Am I Optimistic About the Future?

A comment was made on my previous post by Eric S (thank you for commenting) that read:

If you take out the modern day references, i.e., Taco Bell, Ipod, Lindsay Lohan,
et al.. This article could not be specifically dated within the past 50 years.
What were you like as a teenager? Did you turn out like the majority declaration
of your deeds? If I listened to all of the bottled hype like this I would not be
the person I am today.Context, perspective and statistical reference can be
positioned to the end of either argument in this debate. I, for one, am
optimistic about the future, Are you?

Here is my response. I thought it was a very good question and worth its own post. Please let me know if you are optimistic about the future of the US and why.

Eric,

I am not sure what to expect from the future at this point in time. I do believe we are living in a period of excess decadence where mediocrity is rewarded and exemplified. Maybe it is the same as 50 years ago, and I am just becoming a bitter old man before I turn 40.

However, I work with a lot of Asian born people (Chinese and Indians primarily) who are brought up to believe that getting an education and trying to better one self through hard work. It is my perception that this strong educational philosophy was prevalent in the US 50 years ago, but does not seems to be the case anymore.

A few months back I posted two modern day pictures of college students, one from the Beijing University which could have been from the US in the 50's. All students were wearing suits and very serious faces. The other was from the University of Colorado and had naked woman and booze galore. Now I realize they were probably both taken out of context (and those who know me, know I drank my fair share in school), but the point is that students today (and even 20 years ago when I was in school) are more interested in partying, rather than really trying to better themselves while in school. Do you honestly think we can put a man on the moon today, when we can barely get a space shuttle up and back with any consistency?

This is not to say we don't have great minds, and we will continue to have great minds in this country. Those people will always succeed. But what about the above average or average student who with some proper incentive or motivation could do great things, rather than seeing that taking a test and achieving mediocrity is considered successful in our education system today.

From my perspective, it seems that my generation is slightly worse off than my parents generation. If the current education trends continue, with NCLB, a disenfranchised group of parents who see no value in educating their children, then my children's generation will probably have a harder time keeping up with their parents or worse they will never even be able to achieve as much as their grandparents.

The question I ask is simple, how do we reverse this trend, so we can all be optimistic for the future. How we do get society to value education and hard work, rather than chasing a pipe dream of winning the lottery, being a pro ball player, or becoming the next Hollywood fad?

I apologize for the lengthy response, it is my blog after all, but you ask a very good question, that I felt deserved a thoughtful and complete response. Thank you again for the comment.