In one of my cases, we watched this documentary about motivation. One of the points was that people aren't lazy, they are just "learned helpless." This needs to end. We need to teach our children that work is a great thing. Going to school is a great thing and it seems like being an overachiever has become a really bad thing in society.
When a student is getting A's in school, going to work, volunteering and having limited time with friends and family, I can assure you that student hears: "you're always so busy!" in a condescending tone. I would know because I am one of those students. Yes, I work 40 hours a week in four days. My shifts are long and hard, but I do it anyway. My school day is an average of seven hours long, and my volunteering job is three hours. But the fact that I'm an overachiever is one of my strong suits. I put my heart and soul into every job, every class, and every study hour I can. And when I make time for myself, it's usually going to the gym, or something positive.
But then there are the people who are "learned helpless." They learn from experience that it's okay to slack off or have someone else do their work. These people are usually the whiners. I can't tell you how many times I've heard kids whine in class about an essay, or tests, or even how they don't even care what grade they get because they're in college already and it doesn't matter.
But here's the thing: things matter. Grades matter, your attitude matters. We can't keep having generations of learned helpless people. Then, generations will just become weaker and whinier. We need to generate a more positive work ethic on the future generations.
We need world changers, and we aren't going to get them by people being lazy.