Surprised Again

Thought a return to teaching at the college level, which did fill a lot of time in 2015 and 2106 would validate a foregone conclusion.

That of the disinterested student and entitled teenage brat.

The Ringling College of Art and Design, where an undergrad re-boot of my academic career commenced this month, did no such thing.

Am rarely impressed by Millennials or Gen zzzzzzzzzz.

Rarely.

Consider both to be the reincarnation of the too-lazy-to-be-anarchist hippies of the late 60s and early 70s. The worst of the Baby Boomers. And the progeny of the Greatest Generation, most of whom spent decades slapping their foreheads wondering what went south in their obsessive child-rearing.

Hard to say, and a topic for another blog.

And NO ONE is happier than I to have their illusions about the younger generation shattered. To be, so far, proven wrong about this preconceived notion is one of the brighter spots of a 2025 which began with a home on Siesta Key, Florida still under repair from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Ringling, or RCAD as the art & design lingo goes, at first blush appears to have admitted engaged, earnest, and talented kids.

Yes.

Will withhold judgement for a few more classes, perhaps even until midterms when the novelty of a new academic year is gone, and a series of written and verbal corrections have come the way of the respective courses of Creative Writing in the Romance Genre and a modular Scriptwriting workshop.

Until then there is hope for the future.