Generational IQ for the Workplace and Home Collection

by Haydn Shaw

Parents in the ’60s never knew what hit them. They thought they were giving their children a better life than they’d had by making the world “safe for democracy” and by providing new suburban homes and educational opportunities. But the teenage Baby Boomers questioned their parents’ beliefs (and those of their teachers and leaders), listened to rock and roll, grew their hair long, and tried to spend all their time with friends in what seemed like their own world, embarrassed to be seen with their parents. After generations had struggled to keep their kids safe, fed, educated, healthy, and free, the Traditionalists were finally able to give their kids all these wrapped up in a bow called the American dream—and the kids rejected it. The Traditionalists couldn’t believe that educational achievement dropped while drug use, teen pregnancies, and crime rose.[16] By 1974, over 40 percent of Boomers said they would be better off without their parents.[17] Traditionalists had no idea that the suburban lifestyle, affluence, and education they gave their children would cause a shift in thinking to a mind-set so different from the past generations. Previous generations had their squabbles, but this generation gap felt like a canyon that even Evel Knievel couldn’t jump. Social forces were pulling the generations apart. The move from farms to suburbs that World War II sped up created a new subculture—the teenager. Before World War II, the word teenager was rarely used, because teens wer...