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I love how the generation where everyone got a good paying job without a college degree and a house and could afford to start a family at the age of 19 if they so cared (looking at you Boomers) tried to prove how hard they had it by designating those who came after them the everyone gets a trophy generation. As an X-er, I have fought for every scrap of existence I have. No one -- particularly not the oh so entitled Boomers -- gave me squat.
As a boomer, I remember things quite differently.
I dropped out of college. I went back because there weren't decent paying jobs without a college degree.
I was in no way financially able to start a family at 19, nor was my husband.
As far as getting a house, perhaps you should look up the home mortgage interest rates of the 70s and 80s.
I teach at a very small school where "valedictorian" means you're in the top 6% of your graduating class. There's so much grade inflation and protecting egos going on that we have several 4.0 students and do not encourage competition. Our school refuses to use the 5.0 A for AP classes because then there would be only one valedictorian. There is LOTS of pressure to give A's instead of A-'s because that ruins 4.0's. I'm one of the teachers who will not bump an A- but I take a lot of heat for that. I've had parents go to the superintendent about me because their child got an A- instead of an A. I've had parents try to bribe me and threaten me with lawsuits over A-'s. It's insane.
So what's the best way to educate K-12 child these days? From the outside, it all seems rather scary. Perhaps military schools are the last bastion of real meritocracies.
My temptation would be to become a world cruiser and do home schooling on the sailboat. A field trip to go buy produce in Hong Kong would do a kid a world of good.
A thought problem I've had lately is how to provide a high quality liberal arts college education for a reasonably bright child. Not everyone is equipped for a STEM education, and you can argue that college doesn't have to be used as a trade school.
So what's the best way to educate K-12 child these days? From the outside, it all seems rather scary. Perhaps military schools are the last bastion of real meritocracies.
My temptation would be to become a world cruiser and do home schooling on the sailboat. A field trip to go buy produce in Hong Kong would do a kid a world of good.
A thought problem I've had lately is how to provide a high quality liberal arts college education for a reasonably bright child. Not everyone is equipped for a STEM education, and you can argue that college doesn't have to be used as a trade school.
Personally I think the solution is to unplug kids but this is UNPOPULAR. People think that technology is our salvation but it's really dummying down our kids because they don't use the technology between their ears. The problem, IMO, is that the people who are making these decisions grew up without technology and to us technology is AMAZING because we can do so much more BUT we learned to think first. We use technology to enhance thinking. Kids today use it in place of thinking. Technology is a tool not a replacement for thought. You can only think about what is stored between your ears. Technology can't make connections for you and God help us when we develop technology that can as we will then be slaves to it waiting for some machine to tell us what to do next.
We need to take kids out of their comfort zone. We need to push them. We need to raise the bar. We need to ask hard questions they don't know the answer to and we need to accept that not everyone gets an A. If it were up to me I would do away with GPA's and replace them with straight percentage grades where no one would expect a 100% and the difference between a 92.4 and a 92.5 isn't the minus on the A. I would replace state testing with end of year testing that students are required to pass before they can move on to the next grade or get credit for the class they just took and I'd include critical thinking questions on the test.
If you expect me to teach it then it should be on the test (this would help me know how well I'm doing as a teacher too). Yes it is fair to ask a question that requires reasoning using what was taught in the class to answer. I would unplug students. I'd block cell phone usage the moment they walk into the building. No staring at that screen texting your friends during class or texting each other answers. Technology is a MAJOR distraction to learning. At any given time half my class is texting instead of listening or doing what they should be doing. Given the office won't support taking a phone from a student there's not much I can do other than tell them to put it away. So much learning is missed because of technology. I hate taking kids to the computer lab because I end up spending the hour policing the sites they're on instead of teaching.
My list goes on but this is where I'd start. Eliminate the 4.0, unplug students, test what you want taught and give the students a vested interest in the test. Right now the only person who doesn't have a vested interest in the high stakes test is the test taker. That is just stupid. Give kids a test that doesn't matter to them that tests only a hand full of concepts they've learned and judge the quality of a school or teacher with the results??? What the heck were they smoking when they came up with this one? We need exit exams that are common to all schools. We need to track student improvement year over year not compare this year's class to last year's class because they are different kids. We have the TECHNOLOGY to do this. It's not rocket science. I'll add ability grouping to my list as I think that is important too. Trying to teach kids at multiple levels with different needs in the same classroom is challenging. Have an A, B and C track so teachers can target the student's background and ability. It has to be boring to higher performing students to sit while lower performing students are remediated and I know that lower performing students need something different than higher performing students. When those tests are written there should be levels of proficiency and ALL of them should count not just the bottom as it is now. Don't just count my students who meet minimum proficiency, count the ones who have reached expert level too. ALL students should be progressing year over year not just the bottom. Right now we are so focused on the bottom we have completely forgotten our top.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 04-12-2015 at 12:46 PM..
