Welcome to generation unplugged. I am constantly dealing with kids who don't believe things are a big deal. They've grown up with options, untilties, settings, multitasking, and an ungodly amount of gadgets and gizmos. As they grow up they have faced the simple truth, if something is hard or I don't like it I'll shut it off and try something else.
The lesson they've learned is if I'm not good at it, if its hard, if it makes me feel bad or even bored: go do something else. Its great. We have a generation of creative, multitasking individuals that are natives in the technological world where we are only immigrants. They communicate percieve and understand concepts that are a foreign to me as swedish.
The issue is I'm in charge. I'm running a team where you sacrifice your feelings, stats, and desires for the good of the team. I ask a group a teenage kids to put team first in a world that is designed to appeal to their feelings first. Its a polarity shift that I find harder and harder to get across to kids. Your needs come second the groups needs come first.
Together Everyone Achieves More: right!!! Their idea of together is downloading music from the friends my space, my idea of togetherness is putting up a tent in the freezing rain with your friends because that was what you did. Draw a charge for your teammate, cover for your teammate, get on the floor for the team. THey want options, I want blood.
The solution: teach the skill they need. Learning to overcome, learning to suffer for the good of the group, learning to compete and overcome for some else not yourself. Growing up taught us these things, in our games, with our friends with the choices we had. If their life hasn't taught them, I have to teach them. I have to sell team. I have teach them the internal conversations and perseverance that life taught us.
We have to create the identity and skills for them to learn, adpot and buy in to.
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