Generation Me
Just finished Jean Twenge's Generation Me and hope by the end of the summer to read her new book on narcissism, if I can find a copy. I'm not buying books anymore--I pay taxes for libraries, and that's what they are for.
I would recommend the book to anyone who deals with people under the age of 35, which of course is most of us, and all teachers of any education level. She does an excellent job of describing the problem and a pretty good job of diagnosing the cause; I'm less enthusiastic about some of her solutions, although a few were pretty sound from my point of view. Her advice to employers about dealing with Generation Me is the normal idealistic counsel of an academic who has never run a business or had to deal with a payroll. But she doesn't idealize the people caught up in this generation (not everyone of that age group fits the bill, but I have seen it plenty). She is honest that the self-esteem movement, especially, has pushed many of them to borderline narcissism, which I see every time I log onto Facebook. Do these people really think we care if they are brushing their teeth? Yet here I am blogging to nobody.
So chalk this one up as a must read. It's not ponderous and can be devoured in a couple of days (and I don't consider myself a fast reader).
Next up, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
I would recommend the book to anyone who deals with people under the age of 35, which of course is most of us, and all teachers of any education level. She does an excellent job of describing the problem and a pretty good job of diagnosing the cause; I'm less enthusiastic about some of her solutions, although a few were pretty sound from my point of view. Her advice to employers about dealing with Generation Me is the normal idealistic counsel of an academic who has never run a business or had to deal with a payroll. But she doesn't idealize the people caught up in this generation (not everyone of that age group fits the bill, but I have seen it plenty). She is honest that the self-esteem movement, especially, has pushed many of them to borderline narcissism, which I see every time I log onto Facebook. Do these people really think we care if they are brushing their teeth? Yet here I am blogging to nobody.
So chalk this one up as a must read. It's not ponderous and can be devoured in a couple of days (and I don't consider myself a fast reader).
Next up, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
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