Writing is weird; sometimes ideas bubble up faster than they can be used, while at others the well is totally dry—as it has been today.

Rather than not post, I thought I’d share links to several studies about kids that I found interesting. I hope you do, too.

Anyone with a kid, let alone a teenager, knows that they avoid doing almost anything that is ‘good for them’ or that authority figures push and that they are, if not a bit lazy, often oblivious.

That said, why should it be surprising that the efforts to force improvement of their food choices often fall flat? But some schools are beating the trend merely by repositioning the food in the cafeteria.

… tripled the number of salads students bought simply by moving the salad bar away from the wall and placing it in front of the cash registers.

Not more money or lectures, just playing to a “market” with well documented attitudes and behaviors. (Might be worth talking to your own kids’ schools.)

I often wonder when parents, especially upper and middle-class parents, are going to step up and take responsibility for raising their kids, instead of expecting the schools to do it. I realize that hovering is easier and you get to feel virtuous yelling because it’s for your kid, but having kids requires shouldering the not-so-fun stuff that turns them into valued citizens, rather than parent-dependent, adult children. Many of these kids don’t have a clue how to dress or act in the business world. The silver lining to this lack of basic living skills is the increase in business for etiquette schools.

Patricia L. Bower, clinical associate professor of management communication at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “They think, ‘If everyone has access to the same information, then we’re all equal, so I know as much as you do even though I’m 20 and you’re 55.’ “

I’ve been following a lot of discussion on what long-term impact the Great Recession will have on Gen Y and the experts are all over the map. For a good overview, take a look at the different, even conflicting, opinions of this group or Wharton professors.

They are one of the biggest generations in American history, and they are certainly the best educated. But for Generation Y — a group of young people some 70 million strong between the ages of 15 and 30 — the future seems anything but bright.

Have you seen anything interesting lately?

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/3579355577/

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 1:15 am and is filed under Leadership's Future. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: common sense, students
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.