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Look at our kids

Reader comment on item: Harvard's Worst Class Ever

Submitted by Jeff (United States), May 11, 2021 at 23:57

Great article, Dr.Pipes.

To quote Jacqueline Kennedy, "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much." She was right.

People who graduated from college in the 1970's. What are their kids doing? Living with more wealth, health, comfort and leisure than any generation in history. And whining about it. Whining about living in an age where women and black Americans have equal rights (never whining about places in the world where slavery still exists or women have no rights). Whining about vaccines for a virus we didn't even know existed 9 months prior (my father lost 3 friends to childhood diseases by the time he was 10 and I had partially crippled polio victims in my class). Fighting for causes that have already been solved. Dressing like women in a fictional story as though that has any relevance to reality. Marching against global warming and when it's over, throwing signs in the street for the city to clean up (with diesel powered equipment). Yelling "believe all women," as though Rosie Ruiz was the real winner of the 1980 Boston Marathon and Ma Barker was a picture of honesty. Democratic congresswomen all dress in the same color at a state of the union address to make a statement just like back in middle school.

Can't read or write cursive. No whining about that. Lots of fellow high school grads who can't read or do arithmetic. No whining about that.

Luckily our parents built dams, highways, reservoirs and power plants. How many reservoirs have been built in the last 10 years? All we and our kids can do is argue about building almost anything. And hire lawyers to argue for us. We love wind power, well, as long as it doesn't obstruct our view from the deck. Let's put a stop to offshore drilling. Actually, let's stop all domestic drilling. As I drive my humungous SUV to the gas station.

These are our kids (and many of us too)? We have failed miserably. And we should be ashamed. Our parents raised us so much better. And expected much more from us.

UMass class of 1974, I'm also grateful to have received a solid, demanding and apolitical education. And I graduated before there was a federal department of education. How lucky am I?

P.S. Parietals. A friend and I tried to visit his sister in her dorm at St. Elizabeth's School of Nursing in Boston in 1971. Forget it. Bye guys. But her room was on the first floor and she opened her window so we could sneak in. We climbed through and the three of us sat in her room and talked for hours.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (10) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Class. [57 words]Albert E.Jun 8, 2021 15:52268022
education & Anthony Sutton [40 words]MagdaMay 12, 2021 04:34266838
5Look at our kids [449 words]JeffMay 11, 2021 23:57266829
Surviving The Impracticalities of Defective Educational Processes [312 words]M ToveyMay 11, 2021 12:47266808
1Bravo! [22 words]Lisa SchiffrenMay 11, 2021 08:06266800
4Columbia 7 years earlier [364 words]Lorenz GudeMay 11, 2021 02:04266792
Upvote [12 words]John in MichiganMay 10, 2021 21:18266781
7Causes and institutions go astray, inevitably [346 words]DaveMay 10, 2021 21:15266780
absurdity [10 words]sfMay 10, 2021 21:12266779
2We did not swim nude [180 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Jonathan E BurackMay 10, 2021 21:03266777

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