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The Coddled Generation That Wasn’t Taught to Grow Up
Townhall.com ^ | November 12, 2016 | Michael Brown

Posted on 11/12/2016 9:14:12 AM PST by Kaslin

There are millions of fine young people across America today, people of character, people of principle, people of discipline, people of maturity. But there are millions of others who have been coddled all their lives, almost never taught to lose or be put in their place or take full responsibility for their actions. It is some of those young people who are protesting on the streets and being comforted by their professors as they cry on college campuses in the aftermath of the elections.

Just consider this scene from our campuses on the day after the elections, as reported by the Wall Street Journal: “At Tufts University, arts and crafts were on offer. And the University of Kansas reminded students via social media of the therapy dogs available for comfort every other Wednesday.”

Arts and crafts to comfort grieving college students? Therapy dogs?

And then this, from the University of Michigan: “There was a steady flow of students entering Ms. Boynton’s office Wednesday. They spent the day sprawled around the center, playing with Play-Doh and coloring in coloring books, as they sought comfort and distraction.”

Need I add the standard caveat: “I am not making this up!”?

To be sure, there were many things said and done by candidate (and now president-elect) Donald Trump that have caused concern, and I do understand why some Muslim or Mexican young people (or others) would be alarmed, fearing the worst.

“Am I going to be deported? Will my family be kicked out of the country? Am I really welcome here?”

Again, I understand why they would be concerned, especially the way the media has portrayed Mr. Trump’s remarks, to the point of working people into a hysteria.

But it is the nature of the reaction to Trump’s shocking election that I’m focused on, along with the way these students are being treated.

Really now, even though millions of conservative Christians would have been terribly upset had Hillary won, do you think that students on Christian campuses would be sitting with therapy dogs and coloring books to comfort them in their grief?

But none of this should not surprise us in terms of the anti-Trump reaction on at these colleges and universities.

These are the same campuses with “safe zones” and with guidelines against “microagressions.”

And these are the same young people whose number one rule sometimes appears to be, “You shall not offend me or hurt my feelings!”

In her book Generation Me, author Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D., painted a picture of many of today’s young people using the description of a woman named Linda, who was born in the 50s, and whose “youngest child, Jessica, was born years after Whitney Houston’s No. 1 hit song “Greatest Love of All” declared that loving yourself was the greatest love.”

Prof. Twenge writes, “Jessica’s elementary school teachers believed that they should help Jessica feel good about herself. Jessica scribbled in a coloring book called We Are All Special, got a sticker on her worksheet just for filling it out, and did a sixth-grade project called ‘All About Me.’ . . .  She dreams of being a model or a singer, takes numerous ‘selfies’ a day, and recently reached her personal goal of acquiring 5,000 followers on Instagram. She does not expect to marry until she is in her late 20s, and neither she nor her older sisters have any children yet. ‘You have to love yourself before you can love someone else,’ she says.”

Again, to repeat, there are many, fine young people today, and they are committed to helping others and making a positive difference in their world. Some of them put their elders to shame.

But the picture painted by Prof. Twenge is all too common, which is why there are elementary schools and middle schools across America that do not keep score in the children’s sports events, since everyone has to win (or, conversely, because no one can lose).

How does this prepare them for the realities of life, where, every day, some people win and some people lose, where every day, there is disappointment and pain, where every day, some things go our way and some don’t, where every day, life is not always fair?

A friend of mine in the business world told me that it’s common now for college and university grads to have trouble on their jobs, but not because they lack intelligence or the necessary academic training. Instead, it’s because they can’t take correction, having been shielded from it during much of their upbringing and education. “You may be my boss, but you’re making me feel bad, which makes you a bad person, since I’m a good person and therefore a good employee.”

I may be exaggerating the sentiments, but not by much.

In the end, the problem is not with an age group as much as it is with a mindset, and it is a mindset that simply doesn’t work in real life – unless you want to be playing with Play-Doh to ease your pain when you’re married with kids and grandkids.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: college; collegestudents; millennials; snowflakes
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1 posted on 11/12/2016 9:14:12 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

“...some of those young people who are protesting on the streets and being comforted by their professors...”

Nope, that’s not what this is.

These protesters are professional activist PAID by George Soros to wreck havoc. These riots are being done with the specific approval of Obama and Clinton. They are co-conspirators in plotting this fake, phony protest.


2 posted on 11/12/2016 9:19:09 AM PST by Flavious_Maximus
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To: Kaslin

This is what collectivism does to a society - it infantilizes them.


3 posted on 11/12/2016 9:20:56 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Flavious_Maximus

What have we spawned?


4 posted on 11/12/2016 9:20:59 AM PST by Big Horn (Rebuild the GOP to a conservative party)
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To: Kaslin

The Me Me Me, Free Stuff, selfie generation appears to be a little upset. I’ve never seen this much hatred out of the “young”. It wasn’t this bad in the 60s. Lots and lots of hate out there. Probably from all of those participation trophies and “good jobs” they received when they were really little.


