Say Hello to Underachieving

Which is the title to this NY Times. Which I don't read as a rule, but thought this interesting. It sort of brings this post to mind, since the demographics are similar.

ERIN McAULIFFE had a vision for this summer. A 20-year-old junior at Bowdoin College, she had lined up an internship at a New York publishing house and imagined stimulating days leafing through manuscripts, and evenings of sparkling conversation with friends at downtown cafes.

She ended up starring in a real-life version of the movie “Adventureland” instead. In that recent comedy, a recent college graduate is forced by economic hardship to work at a suburban amusement park.

Life is imitating art for Ms. McAuliffe. With her parents unable to help bankroll three months of unpaid work in Manhattan, she gave up the internship offer and moved home to Andover, Mass., where she took the one job she could find: working 12-hour days at an amusement park. For $7.80 an hour, she tends bumper cars and the big swing, and endures the many carny jokes of her friends.

I suppose we are supposed to feel pangs of sympathy for Ms. McAuliffe. Instead of lounging around in a do nothing internship, abuilding a boffo resume so that she can get a do nothing paying job, she's *GASP* working for a living. Just as my kids had to do when they weren't in school. For that matter when they WERE in school.

To a high-achieving generation whose schedules were once crammed with extracurricular activities meant to propel them into college, it feels like an empty summer — eerie, and a bit scary.

High achieving in a meaningless kind of way, I think.

“Parents have really put a lot of pressure on the kids — everything has been organized, they’re all taking A.P. courses, then summer hits and they’re going to learning camps,” said Peter A. Spevak, a psychologist in Rockville, Md. Now, he said, with opportunities for achievement at a minimum this summer, “there is something to be said about sitting out on a warm evening and looking at the stars — they need more of this contemplation and self-evaluation.”

Or maybe they could get their self-evaluating and contemplating asses out of the house and find jobs that involve, hold on to your hats, physical labor. No doubt the calluses and chipped nails, on the entitled of both genders, would be a psychological shock to these future ne'er do wells.

There are jobs out there, not a lot of them, not high paying, not glamorous, but they will put some money in your pocket. Don't want to live with mommy and daddy? Believe me, bunky, a lot of them aren't thrilled to have you back under their roofs either. Remember all those jobs that Americans didn't want to do and we absolutely had to have illegal immigrants for? Well, those jobs are still out there if you're willing to swallow your pride and look for them. Again, not the sit in your office and make decisions that screw up other people's lives jobs that you've pined for all these years, but still jobs.

Maybe Ms. Germano, now that she is of legal drinking age can pitch in an help her dad at that bar. I'm sure that although he will give the obligatory pro-forma denials, he'd be more than happy to have you help out.

Two last grumpy observations. Not one of these kids is studying for or has a degree in something like Engineering, Math, or Science. Every last one is too smart for that and chose some variation of Political Science, the Arts, or History. Oh, and to a person, the voted for President Feckless and hoped for change. Well, they got it, but no one said that change had to be positive.