PART 1
We all know that most parents love their children, although they don't quite understand them.
Our grandparents'genereation never understood Elvis and The Beatles, frequently opposed to them, relating
rock as "the devil's music". They did all they could to ban rock and contraceptives, mostly because they couldn't understand
what was going on.
Then came flower power and the hippie generation, who were smoking pot, protesting against
Vietnam, taking acid and going to rock festivals, such as Woodstock. With it came the Sex Revolution and Women's lib.
The seventies bring the punks and the disco generation, leaving parents' hairs
prematurely whitened.
AIDS came in the eighties, and we are the children
of a generation in which, contrary to all others, pleasure
leads to death.Even so, many parents don't understand their children, and often neglect them How will be able to comprehend the next millenium's generation?
1. Discuss the above text in groups. How do (or did) your
parents understand you? How do you think parents will
cope with things to come?
PART 2
Topic Song:
She's Leaving Home (Lennon/McCartney)
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her hankerchief
Quietly turing the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
She (We gave her most of our lives)
is leaving (Sacraficed most of our lives)
home (We gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy our baby's gone.
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly
How could she do this to me.
She (We never though of ourselves)
Is leaving (Never a thought for ourselves)
home (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye
Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.
She (What did we do that was wrong?)
Is having (We didn't know it was wrong)
Fun (Fun is the one thing that money can't buy)
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. (Bye, Bye)
She's leaving home (bye bye)
PART 3 Role-Play
Work in pairs or groups of three. Role-play one of the following
situations:
1. A son/daughter decides to leave school start an artistic career. The family has
invested a lot in their child's future and want him/her to get a degree.
The son confronts the family.
2. A very conservative family's daugher is pregnant. The
family wants the girl to get married. She doesn't want to
The family talks to her
3. A teenager enjoys hanging out a lot. Her parents think she should
stay home and study. There is a great show this Saturday, but the
teen's parents know that there is a very important test coming. They
talk to their child.
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