The Lost Generation: The Kids Brought Up (Trouxe) To Feel As If They're Failing - From School To TV Shows Like The Apprentice and The X Factor

The lost generation: The kids brought up (trouxe) to feel as if they're failing - from school to TV shows like The
Apprentice and The X actor

On one side of the Atlantic, an academic survey reveals the pain of privilege for the children of moneyed families. Here, a former Prime Minister, who once promised to deliver a genuinely classless society, has described the continuing indeed, growing power of the affluent and privately educated in this country as "truly shoc ing". Oddly, the findings of researchers at Ari!ona "tate #niversity and the speech this wee by $ohn Ma%or lead to a similar conclusion. To become a happier society, and one less wasteful of its citizens' talent, we need to become less divided by class. &he sons and daughters of the relatively rich, to whom much is given and from whom much is e'pected, tend to buc le under the pressure. According to the American survey, published in Psychology &oday, the children of families which earn the e(uivalent of )*++,+++ or more are twice as li ely as their peers to suffer from an'iety, depression and mental illness leading to addiction and self,harm. -t is not %ust the usual pushy parents who are to blame, the report says. "-mpossibly high e'pectations are transmitted by the entire community teachers, schools, coaches and peers." &hose at the other end of the social scale, whose problem is precisely the opposite, are hardly li ely to be models of contentment either. .antasies of achievement and wealth may be presented in the media, but the idea that a child from a modest bac ground can today brea the cycle of generational under, achievement /realizao0 is as absurd as it ever has been for decades. As Alan Milburn has repeatedly pointed out, low e'pectations by schools and parents is a curse that continues to blight /arruinar0 lives in classrooms and beyond all over the country. &he words of the 1ew &estament, "&o whomsoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance" continue to echo down the corridors of 2estminster, in the 3ity and in the courts. -t is a depressing and morale,sapping message that is being handed down to the generation now reaching /alcanar0 adulthood, with too much e'pectation on those from a certain bac ground and not enough for many of the rest. &he education of the past, for all its faults, had at its core the idea that a person should do his or her best in life, that not everyone can be top. &oday, children deemed to have ability find themselves under increasing pressure to pass e'ams as their education progresses. The anxious competitiveness of schools allows (permitir) less and less time for learning as play and curiosity, for developing the whole person "uch is the importance of e'ams, that a child who has been predicted A4 grades in her e'ams is being set up for disappointment. 2hen future success is assumed, there
is only one way to go. -t is the worst, most stressful ind of pressure. Our fretful culture, in which achievement is only real if it is visible on a league table or a salary slip, often fails to pass on the nac /ability0 of happiness, of growing into your own capabilities and strengths in your own time, without having to deal with /lidar com0 impossible hopes or crushing limitations. 1ever has that strong sense of self been more necessary for professional survival. &he model of business success presented through the media is both ugly and unrealistic. -t starts with a group of unpleasant young people on &he Apprentice trying to do each other down and curry favour with the sour,faced business guru Alan "ugar. -t continues with people trying to set up /estabelecer0 their own businesses being humiliated on 5ragons6 5en. -t ends, by a miraculous process that no one will be able to e'plain, in the annual wet dream of financial triumph that is the "unday &imes 7ich 8ist. Away from business, the traditional middle,class professions politics, the law, medicine are seen increasingly as bastions of privilege, while the media is an ever, shrin ing shar ,pool. &here are, of course, endless entertainment possibilities in the strivings, and more often than not the failures, of those outside the circle of advantage. At the showbusiness end of the scale, the tric is to present success not as something which is the result of wor , application, even passing e'ams, but as a bolt of good fortune, or a sudden flash of talent, which can descend on a luc y person as if they were in a film or story. -t might be competing on &he 9 .actor. -t could be the overnight stardom of a teenage footballer. Or a young coo discovered by a &: chef or a pretty face that appeals to a model agency. &hese dramatic changes of fortune play very well in schools where other, more conventional routes to achievement are scarcely considered. Anyone who has visited a school in a relatively poor area will now that not only do the children dream of fame and instant public success, but their parents play along with the fantasy. After a children6s boo event at a literary festival, a sweet, slightly plump reader of about ** told me that her ambition was one day to be an author or a lawyer. Her only problem was her parents; they were determined that she should be a model. Meanwhile, the world of the unprivileged has become a regular staple of entertainment sometimes a source of guilty humour for those more fortunate. On any night of the wee , you will find a programme e'ploring, in the usual tone of concern, some horror story from the underclass. -t might be obesity, or youth crime, or drun enness, or teenage pregnancy. &he trap of class remains, as $ohn Ma%or points out, but all the same those entering the %ob mar et become consumers. &elevision commercials by ban s, insurance agencies, or large retail outlets, have an
increasingly childish vibe, and have ta en to presenting a gentle, escapist view of the world, with dogs and balloons and smiling grannies. 5own the years, the lottery has e'ploited the despair of those stuc in their lives, with its form of gambling being promoted as a %olly, family activity. #nsurprisingly, boo ma ers and casino websites, beneficiaries of the one boom area of the <ritish economy, place their !any, %olly commercials where they are most li ely to attract the young and vulnerable on comedy and sports channels. -n this year6s 3hristmas commercials for Mar s = "pencer and $ohn 8ewis, the products being sold remain unseen and even the idea of giving presents to others is only hinted at. 2e are in a fairy,tale world of Alice in 2onderland or 5isney6s .antasia. "ociety may give more to the privileged, and professional life might be more brutally selfish than ever, but the image of our society provided by big business is infantilised, a sort of paradise of perfect generosity. <ac in the *>>+s, $ohn Ma%or claimed that his government would herald a new <ritain that was confident and at ease with itself. Many of those born when that promise was made have grown up to be neither confident nor at ease with themselves, and that should be a source of shame.

The Lost Generation: The Kids Brought Up (Trouxe) To Feel As If They're Failing - From School To TV Shows Like The Apprentice and The X Factor

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Lost Generation: The Kids Brought Up (Trouxe) To Feel As If They're Failing - From School To TV Shows Like The Apprentice and The X Factor

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Lost Generation: The Kids Brought Up (Trouxe) To Feel As If They're Failing - From School To TV Shows Like The Apprentice and The X Factor

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The lost generation: The kids brought up (trouxe) to feel as if they're failing - from school to TV shows like The

Apprentice and The X actor

You might also like