Holiday Tips: Memorial What?

Why The Younger Generation Doesn't Care About Patriotic Holidays

Advice Seeker: Dear April,

I'm a teacher at a public high school and while my students love holidays off from school just as much as they always have, they don't seem to understand why they're getting the day off from school. In fact, when I asked them what Memorial Day meant to them, most of them had no idea what the day means. Some of them didn't even know they were getting the day off because it was Memorial Day; they just knew they didn't have to come to school. Why does it seem that the younger generation just doesn't care about the meaning of holidays anymore?

Sincerely,

Memorial What?

April Masini's advice:

Dear Memorial What?,

You're completely right in noticing that younger generations just don't care much about the meaning of important holidays these days. As long as they get a day off from school or a long weekend from work, they're not concerned with the reasons why they're getting the day off.

Could it be that younger generations of Americans simply don't care for parades and graveyards?

Younger generations have been sensitized to death, violence and war. When television brought war into American living rooms some 30 to 40 years ago, there was a horrified reaction. But for 40 years, now, Americans have been seeing war on the news, and violence in their entertainment, and Memorial Day doesn't capture a real feeling for many people who have never served or have known someone who served. Might it be that the expressions of patriotism have changed?

Patriotism still exists, but there is more of a global feeling of wanting peace or not wanting peace, rather than a sense of one country against another for many people. Not everybody -- but many people. In addition, there is so much inter-marriage and bi-racial reproduction that the face and the faces of America have changed to a more global look.

Don't Gen X and Yers respond more to candlelight vigils (i.e., Virginia Tech), online "communities" and makeshift memorials at the scenes of fatal automobile accidents?

Yes -- because these are more real to them than wars that take place in other countries. When tragedy, terrorism and death happen in our backyard, it's easier for people to understand. When it happens overseas, it's much harder to comprehend, trust and understand.

How can these preferences be reconciled with traditional observances like Memorial Day?

Communication. When men and women who serve our country are celebrated the same way our celebrity movie stars and heiresses are, then American youth (and seniors) will have a better understanding of what their lives are like. There is no Real World or other MTV reality show that takes place behind enemy lines or in basic training. If there were, there would be more understanding and interest in those who serve now and recently.