Generation Gap Paper Essay

Refer to the â€Å"General requirements for all papers† found in your syllabus. Submit a 2-3 page short essay discussing Generation Gaps. How is your generation different from your grandparents? What personal changes do you see? Name cohort changes. Do you agree with age grading? (Pg 83) How do they apply to you and to your career choices? Can you see area of your current job, or career goal; where age grading might occur? (a tip to doing well on papers: answer all the questions systematically; one by one. If you don’t answer all the parts to the papers, you won’t get full credit!!! ) Don’t forget your 2 outside sources. You must submit this paper in the â€Å"writing assignments† icon on the home page. Trying to find differences from my generation to my grandparents generation is going to be hard for me. My grandfather on my dad’s side died when I was 12, my grandmother on my dad’s side died about 5 years ago but really, I wasn’t very close with her at all. My grandparents on my mom’s side I don’t remember at all. If I had to start somewhere in differences between my generation and my grandparents generation my views between what I knew from both sides of my families would differ greatly. Let’s start with my dad’s side. My grandfather was a hard working, self employed Real Estate agent. I’m not sure at what age he got into the Real Estate business but he was young. He was originally married to my grandmothers sister. When she died she made my grandfather promise to take care of her sister. He married my grandmother and not only took care of the kids he had with his 1st wife, but also the 14 kids he had with his 2nd wife (my grandmother). He took his responsibilities very seriously. Hard working, he kept his grievances to himself, any problems were taken care of or dealt with. He didn’t complain about his hard life. He just did what he had to do and took care of his family. You didn’t complain about your life. I remember my aunt telling me once, â€Å"You complained to grandpa and you got knocked on your butt. He always told us to be happy with what we have and if we weren’t stop bitching and get to changing it. † Through my dad’s family I saw how my grandparents were. Hard working, loyalty to your family, taking care of your responsibilities, but I also saw the dark side of those times. Keeping feelings withheld, the hard working never complain mentality has done it’s number on my dad and our family. My dad treated my sisters and I the same. We disrespect our parents, we got our butts whooped. We obeyed out of fear not respect. We saw my dad work 16 hour days on a farm, come home and be completely miserable. We saw our mother not for the loving mother or housewife she was, but the miserable, lonely woman she was made into. Although I was instilled with the same hard working values, loyalty and determination that my grandfather instilled into my dad, aunt’s and uncles, I also see the damage that my grandpa’s generation has done. Instead of hardworking loving families, I see tired, resentful, angry people. I too have a desire to work hard. But I also had hidden anger issues, depression and a controlling nature. Between these generations I see more of an acceptance to want to change the way we do things. Therapy, work programs, counseling, a better school environment for children. My dad and mom did not graduate from high school, nor did my grandparents. Yet they still had jobs, albeit not the best ones, but they worked. I’m not so quick to spank my kids. I want to teach them respect through love and kindness. I want to make sure they know their voices are heard and that they have choices. I want my kids to know that their choices will affect them and that there is a cause and effect for what they do. I want to make my children proud when I get into the profession that I have worked hard to get into. I also want to teach my kids the values that were taught to my parents, that were taught to their parents and probably taught to their parents.