Narcissism in Today's Generation

           The American education system focuses heavily on how to prepare students with the academic skills they will need to pass college. However, what schools tend to neglect are the skills their students will need to survive in everyday life situations. In Neil Postman’s The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, Postman discusses the tactics in our education system that he disagrees with, and suggests what he feels are better alternatives. One topic that is discussed by educators and intellectuals alike is whether school should be a place for strict textbook learning, or a place to adapt street smarts. Postman felt that school should equally be divided between the two, stating “What this means is that at its best, schooling can be about how to make a life, which is quite different from how to make a living.” (Postman, the End of Education).

            Although school is a place for learning skills such as math, science, and English, there becomes an age where children are in a need for learning how to interact with others, and communicate in an environment they may not be completely comfortable with. Without disregarding the importance of individual growth in a school setting, Postman writes, “… the idea of a school is that individuals must learn in a setting in which individual needs are subordinated to group interests… the classroom is intended to tame the ego, to connect the individual with others, to demonstrate the value and necessity of group cohesion.” (Postman, the End of Education). Without this kind of group exposure, people fall accustom to selfish thinking, and therefore a world of priorities that revolve almost solely around themselves. I am not attempting to make a large generalization that all adolescents are selfish individuals, but, according to the Association of Psychological Science, “College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago” (Douthat, The Culture of Narcissism).

          Interestingly enough, Postman’s the End of Education was published around the time that said college students would most likely be first attending primary school. Although this may just be a coincidence, it is important to recognize that Postman practically called for this kind of self-absorbed public to be created in future generations. So the topic in question is how does one prevent this pattern from continuing? The first step is recognizing the cause. Schools now a days are guilty of handing out awards for simply showing up to an event. Therefore, students grow up with a sense of entitlement, and when they are placed into the workplace, they expect to be rewarded and praised for even the simplest of accomplishments.

          There is no denying that "Generation Y" is bringing innovations to the world greater than ever before imagined. However, the more an individual from this generation personally recognizes this fact, and the more that person will expect those around them to praise them for it, the less productive they will become, leaving themselves in an endless cycle of sugar-coated compliments. Constructive criticism is a vital aspect of learning, and, without it, society will cease to advance.

Works Cited:

Douthat, Ross. "The Culture of Narcissism." Ross Douthat The Culture of Narcissism Comments. The New York Times, 02 June 2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Postman, Neil. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New York: Knopf, 1995. Print.