In regards to the below, there is no question that a generational gap does exist, too--and that its natural. ItÂ’s been around as long as there were fathers and sons, mothers and daughters. If it could not be overcome, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving a message on this board--and many of you would be ignoring me right now just on my age.
For those of you who are fellow gear heads, I invite you to look at a TV show that, IMHO, is one of the best shows out there for illustrating how generations can work together. A fairly new show called AMERICAN CHOPPERS on the Discovery Channel (Monday's 10 PM) details the day-to-day battle in a father-son relationship in the dad's motorcycle shop, Orange County Choppers. The father thinks the son is lazy, wastes time, and only does what he wants to do. The son thinks the father stresses too much, doesn't know how to relax, and worries about things that he has no control over. ItÂ’s a real young bull vs. old bull type show. The son is my age--28--and the age gap is about the same as my dad and myself. What makes it heartening---and obviously makes the real life business work---is that the father and son, after beating the bejesus out of each other, always come to a middle ground, and most often get the job done.
Last week's show was even more interesting than usual. They had a 15-year-old, from design to fabrication, build his own cycle. Again the father and son fought about how this should be done (ironically the father siding more with the 15-year-old), but in the end, they both agreed that giving this kid the opportunity to learn and prove himself not only makes them feel good, it builds there business for the next generation.
The long and the short; rather than griping about how education doesn't work, how our jobs are in the toilet because our kids can't learn, or how it was better 50 years ago, maybe we should start to SHOW them how to do it instead of telling them they can't. It wasn't all that long ago (in the great expanse of history) that WWI vets were telling GI's going to war in 1941 how they didn't know how to listen, didn't know anything, and that they wouldn't amount to a hill of beans. They not only won a war, but also pulled this country out of a depression. That letter below, if written in 1920, is very telling--and itÂ’s about time that we ALL listen. There will be bad "students" as well as bad "teachers." But even if only one kid is influenced to go into, say, carpentry because you took the time to show him how to use his hands and BUILD something, well, to me that's where the future lies. Do you want to change the future? Teach a kid how to use his hands, and more importantly, expand his soul. Then, someday, he'll be able to tell his son how good it was in 2003, when people really knew how to work.
Oh yeah: below is a picture of the bike the 15-year-old built.
TJG
> A radio commentator in North Carolina
> recently read a letter on a show I was
> listening in on, It was addressed to the
> school board and bemoaned the fact that the
> high school graduates were unable to
> function in society. Evidently this
> executive was tired of the graduates not
> being properly educated, bad attitudes, etc.
> and wondered what was wrong with the
> educators. the thing I found most
> interesting about this often heard question
> was that the letter was dated in the 1920's.
> Makes you wonder.> There is a distinct
> lack of history being
Orange County Choppers
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org