To the Class of 2012. Attention graduates: Tone down your egos, shape up your minds.

Wall Street Journal ^ | 05/08/2012 | Brett Stephens

[SeekAndFind]

Dear Class of 2012:

Allow me to be the first one not to congratulate you. Through exertions that—let's be honest—were probably less than heroic, most of you have spent the last few years getting inflated grades in useless subjects in order to obtain a debased degree. Now you're entering a lousy economy, courtesy of the very president whom you, as freshmen, voted for with such enthusiasm. Please spare us the self-pity about how tough it is to look for a job while living with your parents. They're the ones who spent a fortune on your education only to get you back— return-to-sender, forwarding address unknown.

No doubt some of you have overcome real hardships or taken real degrees. A couple of years ago I hired a summer intern from West Point. She came to the office directly from weeks of field exercises in which she kept a bulletproof vest on at all times, even while sleeping. She writes brilliantly and is as self-effacing as she is accomplished. Now she's in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

If you're like that intern, please feel free to feel sorry for yourself. Just remember she doesn't.

Unfortunately, dear graduates, chances are you're nothing like her. And since you're no longer children, at least officially, it's time someone tells you the facts of life. The other facts.

Fact One is that, in our "knowledge-based" economy, knowledge counts. Yet here you are, probably the least knowledgeable graduating class in history.

A few months ago, I interviewed a young man with an astonishingly high GPA from an Ivy League university and aspirations to write about Middle East politics. We got on the subject of the Suez Crisis of 1956. He was vaguely familiar with it. But he didn't know who was president of the United States in 1956.

[SeekAndFind]

THIS IS WHAT AMERICANS ARE SLOWLY ONLY BEGINNING TO REALIZE, BUT IT HAS TO BE REALIZED SOONER RATHER THAN LATER ( ESPECIALLY BY OUR YOUTHS ):

Your competition is global. Shape up. Don’t end your days like a man I met a few weeks ago in Florida, complaining that Richard Nixon had caused his New York City business to fail by opening up China.

In places like Ireland, France, India and Spain, your most talented and ambitious peers are graduating into economies even more depressed than America’s. Unlike you, they probably speak several languages. They may also have a degree in a hard science or engineering—skills that transfer easily to the more remunerative jobs in investment banks or global consultancies.

[SMARTY]

“...your mass conformism is masked by the appearance of mass nonconformism.”

Conforming to non-conformity, is conforming just the same!

[ChoobacKY]

Hear, hear!

[2ndDivisionVet]

Spending $495 to $895 and three days here would probably do more for your youngster that $400,000 and 4 years of college ever will:

http://www.tomhopkins.com/boot_camp.shtml?Screen=boot_camp

My late father grew up during the depression (he was born in 1925) and many times told me that most salesmen had money and enough to eat while most other people were unemployed and nearly starved.

[mad puppy]

My High School aged son has a business class with his football coach, who, to say the least, is out spoken. This year the coach has repeated an interesting phrase to the class which my son brought home: “You guys have your heads so far up your butt you don't have a clue what is really going on outside this building.”

I've encouraged my son to take more of his classes and just printed this article to take home. Spot-on.

Many kids today are actually pretty bright. The problem is they ALL think they are so utterly brilliant that they are just a couple of quickly put together rap songs away from a sweet crib and pimped out ride.

[married21]

There are still sharp and well-grounded kids out there.

I went to the FIRST Robotics competition for high school robotics teams in March, in Long Beach, CA. There were plenty of smart kids who think for themselves and know how to work long hours together to produce something original that works. I know that this is the cream of the crop and that many schools in America may not even have one kid who is able to do this. But the FIRST program is growing, as is the LEGO robotics at the younger levels.

Of course, there are some very dedicated parents and some engineers who are not parents themselves, but love this type of volunteering. The teams also have corporate backing. There does not seem to be any advantage to coming from a private school vs. public or homeschool on this, so long as the team members are serious about STEM education.

It may not be as big as we like, but there will be a next generation of American engineers and inventors.

[mikey_hates_everything]

The ones who would need to read this probably can’t anyway.