Engaging the new generation

I didn’t feel the Mindset List was as entertaining as it should have been even though it did contain many culturally significant yet extinct circumstances. As my children are still in elementary school, when I think of differences in our upbringing, I often refer them to times when I would walk to the toy store in our downtown, or the 5^th Street Mini Mart so my friend and I could buy cookies and whipped cream and mix them all up when we made our way back home. In fifth or sixth grade another friend and I used to spend long summer days riding our bikes with little fear of anyone hassling us. We had an entirely different life perspective. We had freedom to make our own choices and learn from our mistakes. Even modern moms who are highly trained in early childhood development often make the mistake of smothering their children or not allowing them to fail. I foresee a generation of kids who can rightly blame their parents for so much of their life because we’re there for everything.

I also long for the days when a book was the purest form of entertainment. My seven year-old son must be forcibly removed from his Xbox each and every day after the allotted time has expired. He doesn’t play video games all the time. He watches other people do exciting things and seems to think we live in a world where everything is either disposable, i.e., someone else is paying, or is a prop used for a grand experiment. He’s not alone. Many kids in this generation, I believe, will suffer effects from too much screen time that are beyond what we currently have research to describe. I also think the family dinner is even more absent than it was a decade ago. If a family has a parent staying at home and the second parent is home every night and doesn’t work retail or second shift, chances are someone has a meeting or an activity in the evening. No one is exempt except a small few resolute to maintain that vestige of a grand tradition. People from all walks of life are filling their evenings with running here or there in some shape or form.

This generation also doesn’t know what it’s like to not know the answer to something. Everything is on the Internet. Sir Ken Robinson mentioned that “knowledge is about what you don’t know” (Robinson 2014). What happens when we think we know everything? Will we still have an intense desire to seek answers? As I’m a bit older than many of my classmates, I grew up with vastly different teaching styles than what the current research and standards call teachers to embody. In my particular field, I would imagine that I would grow and learn along with my students. The questions and problems a historian, economist, or political scientist could seek to uncover are rather limitless. I think that in a world that is living in someone else’s reality and lacking practicality, it’ll be important to teach students how to frame a problem and quickly devise a workable solution to find a solution. In this insane age of online media where we’re bombarded with information, students do need to be able to quickly discern whether they’re looking at information that is credible and how much so. It can be a very grey area. I’m looking forward to the challenge!