Grandparents Think Kids Are Ruder These Days. Are They?

"Once, after returning from summer vacation, a student looked me up and down and said, 'You look a lot older now.'"

I’ve worked as a school librarian in New York City for over 15 years, and I love working with kids. I appreciate young people’s unvarnished communication style, even when their honesty can sting. Once, after returning from summer vacation, a student looked me up and down and said, “You look a lot older now.”

One of my former colleagues in education, who asked that I not use her name, shared her feeling of discouragement about young people’s manners. “My grandchildren are always on their iPads,” she said. “They just get ruder and ruder.”

This same colleague and I were having a meeting after school when a teenage boy burst into my room. “Yo, I lost my hat!” he said. “Is it here?”

“Excuse me, young man?” my colleague said. “Why are you speaking to an adult that way?”

“Dude, I’m sorry!” the boy replied as he slapped his forehead. “I know! I should have said, ‘Yo, Ms. Librarian, have you seen my hat?’”