“Be realistic – demand the impossible,” wrote French students on the walls of the Sorbonne in 1968. How far it was from the mood of the Soviet youth!
Even in the mid-80s, when a special survey was conducted, the claims of a typical high school graduate were very modest: a small apartment, a Zhiguli car, the position of the head of a small unit … The social revolution of 1991 removed many restrictions, and now young people are already dreaming of a spacious apartment or their own house, they see themselves driving a foreign car, they cannot imagine life without traveling abroad and, of course, they want to command everything at work themselves.
Someone will exclaim: “Poor children! What if they are disappointed? Of course, the risk of not getting what you want is a price for high claims. But something else is also obvious: until a person has high demands, there will be no high achievements. The second thought that arises in this regard is: by what means do young people expect to succeed?
Today, young men and women are ready to study hard and relearn, mastering a profession that is more in demand, and parents are expected to help, first of all, in acquiring a good education and position in society. This distinguishes them from that former youth: then the children preferred that their parents help them “financially” – in acquiring housing, a car, a summer house. To use an old metaphor, when choosing between a fish that can be eaten immediately and a rod that can provide food in the future, today’s graduates are more likely to prefer the rod.
Modern young people are more prudent and more energetic than their peers twenty years ago. They are encouraged to do this by a society that rewards just such a life strategy. The new rules of life require everyone to set high goals and persevere in achieving them. There is no special valor in accepting the first half of this postulate: after all, it is not harmful to dream of an expensive car and a spacious house.
But to realize that the path to these benefits lies through long-term training and labor achievements is not easy for everyone. Our children seem to have succeeded in taking this important step. And that means that their hopes have a real chance to come true.