Student.Attitude.Text == 'PITA'
I live in a college town, and this is the week where students start drifting back into town for Fall Semester. What a Pain in the Ass (PITA).
We went out to an early dinner tonight, at a tex-mex burrito joint near campus. My wife, myself and my two kids. My son is four, and my daughter is two, and I am very well aware at how disruptive they can be in restaurants. Tonight, however, the fact that we were eating early - before they got cranky and hungry - combined with a loud, casual restaurant made for a pleasant meal. I could barely hear them, so I doubt they were bothering someone else.
But, of course, I was wrong. My wife told me as we were leaving the the pair of college girls sitting in the booth behind us had said something along the lines of, "why'd they bring those kids here?". Unfortunately, I missed the comment because I would have enjoyed explaining a few things to the spoiled brats at table six.
College students annoy me. They suffer all the excesses of youth - too loud, too rude, and too stupid - and they offer very little to the community to offset that. The fact that I, a property-tax paying resident of this city, should have to put up with stupid comments from someone who is still a long way for paying their dues really irritates me.
It's apparent to me that I am going to be a seriously cranky old man when my time comes. Shotgun on the front porch kind of cranky. And I am very sensitive to real and perceived slights - I have trouble letting things slide. But students who behave as if this town was built to serve them are doing themselves as well as those around them a disservice. I don't remember acting that way when I went to school (but would I remember that?), and that I don't recall any of my friends or acquaintances behaving that way, either. Did we have more respect than students now - a mere fifteen years later - or is that simply an effect of looking at life from two different perspectives? I can't be certain.
I do know that the kinds of behavior I see in modern students cannot do them any good. Few people want to associate with arrogant spoiled people, which will become evident to these kids as time passes. If these kids cannot appreciate the fact that they are, in fact, simply one part of this community and not the hub it revolves around, we'll all be better off.
We went out to an early dinner tonight, at a tex-mex burrito joint near campus. My wife, myself and my two kids. My son is four, and my daughter is two, and I am very well aware at how disruptive they can be in restaurants. Tonight, however, the fact that we were eating early - before they got cranky and hungry - combined with a loud, casual restaurant made for a pleasant meal. I could barely hear them, so I doubt they were bothering someone else.
But, of course, I was wrong. My wife told me as we were leaving the the pair of college girls sitting in the booth behind us had said something along the lines of, "why'd they bring those kids here?". Unfortunately, I missed the comment because I would have enjoyed explaining a few things to the spoiled brats at table six.
College students annoy me. They suffer all the excesses of youth - too loud, too rude, and too stupid - and they offer very little to the community to offset that. The fact that I, a property-tax paying resident of this city, should have to put up with stupid comments from someone who is still a long way for paying their dues really irritates me.
It's apparent to me that I am going to be a seriously cranky old man when my time comes. Shotgun on the front porch kind of cranky. And I am very sensitive to real and perceived slights - I have trouble letting things slide. But students who behave as if this town was built to serve them are doing themselves as well as those around them a disservice. I don't remember acting that way when I went to school (but would I remember that?), and that I don't recall any of my friends or acquaintances behaving that way, either. Did we have more respect than students now - a mere fifteen years later - or is that simply an effect of looking at life from two different perspectives? I can't be certain.
I do know that the kinds of behavior I see in modern students cannot do them any good. Few people want to associate with arrogant spoiled people, which will become evident to these kids as time passes. If these kids cannot appreciate the fact that they are, in fact, simply one part of this community and not the hub it revolves around, we'll all be better off.
posted by DFMerrick at 13:13
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