"But on the other hand, when a child calls an adult Mr. or Ms., it helps him recognize that status is earned by age and experience. It's also a reminder to respect your elders."<p>The absurdity of reading how young people feel so entitled from an article written by someone who thinks age influences status in mind boggling.<p>Status is a function of achievement. Experience is a rough proxy for achievement, so I can accept that they might be referencing the same thing here.<p>But if you ask me how your earn status, age doesn't factor in. I don't care how many hours you've put in on this planet. You earn my respect by doing things, and the best way to earn my highest respects is by doing something great.
<i>"Because everything is child-centered today, we're depriving children of adults," he says. "If they never see us as adults being adults, how will they deal with important matters when it is their world?"</i><p>My parents always kept the 'adult' things to themselves (usually in Spanish, which they neglected to teach me or my siblings). It was basically a disaster and I've been spending the years since high school educating myself on tons of those adult things that I never learned from them. I just hope I can avoid the same mistakes with my children.
Black kettles and pots come to mind.<p>While I cannot be sure that Jeffrey Zaslow is a Boomer or Gen Xer (the fuzzy dates around those eras makes it difficult to decide), this accusation of entitlement seems to be a Boomer message.<p>We're talking about a generation that, although its members had much less material amenities than us, they had an easier time getting ahead. Try buying a house as a young person now. When my dad was my age, he could support a family on his salary.<p>And given that the Boomers (and early Gen Xers) have just wrecked the world economy, I think there's more than a little hypocrisy here.<p>If the later Gen Xers and Gen Yers have a sense of entitlement, it's because they do as their elders do.
Correlation is not causation :P. Mr. Rogers is more likely just another symptom of the "everybody is special" culture underlying this. Personally, I think it's less to do with upbringing and "positive self-esteem" and more to do with a (globalised western) culture of celebrity and narcissism. Less Mr. Rogers than American Idol, in my opinion.
I wonder if every generation of youths / young adults promise to themselves that they wont spout these pointless truisms "kids these day" when they are older.