A Warning Against Geezer Pessimism
One of the forums has had an exchange opinion on what old people have to offer to younger people. This question has been around since the beginning of time.
I am getting involved with an educational venture. I am assembling teachers who will be able to communicate well with teenagers. This has always been necessary in education. Old people have to communicate with younger people.
I find that I can communicate all right with younger people. I have to adjust; they do not. I have taught small children Sunday school lessons. I have even taught in a daycare center, at least briefly. If older people will learn what it takes to communicate with younger ones, they are in a position to transfer considerable knowledge to this younger generation. This has always been the basis of social and moral continuity in history.
MORAL CONTINUITY
There is continuity of moral principles. If this were not true, then the moral lessons of one generation would have no noticeable effect on any succeeding generation. If there were no moral cause-and-effect in the universe, then the ability of one generation to transmit valuable information to the next generation would cease to exist. So, we know that certain principles extend through time and across borders. We call these universal laws. The trick in communication is to find the social and cultural setting of these principles, with respect to the environment of younger people. The trick is to apply the general principles to concrete situations in the lives of people who do not have a great deal of personal historical experience. This has never been easy, and it is not going to get any easier.
I am sure that I will never be familiar with the subtleties in rap, assuming there are subtleties of rap. I will not know a good rapper from a bad rapper. But people who have been raised on rap understand this, and they probably would be a bit suspicious if I spent a lot of time trying to master the intricacies of rap. Younger people recognize that older people are unfamiliar with the subtleties of the lives of younger people, and this is expected. This has always been expected. But there has always been some common ground between oldsters and youngster in which they could operate successfully.
One of the best ways of bringing together oldsters and youngsters is business. Youngsters want to know how the oldsters made their money. There is a desire to make money that is common in every generation, and younger people are curious about what it takes to be successful in a particular field. They will seek out older people who are experienced, and who have had some degree of success. They will listen to older people when older people concentrate on the problems facing younger people. If the oldsters can make it clear how the general principles of business success are applied throughout history and across borders, youngsters will pay attention. They want to get ahead, and they know that they do not have enough experience to give them the edge which they need to be successful in a highly competitive job market.
The problem oldsters face is that they rely on a body of memories, which may have applied well in the good old days, but the good old days always change. The key ability is to be able to apply the general lessons of the good old days to the present. It does no good to sing of the wonders of the good old days, unless the principles of the good old days can be implemented today to produce wonders for the younger people who are seeking an advantage.
APPRENTICESHIP
I am a great believer in apprenticeship. If a skilled oldster can bring in a youngster and begin to teach the youngster some of the basics of success, the oldster has the sense of doing something important, and the youngster has the sense of being the inheritor of what is effectively inside information. As Americans say: "Let's make a deal." This is the traditional deal between oldsters who have had success and youngsters who are seeking it.
The problem with education today, and education three thousand years ago, is that the people doing the teaching tend not to be active agents in the business world or the political world. They are bureaucrats. So, the kind of information that they pass on to their students is not immediately applicable in the real world. The students go through the procedure in order to get some kind of certification, but it does not take long on the job to figure out that most of the years were wasted with respect to the external conditions facing the recent graduate. He has been trained by bureaucrats, and he is now facing that most fickle of decision-makers, the customer. He has to adjust. If it takes very long to adjust, he is going to find himself sidetracked.
There is too much bureaucratic education today, and not enough apprenticeship. There are too many academic degrees, and not enough on-the-job training.
I do not despair about the younger generation. I do not think the younger generation has sealed itself off from the principles of success that have prevailed down through the ages. But this takes an awareness on the part of an oldsters regarding the cultural environment of his apprentices. He has to make the move to adjust. The apprentice is willing to adjust, but he does not know how to do it correctly. That is why he wants his position as an apprentice. He wants to have the opportunity to learn what the master has learned over time. The apprentice wants the information rapidly, and maybe too rapidly, but at least he wants the information. That is why I do not think we are facing a situation in which there is no hope, or in which the younger generation simply will not learn the basics of success. I suppose the broad masses will not learn, but that is not so much a matter of age as it is a matter of lifestyle. They do not want to learn. They do not want to learn from people their own age, either.
If I thought there is no hope, I would not get involved in education. I do think there is hope. I think at least a minority of students will pay attention to the principles of success. They will use this to their advantage. They will turn out to be leaders.
If you can find an apprentice, you have done a good thing. You can make his world better, and he can make yours better. You can work out a deal.