Personally I think the solution is to unplug kids but this is UNPOPULAR. People think that technology is our salvation but it's really dummying down our kids because they don't use the technology between their ears.
Off topic, but I exactly agree with you and have spent years arguing about the lack of educational value of the internet and modern telecommunications. People are still enamored with the tech and there's a strong profit motive behind it's use I'm afraid.
I really like the looks of the Thomas Aquinas College, you should check out their program.
Off topic, but I exactly agree with you and have spent years arguing about the lack of educational value of the internet and modern telecommunications. People are still enamored with the tech and there's a strong profit motive behind it's use I'm afraid.
I really like the looks of the Thomas Aquinas College, you should check out their program.
Excellent overall post, BTW.
This is definitely profit driven. Technology is a tool but you don't need tools until you can think. We're putting the technology cart before the thinking horse and have created a generation that is incredibly easy to lead by the nose. Just put it out on the internet and get them forwarding it and you're golden. They won't even question whether what they're forwarding is a good idea. They're part of the group and they accept group think. I read something a while back that compared what goes on with this generation to a hive mind all linked through the internet with shared thoughts.
Yup. I'd unplug them. It would be a shock to their systems but it would be for their own good.
I actually did this in my chemistry classes for reports. I no longer take them to the library to do research. They are required to bring in their printed sources then highlight them and write a hand written outline in class before they start writing their papers. The quality of their writing has greatly improved. I can tell it's their writing and not just a cut and paste job from the internet and they're remembering more of what they "wrote". They weren't writing before. They were doing a cut, paste, shake and edit to get past a plagiarism checker. If I could read their hand writing I'd have them do everything hand written. I do expect the final paper to be typed.
If you haven't encountered it, then you just haven't had enough experience in a manager's position. There are seminars, articles, studies, etc, all about how you have to manage millennials differently than everyone else. Based on how they were raised.
If you haven't encountered it, then you just haven't had enough experience in a manager's position. There are seminars, articles, studies, etc, all about how you have to manage millennials differently than everyone else. Based on how they were raised.
Out of curiosity how do the experts say they should be managed? I teach them and really could use some insight here.
Out of curiosity how do the experts say they should be managed? I teach them and really could use some insight here.
OK, based on one of the seminars I went to and a couple of recent articles, it seems that one thing that they really want is a lot of feedback. Now, this feedback tends to be more to their liking if it's positive feedback, but they don't like to just be set off on their own to do their job like every other normal person. They kind of want to be coached through everything.
Looking at the way I am tempted to interact with my 3 year old son, I can totally see where this is coming from. It's like everything he does he immediately looks up to me and wait for my reaction to it.
If all these kids did get a reaction every time, it's not a great leap to see where their need for constant validation comes from.
Some of this may not be curable like the idea that you need to pay them lots of money and then they will show you how well they can perform instead of the other way around. This was documented in some psychological studies. Or just look around the internet where people say that the reason they do crappy work is because they're not being paid enough.
Wrench, these whiny know-nothing college kids annoy me too. I'm almost 40. I'm an X-er -- you know, the so called slacker generation. I stuck with the program, worked hard and learned the ropes too. The only difference between you and I is that you had way more opportunities open to you. By the time I came around, it was slim pickings. The kids are annoying, but you have to admit -- you didn't invest much in their futures, did you? It's not like you were your parents who worked hard and sacrificed so their kids could have better a life. You work hard and sacrificed so you could live it up.
Boy have you got my life's work wrong! I didn't invest in THEIR future? LOL! I invested in MY future. My parents split up and went their separate ways when I was 10. I did crap jobs until I was of age and when I married at 20, I was grossing $63 whopping dollars a week. Took one vacation in my whole work life and it was a drive to and from my home state 900 miles away. Living it up, eh? All three of my adult kids are successful at their jobs. I saved every bit of overtime I ever earned and lived within my means along the way.
The younger generation are in for a tough time, but it's not because of 'boomers'. The 'takers' are gonna be on their backs.
Life is what you make it. Opportunities are open to everyone. When you have one come to you - you take it, you don't wait for the one you want and only want to show up. If you do, you'll be waiting forever.
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There's so much grade inflation and protecting egos going on that we have several 4.0 students and do not encourage competition. Our school refuses to use the 5.0 A for AP classes because then there would be only one valedictorian. 
