Gen-X Kids Who Grew Up In The 70s & 80s Memorized 8 Things At School That Boomers Found Absurd
KP OBrien | Shutterstock The lessons Gen-X learned in school differed wildly from the education their Boomer parents received, and many things Gen-X was taught in school as standard practice would make Boomers literally laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all.
Gen-X kids memorized a few things at school that Boomers found absurd:
1. ‘You can be anything you want’
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This mindset, that you can be anything you want, served as a starting point for Boomers to complain about younger generations as special little snowflakes, spoiled to the point of no return. Gen-X’s celebration of individuality and inclusion felt foreign to Boomers, and their lack of understanding made them roll their eyes.
Most Gen-X childhoods were marked by an independence so fierce, it bordered on being feral. Their teen years were defined by a resounding whatever. At its core, this blasé Gen-X declaration wasn’t so different from the mantra Boomers lived by in the 60s: “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Yet the passage of time is unforgiving. Boomers who came of age at the height of the Civil Rights movement and witnessed the political turmoil of the Vietnam War entered the 80s and 90s as yuppies with stockbroker jobs and giant, rectangular car phones. They conformed hard, which is why the idea that Gen-X could do anything often made Boomers roll their eyes.
In opposition to the lives their Boomer parents led, Gen-X chose to center creative freedom over uncompromising career paths. They leaned toward self-employment and start-ups, which they could access because they entered the workforce during the dot-com boom of the late 90s and early 2000s. Gen X was once the DIY generation that truly believed they could be anything. But now they're creeping into true middle age, and have moved beyond the disillusioned slacker identity of their youth, taking their rightful place as the adults in the room. They landed corporate jobs that would make past iterations of themselves cringe. They raise their kids in the same suburbs they escaped from at age 18. Their futures might have unfolded differently than they expected, but Gen-X never forgot what they were taught in school, and they still live according to the mindset that they can be anything they want.
2. ‘All opinions are valid’
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Gen-X was taught that all opinions were valid, an idea that Boomers found absurd. The ability to weigh different worldviews, even ones they disagreed with, was a crucial lesson for Gen-X. They were encouraged to question their teachers, unlike Boomers, who were taught to respect authority figures no matter what.
Boomers were taught with an authoritarian teaching style. They followed the rules and obeyed whatever command their teachers gave. Talking out of turn was often reprimanded with corporal punishment, so the mindset that each individual opinion deserves to be heard would make Boomers roll their eyes. While they were taught to fall in line, Gen-X experienced the classroom as a place to push against the status quo.
As far as Boomers saw it, the belief that everyone’s opinion held value showed how sensitive and soft Gen-X had become, especially when compared to their own rugged individualism. Boomers categorized that kind of thinking as coddling, which they blamed for the downfall of every future generation.
3. ‘Building self-confidence is critical’
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Gen-X’s classes covered more than chemistry compounds or grammatically correct sentences. Their learning materials were designed to help them feel good about themselves. Boomers dismissed building foundational confidence as a life lesson. They saw it as emblematic of the way enabling kids made them vulnerable, which in turn made them weak.
4. ‘Everyone is special and unique’
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A pivotal thing Gen-X learned in school that made Boomers roll their eyes was the idea that they were all special and unique. This idea rooted itself deep into Gen-X’s psyche and became the basis for the participation trophies Boomers love to complain about. Schools went out of their way to uphold the mindset that everyone deserved to win. Teachers gave grades based on effort, not just test results, which recognized perseverance over how accurate a student’s academic performance was. In keeping with the ego-boosting concept that everyone was special, Gen-X was told to “be yourself, no matter what.”
The blatant celebration of every Gen-X child caused friction with Boomers, who maintained that fitting in was the only way to find success. Boomers still roll their eyes at the continued “everyone is special” mindset that still finds itself deeply rooted in the Millennial and Gen-Z psyche.
5. ‘Learning should be fun’
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Boomers apparently walked uphill both ways in the snow to school, and they certainly weren’t taught in a way that emphasized learning as a fun, joyful thing. Boomers were taught through rote learning, a traditional teaching method used for centuries. According to this method, students repeat information until they’ve memorized it. Rote learning allows students to quickly access facts and say them out loud, but it doesn't necessarily mean they understand what they’ve learned.
Studies have shown that facts learned with rote memorization are only retained temporarily. While a typical Boomer classroom centered on rote learning, Gen-X was taught to think meaningfully and challenge themselves, with lessons from Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Schoolhouse Rock shaping many of their fondest, most educational memories.
6. ‘Home Ec is optional’
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By the time Boomers left school and Gen-X students entered it, one class in particular was being phased out of the national curriculum. Home Economics became a relic of the past, much like Pluto’s categorization as a planet and any number of topics Gen-X learned that turned out to be disproven (oops!)
But Boomers see it this way: without Home Ec, Gen-X missed out on learning traditional life skills that could have been helpful to have under their belts. A largely problematic aspect of Home Ec was how it upheld rigidly gendered ideas around the roles men and women were assigned, yet Gen-X and every younger generation that followed weren’t taught basic elements of care and maintenance. Knowing how to sew, cook, and balance a budget were skills that Boomers acquired at school, which is why Home Ec being eliminated really rubbed them the wrong way.
7. ‘Creative expression matters as much as science and math’
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Boomers were raised during the height of the space race. In July 1969, they sat on the living room floor with their whole families, watching Apollo 11 land on the moon. That pivotal moment in outer space etched itself into their minds forever. It laid the basis for the widely held Boomer belief that science was the most valuable subject and anything else was purely frivolous.
Their laser focus on learning science and math made sense for their era of education, but by the time Gen-X got to school, creative subjects like art and music mattered just as much. Still, Boomers rolled their eyes as kids played Hot Cross Buns on the recorder and splatter-painted like they were modern incarnations of Jackson Pollock.
8. ‘Correct spelling doesn’t matter if you have good ideas’
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Gen-X kids who whined and fidgeted through spelling bees were scolded by Boomer parents, who repeatedly told them how important spelling would be for their futures, only to witness the dominance of the digital age. The transition away from correct spelling as an academic necessity made Boomers' blood boil; only now has that prophecy mostly come true.
The days of writing essays in cursive on loose-leaf paper with No. 2 pencils disappeared into the ether. Automatic spell-check claimed its rightful place as queen, ruling over any writing assignment, and let's not even get started on the nightmare that is AI. Gen-X kids were taught many things in school that Boomers found utterly absurd, and probably still do, but the differences in their academic experiences highlight how far we’ve come, and how far we can still go.
Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a staff writer who covers psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help topics, and human interest stories.
