I am an English language teacher (EFL) and I teach kids/teenagers and adults how to speak and write (communicate) in English. On the last day of school, and since I am really into planning and micro-goal setting, I thought I’d ask my students (teenagers) to write an essay about their goals for 2016 and what they are going to do to make them happen. I thought it was a great idea. “Think of something you want to achieve and say how you are going to make it happen”. Ummmm. Nope. My students hated the idea, and me being a stubborn/bad teacher, I insisted. I said, ” You must want to achieve something! Even if it’s going to a higher level of LOL (League of Legends=video game). I want you to tell me how you will become better at playing your game!” Their response, ” But that’s not a goal miss!” Slap in the face, but there is hope. So, again I said, “Anything! Have a little/big goal and tell me how you will make it happen”. Total distress!!On ALL sides. My students insisted.” What goals miss! I have no goals!”

From a teacher’s perspective this made me wonder about my teaching. I mean, OK, maybe I shouldn’t have set this as homework. Maybe the essay preparation wasn’t enough.

But

when thinking about my kids, this, the ‘no goals’ was bad for many, many reasons.

Scenario 1

My kids are not mature enough to have, say, big goals. But they must have some!! What kind of world is this where teenagers say, ” I don’t have any goals miss!”? It’s sad. It’s scary!!

Scenario 2

Living in a material world. If you get everything served on a silver platter, why, oh why, would you have goals? If you get anything you want, as in material (and since we live in a material world), what would you want to achieve that is not material? What goals would you have? Just a thought people….

Scenario 3

It’s because they are Greek kids living in the days of recession where money is tight, there is a lot of depression, and the news are just bombarding us with everything that is not working. Do my kids have no hope, hence, no goals? That’s so sad. That makes me feel sad. Is this generation becoming a generation of kids with no hopes for the future?

I love my country. I have suffered because of the recession, but I am OK. I have hope. I think things are getting better, but there are moments like the one I just described that REALLY make me wonder if I am living in a little bubble. My LaLa land.

This post was originally posted on my edu blog, but I am looking at the bigger/non educational picture here.

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xx

Jo