Endangered History

Does anyone else get that creepy feeling like something bad is happening in the next room, or the house next door, but it is the next generation you are actually worrying about? Of course, I work with kids every day so it is not really noticable at first. A slip here, a smart comment there, and suddenly I'm old. I used to be cool, in touch, I understood young people. I'm afraid I still do and that is what is scary. They do not give a damn about anything that happened before they were borned. They say it all the time. "Why do we have to learn about dead people?" "Who cares about what happened in the old days (like the 197os)?" "What does this have to do with us?" And all my years ago learned standard answers don't mean squat to them. Old people are not important, experience has no value, there are no boundaries. They do not value much of anything. It scares me, it scares me a lot. I know every generation says these things about the next generation, but I am not reacting to their dress, clothes, or any other fad or fashion. I reacting to the comments made about the people who founded our country, fought and died for our way of life. The women who marched to get the vote, the men who charged up hills with bayonets fixed do not mean anything to them. The concepts do not matter to them. There are good kids who know what they are supposed to say, the right things. Even good kids are not interested in history, they tolerate it. They write the correct answers, but they don't really make connections. I'm not a boring teacher; I add in the good stuff, the blood and guts and gore that gets teens interested. What am I doing wrong? Please don't tell me it is just because I'm old.