5 posted on 11/12/2016 9:21:01 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (A proud and defiant irredeemable deplorable!)
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To: Kaslin
The Title Says It All!


6 posted on 11/12/2016 9:23:46 AM PST by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Kaslin

America’s new losers, the Snowflake generation.


7 posted on 11/12/2016 9:25:23 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Hey whining losers,Trump will just go ahead & make things better for you/us without you!!!!")
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To: Kaslin

The liberal takeover of schools and the propaganda spewed has its consequences....


8 posted on 11/12/2016 9:27:53 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Kaslin

If these students have student loans for the government (because Obama administration took them over) then they will get a real education if they’re able to pay attention that is.


9 posted on 11/12/2016 9:29:54 AM PST by MulberryDraw
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To: MulberryDraw

from the government. that is. these loans have teeth.


10 posted on 11/12/2016 9:31:05 AM PST by MulberryDraw
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To: Kaslin
"But there are millions of others who have been coddled all their lives, almost never taught to lose or be put in their place or take full responsibility for their actions."

This is a form of child neglect, as it doesn't prepare these little "Snow Flakes" to survive in this uncivilized world. Survival of the fittest is still being contested on this planet, and if a person becomes too "civilized" to do what's necessary to survive in an uncivilized world, they simply won't survive.

11 posted on 11/12/2016 9:33:02 AM PST by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: Kaslin

I remember play doh from when I was five. It was loads of fun! I didn’t realize it’s also the answer to all my emotional, psychological, and social probl me in life. I’m gonna go get me a great big wonderful box of Play Doh IMMEDIATELY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!


12 posted on 11/12/2016 9:33:22 AM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero.)
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To: Kaslin
They spent the day sprawled around the center, playing with Play-Doh and coloring in coloring books

The other day in Costco I saw a whole section of "adult" coloring books. Millennials aren't the only ones buying them. Whoever came up with that idea is making a mint.

13 posted on 11/12/2016 9:35:59 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Kaslin
I don't know, I detect a lot of microaggressions in this article. I need to leave you all for a day or two and retreat to my safe space under my desk and then I need therapy to recover.


14 posted on 11/12/2016 9:36:04 AM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (Hillary Clinton IS a felon.)
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To: Fiddlstix

15 posted on 11/12/2016 9:38:27 AM PST by SamAdams76
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Give me your address and I’ll dispatch a comfort dog to you ;)


16 posted on 11/12/2016 9:39:50 AM PST by exit82 (Making America Great Again begins with........me.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

“Probably from all of those participation trophies and “good jobs” they received when they were really little.”

I have posted this reality before. One of our younger relatives had the good fortune in little league to play for good managers and be with motivated players. They won the top award 3 years in a row, in a city with a lot of players and teams.

The league broke up the team and didn’t re hire the managers. Our young relative ended on a losing team that didn’t win a single game in 20+ games. He went from batting 400 to about 100.

However, the city’s liberals gave losers like him a participation trophy.

When he got home, his older sister with trophies in sports and academics for winning told him, “Really are you going to put your “I’m a loser trophy on the shelf with your winning trophies!”

In tears, he ask my wife what was wrong with the trophy. She said it was for losers, and he should give it away.

He took his name of the participation trophy and told his mother to sell it. She did, and donated the money to his favorite charity, the Salvation Army.

A few years later, he is finally realizing what his sister told him, participation trophies are for losers. He is devoting his energy and skill to be competitive in high school sports.


17 posted on 11/12/2016 9:40:47 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Hey whining losers,Trump will just go ahead & make things better for you/us without you!!!!")
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To: Kaslin

Play-Doh and coloring books, fine. But no Silly Putty? That’s kind of exclusionary if you ask me, could trigger something. Poor chilluns.


18 posted on 11/12/2016 9:42:32 AM PST by dainbramaged (Get out of my country now)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Very good observation! I also see it in other countries, where the first question is always, “What is the government going to do about it?” There is a sense of personal immaturity in the people. You want to say, “Grow up!”

Mr. Trump MUST, in my opinion, maintain a propaganda barrage based on the theme that WE ARE ALL AMERICANS, along with what that means. He has got to convince the sub-groups that the Democrats have made into infantile tribes that we have a common legacy that will be good for all of them.

I consider this propaganda effort to be far more important than making legislative gains, as important as they are. He has to, he must, drown out the loud voices of the violent left.


19 posted on 11/12/2016 9:49:15 AM PST by Chaguito
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To: FlingWingFlyer
I’ve never seen this much hatred out of the “young”. It wasn’t this bad in the 60s.
Either you're young to remember or getting on and having some memory issues.
It was bad - it was really bad for years ... weekdays, weekends, holidays, etc.
And with tens and tens of thousands protesting, not a couple of hundred.
20 posted on 11/12/2016 9:50:05 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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