1.   Normal Generational differences[i]

There always have been, and always will be differences between older and younger people.  These are differences in any culture and at any time of history that normally and necessarily exist between younger and older people because of an educational relationship between the two.   In this relationship the young learn the ways of the old but also change the culturally established ways of the old and in this way effect cultural change and renewal.

One generation introduces the next to a given culture by transmitting its experience, its expertise, its competence, and its insight into that culture to the younger generation. Without such an educational, culture-transmitting process from one generation to another, no culture can exist for long.  In addition to inculcating the next genera­tion into a given culture, the successful transmission of that culture also entails a transfer of responsibility for that culture.  Learning involves more than gaining com­petence in the ways of the old. Insofar as one is able, the learner is also expected to take respon­sibility for the ways of the old.  The success of the educational process can be gauged in terms of whether or not the behavior of the new generation manifests the ways of the old.  From this vantage point learners have rightly learned the right things to the extent that they mimic the behavior of their teachers.

However, in being educated into the ways of the old every new generation also changes the ways of the old more or less drastically.  During our period of history in particular, this process of change appears to have accelerated to such an extent that generational differences appear to be taking on the characteristics of a genera­tion chasm.  Why in learning the ways of the old do the young change the ways of the old?  Education is more than teaching new dogs old tricks.  It does not only change persons but cultures (i.e., commonly accepted ways of doing things) as well.  Education offers a culture the opportunity to change itself, to do things in a different way.  Next to providing cultural continuity, education is also a process of cultural renewal.  In this process it is the learner rather than the teacher who changes culture.

Both individual change and cultural change are products of education.  As a result of education learners change themselves to suit existing culture or change existing culture to suit themselves.  By means of this process they give their stamp of approval or critique on the culture in which they live.

Cultural renewal can be a positive result of education.  The older peo­ple become, the more they are inclined to miss-identify the way they do things with the way they ought to do things.  After decades of working at constructing a certain way of living, people can become so committed to the way things are done that they can hardly distinguish it any longer from the way things ought to be done.  Their way becomes the way to be taught and lived.

However, the next generation is not so committed to what is taught.  Because the old teach the new generation, it stands on the shoulders of the old and can thus be expected to see farther.  But also, because young people are not committed to the old generation’s way, they can stand back from its culture and see more clearly where the way things are done deviates from the way things ought to be done.  Thus, a new generation has the opportunity to be properly critical of the cultural products that are taught. It is the responsibility of each new generation to bend the ways of the old into the right direc­tion.  The task of reforming culture to make it conform to what ought to be done is intrinsic to learn­ing.

The faithful exercise of this task can renew a culture.  Whether cultural change becomes cultural renewal (in the sense of the Greek New Testament word kainos, which means "fresh, improved," rather than the word neos, which only means "different from before”) depends on whether as a result of learning the learner’s actions increase the opportunity for humanitarian function­ing in a culture.