Over the years we have employed many students during their holiday periods. These have come from poor homes, rich homes, foreign homes, educated homes and not so educated homes. It has always fascinated us how contrastingly different people can be between the ages of 18 to 22. We are amazed at how many cannot read and write to a high standard and have no rudimentary skills in arithmetic.
Without exception I find that all students are expert at anything to do with phones, TVs, and to a degree, computers. However their worldly and sometimes social knowledge is shall we say lacking? We have had those that run off to get left handed screw drivers and sky hooks and one that thought the terms 90 and 110 when applied to Land Rovers referred to mph. In the interest of balance there have also been some very bright ones. Sadly for every one I could see running a business there are at least ten who will remain forever students.
We have also had our share of those with drug and with drink problems, which seemed shocking at first but we appreciate is more commonplace than we had ever thought possible. Living with an all forgiving mum is not always the best start even if understandable. Lateness and sick days appear to be a right in some quarters. Alcohol seems to be a significant contributor.
There were those you could see were going to get away with everything due to their charm and style and those who you knew just never wanted to work.
Some students you can fathom immediately, others you never truly know. We had one popular student who by his own admission was lazy. However he was charm personified and all the girls loved him. One of his major concerns was his rating on a web site called 'Hot or Not'. He was determined it should be higher than anyone else working in the office so he bribed schoolchildren and siblings to vote for him. Another individual clearly had a deep secret as after he left us he forgot to cancel or change the address for his subscription to a bondage catalogue. I don’t think his mum knew about that one!
Sadly the work ethic of those students from overseas seems much sharper but this may go with the territory. To travel to a foreign land and seek work takes quite a lot of courage and they seem to be very determined to earn money. This is in contrast to those in the UK who are facing higher tuition fees but see no requirement to work their way through college. Maybe at our age we do use rose tinted glasses but did we not all take on any jobs available like paper rounds, farm work, shop work, bar work during weekends and holidays? It was a number of summers on a turkey farm and then on a potato harvester that made me determined to use my brain rather than my brawn. (Yes there are those that say I failed at that as well!).
The world takes all sorts so just be thankful we are not all the same and celebrate our differences. No matter how much we moan scientific change is greater than ever before and technology continues to catapult us forward at break neck speed. Students today are living in a much more complex world than I ever did. After all together we have shaped the world we now live in.
Perhaps it is just a generational thing as it has been since time began. I have always liked the saying 'The whole world is mad save for me and thee, and sometimes I wonder about thee'.