the age of happiness

so we're going to take a quick break from the techno-stuff that has dominated the blog for quite some time now and focus on something a little less tangible. earlier tonight on a drive to ann arbor, i began to think about how today's class went. specifically, i thought about my exploring psychology class. they are a special bunch of kids who love to complain. probably the biggest complaint is, "mr. liu, are we done yet?" i often just point at the clock and say, "is school over yet?" these rather often exchanges show me something has happened since i was in school (or maybe i was too much of a nerd while i was in high school to have noticed). school is no longer a place to learn. it's all about the FUN!!! wooohooo!!

this idea lead me further to consider a few interviews i heard on the radio about parents trying to make it through this hard economic time. the prevailing message that they were conveying was, "well, times might be tough, but we will still do most of our christmas shopping because we want our kids to be happy."

and that's just it.

HAPPINESS

it seems that such a construct has immerged from being a luxery to being a commodity to being a norm to being a right. some of my students are genuinely offended when i tell them that we're going to have a test. "a TEST? come on mr. liu... that's no fun..."

i think we as teachers have largely bought into this as well. we think long and hard about how to make our lessons and our classrooms more "fun" and over time, "fun" and "effective" become synonyms. somewhere along the way, the premium on happiness has become the most valuable factor in raising a child.

so what's the solution?

there certainly isn't a quick fix, but i'm not sure if there really even is a fix at all. this generation has lived its life in prosperity. we have not known struggle or hardship of any kind. why should we not be self-centered? maybe the silver-lining of this recession will be that we lose our offspring-centered perception of the planets, and return to a solar-centered one.