Wednesday, February 07, 2007

A word on tutoring today's youth and why they're already cooler than you'll ever be...

It's becoming more difficult to register surprise on our up-and-coming adults. With only two weeks i've come to realize i'm encountering a realm of consciousness that was never touched upon when i attended elementary and middle school. And of course every generation has witnessed this natural phenomenon. Not evolutional nor progressive, just different. But i'm sensing now a much grander scale of tempering than recent history provides. American children have often been the world's latest fledged, most coddled, ill-prepared and stumbling toward maturation... I wonder if that still holds true.

With the advent of formula-nursing, hormone-induced pubescence, and internet access to everything and everyone- a new generation reports. Many of these kids are riding the city buses alone from rude a.m. hours, catching transfers, sitting next to drunkards and freaks in the morning commute. They arrive at school with a Mighty Morphin lunchbox and Sonic trapper-keeper, belying a much deeper understanding of societal kinetics.

I'm well-received for my efforts, though daily tested for my grasp on pop-culture. My energy and ease has bought me precious time to relate on these cultural levels for which i'm clueless. And even the way i'm writing this is... so, not cool! Shit, i said "totally" in class today and i got laughed at. One kid raised his hand and said, "Mister Jesse, can you say 'totally' again?" I thought, what the hell and did. For a few moments i was a stand-up comic towering over a sea of fourth-graders.

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