In my generation over 30% of high school students drop out before they get their diplomas. To me that is shocking, and to say that we are all dumb is misleading. The surveys that Mark Bauerline cited in his book never asked these kids why they dropped out. It could be for numerous reasons, some not as 'noble' than others. What about the child who drops out to help his parent take care of a young child, or to make sure that they can keep their house a little longer? Poverty is a very real thing for many families and the fact that they did not ask the kids why they dropped out is an extremely large gap in Bauerline's book.

In the fifth chapter of his book Mark Bauerline blames our 'ignorance on the fact that our heroes, our mentors, are the men and women who get rich fast and easy. Bauerline does not know the average teen very well we're not all lazy and a great many of us even strive to be better than the previous generation. We may want to get rich but our parents, the hard working people of your generation are our heroes, and if not them then there are many other choices they maybe people from the previous generation or the one before that. My heroes and mentors are my parents who have worked themselves to near death to get a buck and taught me to do the same, and also Frank Sinatra, someone from a generation or two ago, and I am not the only one who looks at past generations for heroes, many teens do. So Bauerline blames our generation's mentors and heroes, well I can tastefully disagree because the previous generation didn't provide us with any heroes.
Our reading skills are not as good as they used to be but other than that most other education scores are at the highest. On another high note according to USA Today 61% of 13-25 year olds 'feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world' as suggested by a survey taken of 1,800 people. Of those young people '81% have volunteered in the past year; 69% consider a company's social and environmental commitment when deciding where to shop, and 83% will trust a company more if it is socially/environmentally responsible.' These all point to a more environmentally conscious generation who cares about our environment and is already cleaning up the messes that are being left behind by the last generation. And also two-thirds of college freshmen believe it is essential or very important to help others in difficulty, says a survey taken by 263,710 freshmen college students at 385 U.S. colleges and universities. The 2005 report, by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, found feelings of social and civic responsibility among entering freshmen at the highest level in 25 years. There is a great amount of evidence that shows that we are going to do our best to take care of the world that is being handed to us.
My generation may not be as adept in all of the skills of the past generations and that may be a good thing for the coming trials of our generation. We don't know what the world will be like in the future whether or not all of the skills used today will be needed tomorrow, maybe we will need to be more socially active or maybe technology will dominate how we do anything and everything. My generation has been raised to use the technology that we have, and that is what we will need in the future, people skilled in using technology. No one can say that we aren't as fit to take care of our world when that time comes.


Mark Bauerline may think that this generation will herald the end of days for our world but if you think about it, all we're doing is cleaning up the messes that the previous generation made for us. We're going to mature and when we do we will take on the responsibilities that you need us to I think that this essay shows that we've already got a pretty good start.