browsing the newswires yesterday, I came across an article discussing a new program schools in America are promoting: a “Learn and Earn” program. Are you kidding me? The idea behind the program is simple: stay after school for a studying session and get paid over $8.00 an hour to do so. This is a horrible idea that exposes what is wrong with America’s youth today. Kids have become increasingly “expectant” over the years. What I mean by this is that more and more children expect to get this, expect to get that, but do not actually have to put any work in to get what they desire. Parents all want their kids to have everything and be happy, so they cave in to their children’s desires left and right. I think it is perfectly fine for a parent to want the best for their child, but I feel as though there needs to be reinforcement of morals and work ethic behind all of this “giving”. As a child, you are expected to go to school and, as we all know, with school comes homework. A child should do their homework and try to expand their mind and become as intelligent and responsible a person as they can be. Kids today do not care about an education - they care about who has an iPhone and who has the Nintendo Wii. America has become increasingly commercialized and increasingly technology-savvy over the years. Kids today have access to computers and cell phones at very early stages of their lives. As they keep receiving lavish items such as these without putting any work in for them, they slowly form lazy habits and begin to expect everything. If they did no chores and did poorly in school and still got everything on their Christmas list, why change? Now the institution at the core of most children’s lives - an education - is going to begin offering incentives to study. Incentives to do what is expected. Incentives to do what the adults and young adults in America today were expected to do for nothing but self-improvement and growth. It is absolutely absurd that anyone would even consider passing such a ridiculous program. If the kids are in a poor financial situation, they can go out and get a job. I had a job during high school and I did fine. There is no reason you cannot work part-time and still attend school. It concerns me deeply that this program has received backing and is going to be implemented. When these “learn and earners” go to college, I wonder what will happen when they don’t study for their first exam and when prompted why not by the professor, respond with a “I didn’t receive my paycheck yet”. My guess is nothing more than a lesson learned - at least this time it was earned.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Life in America, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.