Today's teachers struggle to educate a generation of students unlike any that has ever been seen before.

Each day more and more laws are passed that require school districts to be accountable for their students' performances in the classroom. Educators are given the age-old responsibility of ensuring that their students meet the rigors of a quality education. Teachers today though are faced with a generation of students unlike any they have ever taught before. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions and desires." This is indeed the case when it comes to this current generation of students and their parents. This article discusses, how inadvertently through good intentions, an entire generation of young adults who will be defined by their failure to internalize some of the most important societal and educational values this country has held dear, has come to significantly impact the current day educational system.

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Each day, new legislation is enacted into law that requires school districts to educate a growingly diverse new generation of students unlike any that has ever entered classrooms in the past. Federal regulations such as the "No Child Left Behind" statute strain already limited school resources. In addition, state regulations add to the burden. Each day school districts are being held more and more accountable for students' performances in the classroom as measured through standardized testing. Ultimately, it is the everyday classroom educator that bears the burden for this accountability.

This is not new. Once the educational system was formalized and curriculum standardized, classroom teachers were held both personally and professionally responsible for ensuring that their students met the rigors of a quality education. What has changed though, and what has caused a significant impact on their ability to do so, is the student population itself.

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and desires." These words of wisdom have been expressed by many notables from Samuel Johnson to Karl Marx to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. This unfortunately is indeed the case when it comes to this current generation of students and their parents. Through nothing but good intentions many parents just may have inadvertently created an entire generation of young adults who will be defined by their failure to internalize some of the most important societal and educational values we have held dear as a nation.

More economically blessed than their parents, with better careers, nicer homes, and more expensive automobiles, today's parents have worked diligently to give their children everything that the American Dream aspires to and stands for, and that they did not have as children themselves. They have given their children music, art, and dance lessons, individualized and group instruction on how to better play soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, and every other type of sport imaginable. They have signed their children up, and became actively involved themselves, in all manners of organized sports. They have organized "play dates" with other children to ensure that their children would have friends. They have sat at countless numbers of sporting events on all levels and eagerly encouraged their proteges on to success. In theatres across the nation they have endured off key musical renditions and applauded when their aspiring dancers clumped across the stage out of step. They did all of these things and more because it was not done for them, and because they were convinced that this is what "good parents" should do.

All these activities outside the home meant that most families faced a daily time crunch dilemma as they hurriedly sought out ways to spend "quality time" together. Something had to give, there was just not enough time to go to soccer games, piano lessons, school meetings, and do homework. In order to compensate they made compromises. Many chose to cut back on family dinners. Not sitting around the dinner table together to share a meal was a marked and significant change from the parents' own childhood routine. In the end, it meant that conversations about daily happenings, including school studies and activities did not occur. Parents lost touch with what their children were experiencing on a day-to-day basis within the classroom. Detailed reports regarding students' academic progress was substituted with generalize questions, such as "how was school?" and answered with lack of specificity by "ok or fine." In addition, with limited time available, instead of parents providing direct help themselves, they choose to marshal batteries of tutors to correct any academic deficiencies.

Any yet so often, no matter how much these parents sacrificed, today's generation of students seemed ungrateful for all of the opportunities and for all that was done for them. How many times have parents uttered the phrase, "I would have killed for the opportunities my kids have?" Too often today's students seem to lack passion, both in and outside the classroom. They appear unenthusiastic, apathetic, and even jaded. Because they have done so much at such young ages, very little is new or exciting to them.

This concept of giving is ingrained in today's parents. Each day though the ante rises. One only needs to take a quick glance around a high school parking lot to see this. Very often the automobiles that the students drive are more expensive than those of the school teachers. In suburban community after community, students dressed in designer clothes, drive high priced vehicles that their parents would have "killed for" while growing up. For the modern student, it is just another entitlement, just another every day occurrence. This generation of students will be known by many names, some of which are not very positive. One of them is the "N", (eNtitled to everything) generation. It is sad that instead of feeling blessed by all that their parents give them, students by and large believe it is their right to have all these benefits. They just expect them.

Of course there are the exceptions, the students who have somehow learned to correctly prioritize, to correctly develop an admirable value system, to correctly understand the importance and need for hard work to ensure a quality education, but so many have not.

Those who have not possess little or no fear of just about anything. They do not fear authority and they worry little about any consequences for their actions. As a result, today's classroom teachers face discipline problems that at times seem unsolvable. In addition to no fear, they often have no respect. This is seen in how they speak to their friends, their parents, their school teachers, and anyone else who might disagree with them. They simply dismiss and label anyone who does not share their viewpoints as "wrong." For this they can easily be defined as the "attitude generation." Closely related to this is the fact that for many of these students very little, if anything, is really important. They show no sense of urgency, even when discussing plans for their own academic futures. As such, they can also be dubbed the "whatever generation" as well.

All of these factor combine to place the classroom teacher at a major disadvantage. Students do not fear consequences for their poor behavioral or academic misconduct in class. They do not worry about their futures. Many believe, and some schools reinforce the attitude, that they will get through school no matter how poor their grades may be. They show little or no respect for their teachers, or what they are being taught.

