How can we come back?

I underlined the following sentence so many times that I ripped through the page: "Not everyone should win a prize no matter where he or she finishes."  I can't stand the fact that trophies are given to all participants.  It leads to a sense of entitlement when kids are given rewards and they are not truly earned.  It translates into the classroom with the issue of homework.  I don't always collect and grade homework; sometimes, I check for completion; sometimes I don't check it at all; and at other times, I don't even assign it.  However, I always find that when students complete the homework, they want something for it.  They want points or a note in Power School saying it was completed.  I don't think I would even know how to begin to explain that Homework x 2 = The American Dream!

Now, I don't think I'm as extreme as Amy Chua: Tiger Mother, but making an honest effort and giving 110% are often lost ideals.  If I told my students that "the world pays off on results, not on effort," I think the message would be lost on them.  They (meaning the sophomores that I teach) view themselves as untouchable by the "real world" because it seems so far from their present which is full of texting, Facebook, and other unnecessary stressors that these authors call "misplaced priorities."

These misplaced priorities reminded me of two other books that I read over the last school year (and I know many others involved in this blog read as well).  The first was The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids.  The focal point being that teens from affluent or well-educated families "experience among the highest rates of depression, substance abuse, anxiety disorders, somatic complaints, and unhappiness of any other group of children in this country."  The second was Doing School:  How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students, which is a candid look at how students around the country "believe getting ahead requires manipulating the system, scheming, lying, and cheating."

I hope that what I am gathering from these three pieces of literature is not true....that students are entitled with misplaced priorities, suffering from any number of emotional issues, abusing drugs and alcohol, and cheating to get ahead (and they may be evaluating me?).  No wonder other countries are soaring past us.   Since the second part of our current book is And How We Can Come Back...I am ready to hear how America can climb the education ladder....