Great Expectations

The Generation Gap

A good friend of mine, Barry Knight, once said to me that we were the golden generation, in England at least. We hadn't had to fight a war, jobs were plentiful and the vast majority of us had a standard of living that was relatively comfortable and secure, if very modest. All of that was certainly untrue of the generation that had lived their youth in the 1920s and 1930s rather than the 1950s and 1960s.

It hardly needs saying that things are very different for the youth of today. In fact, almost the reverse is true. But I think there is another important difference which I realised only when it was pointed out to me by friend Rineke at the pizza evening this week. I also think that, in a slightly perverse way, this was another advantage for my generation.

When we started out on life, most of us had little or nothing. Only under 4% of us had a university education. Some had a few O or A level passes to their credit and some had apprenticeships or a secretarial qualification but the vast majority were essentially unqualified. However, most largish organisations had induction and training schemes (because they needed them) and casual work was plentiful. I personally had a miserable university grant (but a grant nonetheless) which I could easily supplement with casual work in the summer and winter holidays. It was “grunt” work, as the Americans call it (you give it only to grunts) and very poorly paid but it was a bonus to my circumstances.

As regards standard of life, few of us went hungry but televisions, even telephones, washing machines, tumble-driers, cars and central heating were something of a rarity. I well remember the temperature differences in even modest-sized rooms, trying to get into a position in front of a fire between burning shins and a freezing bum.

What Rineke pointed out to me is that it is not just the work situation that has changed dramatically but also the personal expectations and many aspects of the standard of life. We started with nothing but the current generation mostly start with quite a lot, including lots of (fairly meaningless) qualifications. All of the appliances mentioned above, cars and central heating are now the norm rather than the exception, plus of course PCs, mobile phones and broadband connections. These now tend to be expectations rather than luxuries to be earned. Compared to our young lives, theirs are often quite comfortable. But what they do not have is a zero starting point and the fear of unemployment and insecurity that the experience of our parents passed on to us. The current generation has a higher starting point and higher expectations to go along with their much more plentiful qualifications. So it is not only facing much harsher times but is also in many ways much less well equipped to deal with them.

Self-confidence

Rineke and I also got to discussing self-confidence and the times when we had had it or lacked it. It reminded me of an experience when I was teaching at Summerhill school.

I was teaching a lad of ten some elementary maths. Having explained the sums, I took him through several examples saying just “how do you start” and “what do you do next” and so on. With just that prompting he was perfectly able to do them. When I left him to do more of the same on his own, however, he could do nothing. I'm not sure how the thought came to me but I thought it must be a question of self- confidence. The lad was quite athletic and, as I played football with the kids, I encouraged him at football. As he grew more confident at football so he did at maths. A few years later, when I returned to the school for a get-together, he came leaping out, jumped on me to give me a hug and said: “You'll never guess what; I just passed O level maths”. That didn't make him a great mathematician but it did do great things for his self-confidence and gave him a platform to build on.

Ever since I have thought it should be a criminal offence to attempt to undermine anyone's self-confidence.

Autumn

Autumn is definitely here now. Leaves aren't turning yet but there is a definite nip in the air in the mornings. After I get up I usually make coffee and take a cup up to my front room, open the door onto the balcony and look at the news on my PC. Now I'm finding I close the door again before long. Last Monday it was still quite comfortable to sit outside for the pizzas until quite late but I suspect that that may be one of the last pizza evenings outside this year. And the grapes I'm trying to sun-dry on my balcony are taking a long time to dry into raisons. I've just bought what will probably be the last two melons of this year but, in compensation, figs are around in the markets and shops; neighbour Liz kindly brought me a bag full.