Middle Class White
Interviewer: Natalie Hinton
Interviewee: Donna Hinton
Year of Birth: 1956
Grew up in: Bay Springs, MS
Attended: West Jasper County School District
Extra Curricular Activities in High School: Cheerleading, Basketball Track
Attended College: University of Mississippi Medical Center/Anesthesia Degree
1. What are the historical influences on this generation?
a. Baby Boomers – Civil Rights Movement; The Hippie Movement, The initiation of Medicare/Medicaid, removal of prayer from the public arena, The women’s movement, The Vietnam War, Dr.Spock and his child rearing ideas (the initiation of the “don’t spank” because you’ll hurt their self esteem philosophy.)
2. What impact did these historical influences have on this generation?
- The Bible, duty, and self discipline gave way to so-called freedom of expression, with the “if it feels good, do it” mentality. More freedom of individual expression. People became more self centered and focused on what pleased them most, “to heck with the rest of the country.”
3. What are the core values of this generation?
-Personal success, prosperity, attaining the American Dream, and a more socialist outlook on government and society.
4. What was/is the family experience like for this generation?
-Divorce became much more prevalent and accepted and as a consequence, there were more broken families which led to all sorts of bad stuff. In general, family ties were less close (not true for me, but common with this generation.)
5. What is the value of education for this generation?
-EXTREMELY valuable because people wanted to be as successful as they could. Also, because of the proliferation of technology.
6. What was the school day like for this generation?
-Structured and predictable. 8-hour school day, with 5 subjects taught for the whole year. (Only 5 credits in the whole year because the whole year was spent taking the same 5 courses)
7. What did/does this generation think of their teachers?
-Held them at high regard and respected them for the most part.
8. What role did extracurricular activities play in this generation’s school day/life?
-Compared to now, athletics were an out of school activity but there would typically be one period during the school day where you could do something extra curricular; either band, or one of four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball.
9. What is the work ethic of this generation?
-A great part is extremely driven. As the entitlement mentality grew, about half of the work force decided to just take it easy.
10. Who worked? Why? What impact did that have on future generations?
-Women started working outside the home, which had a GREAT impact on society because people other than their mothers were raising children.
11. What is this generation’s view of organizational management /charts? What is this generation’s view of respect for authority?
-Good view of management, charts can be informative and valuable in the publication of data.
-Respect for authority started out being very strong, but as time has gone on, it has diminished.
12. What is this generation’s view of time at work?
-A lot of people put in so much time with their jobs that now as we have grown older we have some regret about the amount of time their job consumed. For example: instead of spending more time with family.
13. How does workplace skills or training look like for this generation?
-A great deal of importance was placed on making sure that before a person left and educational program, they not only possessed the head knowledge but also the ability and technical skills to do the work. Technical skills were highly valued.
14. What does this generation’s views on work life and balance of family?
-Sometimes the pursuit of success led to an imbalance, even though it was known that a balance was needed, family life was often sacrificed in pursuit of success at a career.
15. What is this generation’s work ethic and values?
-Driven, hard work was respected.
16. What is this generation’s preferred work environment?
-Away from the home, in an office
17. What did this generation look for in a job?
-Respectability and income
18. What assets does this generation bring to the workplace?
-A strong work ethic, motivation to complete tasks, goal oriented, Technology oriented
19. What liabilities does this generation bring to the workplace?
-Baby boomers have not taken a stand on core personal values, and more of the attitude of “as long as it doesn’t affect me, I don’t care what you do.” This doesn’t work because we live in a nation where what other people do effects everyone.
20. What are the keys to remember when working with this generation?
-We are proud of our achievements and want to be respected for them.
21. What is this generation’s leadership style?
-A strong central leader with several committees or sub leaders
22. What is this generation’s interactive style?
-We like to think of ourselves as easy going. We like to be known as easy going, but really we are very competitive.
23. What is this generations view on:
a. Technology
-We love it.
b. Communication
-Sometimes overwhelmed by too much of it.
c. Feedbacks and rewards
-We are probably the most successful, wealthy, and educated generation that’s ever been. We have accomplished a lot. We have lived quite prosperous. We are saddened to see the economic situation that our nation is in right now.
24. What is this generation’s view of retirement?
-We look forward to it and want to retire in “style,” but we worry that we don’t be able to because inept leaders have squandered the fiscal abundance that this nation once enjoyed.
PART 2 QUESTIONS
1. Ask these people what were their education struggles and successes?
- Obtained a Nurse Anesthetist degree. It was very stressful and difficult to go through the school, but it has been a very rewarding profession.
2. Who was their favorite teacher? Why?
-Mrs. Beverly McNeer: High School English teacher for 2 years. She was very down to earth and funny. She was also my cheerleading sponsor.
3. If they could change one thing, what would it be?
- My generation would have been more vigilant to demand that our leaders do the right things and not just the easy thing.
