The Organization Kid
Tihesha Garretson
05/22/14
Eng. 096
Discuss the Organization Kid. Begin by defining the Organization Kid. Use the text to support your definition. Next, illustrate and discuss the importance of the following: Elementary School, Adolescence and Princeton Experience.
Have you ever heard of the Organization Man by William H. Whyte (1956)? The term was coined in the ’50s to describe the grey-suited man behind the cubicle living in middle-class suburbia, who did his job then went home and had dinner with his wife and two children, the man who was like millions of other men in America: dull, a conformist and very respectful of authority. Whyte wanted to understand people who not only worked for “The Organization,” but also “belonged” to it. What do you anticipate might be the characteristics of an organization kid? For the adult, the organization is the place of work, the corporation: what might be the organization for a kid? In David Brooks’ article “The Organization Kid,” he describes what he feels are the deep goals of the modern Princeton student. Brooks believes that today’s students do not want to challenge authority, but rather follow the set norms of society. He feels that the students have been molded by their parents to act and dress in a certain manner. His article also concentrates on the idea that students go to college not to gain higher learning, but to get a good job and make money. The students are being trained to be “The Organization Kid.” The Organization Kid is a generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest and incredibly industrious.
During the Elementary School era, in the 1960s and 1970s schools assigned less and less homework, so that by 1981 the average six-to-eight-year-old was doing only fifty two minutes of homework a week. April 26, 1983, A Nation at Risk was reported. The problem, it said, was that schools had become too loose and free-flowing. Students faced a “cafeteria style curriculum” that gave them too
05/22/14
Eng. 096
Discuss the Organization Kid. Begin by defining the Organization Kid. Use the text to support your definition. Next, illustrate and discuss the importance of the following: Elementary School, Adolescence and Princeton Experience.
Have you ever heard of the Organization Man by William H. Whyte (1956)? The term was coined in the ’50s to describe the grey-suited man behind the cubicle living in middle-class suburbia, who did his job then went home and had dinner with his wife and two children, the man who was like millions of other men in America: dull, a conformist and very respectful of authority. Whyte wanted to understand people who not only worked for “The Organization,” but also “belonged” to it. What do you anticipate might be the characteristics of an organization kid? For the adult, the organization is the place of work, the corporation: what might be the organization for a kid? In David Brooks’ article “The Organization Kid,” he describes what he feels are the deep goals of the modern Princeton student. Brooks believes that today’s students do not want to challenge authority, but rather follow the set norms of society. He feels that the students have been molded by their parents to act and dress in a certain manner. His article also concentrates on the idea that students go to college not to gain higher learning, but to get a good job and make money. The students are being trained to be “The Organization Kid.” The Organization Kid is a generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest and incredibly industrious.
During the Elementary School era, in the 1960s and 1970s schools assigned less and less homework, so that by 1981 the average six-to-eight-year-old was doing only fifty two minutes of homework a week. April 26, 1983, A Nation at Risk was reported. The problem, it said, was that schools had become too loose and free-flowing. Students faced a “cafeteria style curriculum” that gave them too