The Passing of Culture

In the car this morning I heard my son say something to my daughter which was almost verbatim what I taught him when he was younger. It got me thinking what incredible responsibility we have as adults in society to “teach our children well” as CSNY would say. Regardless of your view of your own parents or childhood, once placed in that position you must act in the way that makes the most sense to you. It takes almost a Kantian significance, with the categorical imperative of parenting:

raise your children in the way that you would have every child in the world raised if it became a universal law.
This makes me think of my job and how I long sometimes to see if a child’s behavior is coming from the parenting, often times it is clear this is the case. Two thoughts then cross my mind: 1) The problems of this generation are the synthesis and manifestation of the quirks and problems of the ones who raised them and 2) kids are too different to have ONE way of reaching them. That is why I have a job teaching--a traditional classroom does not work for everyone, and I believe everyone deserves the chance to be taught in a way that will help empower them and grow them as people.
As my children continue to grow and I see aspects of all who love them come out, I wonder how this happens in other homes and are the kids repeating what their parents absentmindedly say or do? My boy loves working in the shop and asks me constantly if I’m gonna be working in there (he knows he isn’t allowed in unless I’m there... smart little bugger!). Is this his nature? Is this MY nature, observed and repeated in him? When he gets frustrated with his sister, is this MY frustration observed and repeated? When a student gives me attitude in class, is this not his parents’ attitude observed and repeated, to terrorize the very authority that created it?
It makes me wonder how every older generation looks despairingly at its younger generation and chastises the use of technology they created, which children find to use in childish ways. How each younger generation scares its older generation with its disrespect, laziness, and disregard for a universal perspective. But if the actions we see in our younger generation are our own actions observed and repeated, then isn’t our fear of them merely the fear of our observable selves? Not the self that we think we are, but the observed and repeatable self, the self that actually interacts with the world?
It seems clear to me, then, that thinking is not enough. While thinking may be enough to “be,” what makes greatness is the action after the thought. Similar thoughts from the bible, “faith without deeds is dead” or Yoda, “do or do not, there is no try.” If you want good people, not only do you need to think you are a good person, you need to actually be a good person. As we pass from students to teachers within our culture, will we see the next generation be as judgmental of their juniors as we tend to be of ours?