Fault does not lie with parents alone though. Today's students have grown up in a technology-based world unlike any before. This is the Internet generation. This is the generation of students that have been exposed to media that challenges the basic core values of the society. These students have grown up watching prime time television shows that send the message that casual sex or drug use is not only tolerable, but also acceptable. If life mirrors art, then these messages carry over into the schools. It can be argued that this generation may be no more promiscuous than any that came before it, however their attitudes regarding sex are most assuredly different.

Sex is passe, or so our students have learned. It is no big deal, it fact it is expected. It is accepted as commonplace for example for a 15 or 16-year-old girl to be on "the pill." With such an attitude comes a loss of intimacy and innocence. This loss in turn makes our students even more jaded and more difficult to teach. In a time when unprotected sex or drug use can literally mean death, this generation is at least as sexually active as any previous one. Therefore, this is the "no biggie" generation as well.

This layback attitude is pervasive and is reflected in the language our students use each and every day. Vulgarities and obscenities are part and parcel of how children communicate today. Words that previous generations would have been ashamed to utter in public are now used as verbs and nouns in every day speech, even within classrooms. Sadly, parents and teachers have tolerated this for the most part. Both correct and admonish for sure, but unlike adults from the past who would have threatened to "wash their mouths out with soap" this is seen as normal. Closely related to this is the fact that students have adopted the daily use of the lie. This generation did not invent the lie, however it has made great strides in perfecting it. These are the students who even after having been caught in a lie will continue to assert their innocence. In fact, they are often even indignant that teaches and parents would not "believe" them, or worse not "trust" them, even when this trust has indeed been violated. Sadly, teachers and parents alike want to believe and often want to trust so much that they buy into students' plausible lies. Teachers continually give students more and more chances. The result, students as expected, continue to push the envelope.

Standards for today's students have been lowered as a result of all of this. Abhorrent behavior is now labeled as normal, and in this term normal lays the problem. In so many ways the bar for expectations for our students has been lowered. Parents claim that "as long as they are not on drugs or liquor, or sexually active" it is fine. Interestingly enough, many of these parents would not even know if their children were involved in these activities. "It's just a stage," or, "it's typical behavior for a teenager" have become excuses for providing less guidance and measuring out less punishment for discipline problems. Students may be encouraged or even expected to excel academically, athletically, or even economically, but they are not held to higher standards of being human.

Too many parents and teachers alike are more concerned with being "friends" instead of fulfilling their roles as guardians and educators. Parents and teachers actively avoid confrontation with these children. Unlike the previous generations, today's adults even feel badly when they argue with these children. In fact, it is often the parent or even the teacher that initiates contact to "make things right." While communication is essential, if the adults always initiate it, the result is a further erosion of respect for authority.

To its credit this generation of parents has eliminated spanking or hitting their children. They have come to understand that it is often inhumane and accomplishes very little. Unfortunately, the alternatives that have been developed have fallen well short of the mark. Parents have created the "time out" generation, the "go to your room and think about what you have done wrong" generation." Interestingly enough the rooms they are sent to are miniature entertainment centers. Many, if not most, have television sets, telephones, stereos, and VCRs. Many have DVDs, computers, and some even miniature refrigerators. Sending children to their rooms is a far cry from punishment. Interestingly enough, these rooms are sanctuaries. Parents allow children to believe that their rooms are enclaves of privacy. Parents today, in response to their own childhood experiences, have refused to "violate" their children's space. This respect for privacy has led to abuse. As a result, students have come to expect, and even demand, this same right to privacy while in school.

It is apparent that parents today are more actively involved in schools as well. This however, does not always have a positive influence on their children's education. Teachers are constantly faced with "it's not my kid" conversations with parents. These are the same parents that not only confront their children's school teachers, but threaten to file lawsuits if any of their children's rights as students are even perceived to be violated. Sadly, this has become a litigious society where most teachers can anticipate a lawsuit or at least the threat of one at some time in their career. It is no wonder that many educators would rather just avoid any situation that would jeopardize their livelihood. The result is that the very attitudes and behaviors that should be changed are reinforced instead in school as well.

While not wishing to issue a blanket indictment against a whole generation of students, it is evident that with all of these factors weighing in, with the lack of respect for authority, with the entitlement and jaded attitudes, with the belief that sex or drugs are just normal stages of development, it is amazing that educators today can teach at all, and yet some do. These are the educators who demand that this generation of students adhere to, and respect important values. These are the teachers who are more concerned with educating than placating. These are the teachers who refuse to simply pass students along in order to avoid trouble for themselves. These are the educators who refuse to lower the bar, who refuse to accept disrespect, and who understand that being accountable means being willing to set standards for both their students and themselves.

In the end, it is in these teachers that the hope to reclaim educational excellence in the classroom truly lies.

Joseph S.C. Simplicio Ph.D., Professor, Dean for the School of Education and Professional Studies, Director of Graduate Education Studies.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Joseph S.C. Simplicio, Dean for the School of Education and Professional Studies, P.O. Box 3210, Shepherdstown, WV 25443; Email: [e-mail]