Two women seeking equality in a state where some couples are more equal than others.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

In Defense of: Millenials

Full disclosure: I identify as a member of the Millenial generation. 9/11 was probably the single biggest impact on my adolescence, and while I remember life before the internet, I'm a digital native. I'm highly educated, concerned with social justice, and disillusioned with the current political system, which are qualities also associated with Millenials. This post, however, is less about my block of that group and more about my high school aged students who would also count as Millenials.

I know many people feel that my students are vapid narcissists who can't go a minute without checking social media. I know that many people feel that they seem entitled, shy away from hard work, and don't know the value of a dollar. Some people might say that these students are obsessed with shortcuts.

Maybe some are these things, just as members of other generations are. But let me tell you what I see.

My students - in most cases, regardless of their economic background -

are spread like butter over too much bread 

 (to quote Bilbo from Lord of the Rings). Many fight to take the challenging courses they know they will need to prepare for life after high school and then come home to piles of homework that they do well into the night, leaving them running on less sleep, in some cases, than my wife who is a medical resident. On top of this, they volunteer, participate in extracurriculars (yes, usually plural), and/or work part-time jobs (also sometimes at hours that make my head foggy in sympathetic sleep deprivation).

They are pushed to pick universities and careers at younger and younger ages. They understand so deeply that they must get postsecondary training in order to succeed that I sometimes can palpably feel their panic when something threatens that. Many also stare down the monster of a pile of student debt unless they find scholarships from what seems like an ever-shrinking pool requiring ever higher feats of strength or genius.

On top of that, their numbers - GPA and ACT - become an ingrained part of their identity. They judge, from these numbers, whether they are smart, worthy, competent. They judge whether their dreams have merit from these numbers. Many pile test prep on top of these already full schedules when what is really impeding them is the anxiety stemming from them. I wish I could tell every 16-year-old in the country that he/she is so much more than these numbers.

In response to the concern about shortcuts - I've seen these students come up with elegantly creative solutions using their graphing calculators and other forms of technology. They think differently. If we can leverage that, they will solve problems using methods that would never occur to me. They will collaborate to degrees that we cannot imagine. But sometimes they cannot solve the problems so elegantly, it's true. They're young, and the weight on them is great. It breaks my heart to tell you that I have been asked by more than one student what I think of students (without an attention deficit diagnosis or legal prescription) taking Ritalin or Adderall to improve their scores. Most know someone who has done this successfully. My answer is that these medications without the supervision of a doctor are extremely dangerous, and no matter how important the tests seem now, they aren't worth potentially dying for. Once a student told me, half joking, that I was wrong about that. Without getting into my life history, I looked into his eyes and quietly told him that suicide is not a punchline for me.

I love talking to my students about what they intend to write in their admissions essays. This is where I get to hear about their stories and dreams, where their eyes light up with hope instead of clouding with worry, where they realize that someone sees them as more than these numbers. I try not to tell them what they should do, instead asking them what they like to do, what they've considered, where they've visited, what makes them happy. I hope that I am not the only person who tells them that they should do what makes them want to get up in the morning, that they should attend the university that will support their dreams, that it's okay to admit that they don't want to work 100 hours a week for the rest of their lives.

I don't know what the answer is, but I know that my heart aches to see them.

1 comment:

  1. I just read this post in the Atlantic that also defends Millenials, and thought you might enjoy it.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/in-defense-of-a-try-hard-generation/394535/?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=18858761&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Z8sxEW9BKNm0w9yb3WWYqNipoqsZs2b_6TZUjFimgoeHS6pNxt-LeQZPRrbVEmBYTTdeoEzqFDigJ7BEV4QmDbOx97w&_hsmi=18858761

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