Teaching (all our) Millennial/Gen Z Students

1. CAIS Millennial/Gen Z Conference Hamden Hall Country Day School Hamden, CT 06517 Teaching (all our) Millennial/Gen Z Students Who Knows Where They’re Going, Yet We Can Help Them On Their Way… note: Millennial kids- born 1984 ff. Gen Z- born 2000 ff.

2. Opening Premises…all from sound (net) research, about Gen Z (b. 2002+) (i.e., caveat emptor on these observations, opinions): • “least physically active generation of children we have known… what employers save on business travel will be spent on health insurance and fitness club memberships. • [http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/09/14/47303/generation-z-new-kids-on-the-virtual-block.html] • 18% of world population (born between mid 1990’s and today), forerunners of Generation Alpha, are more like their parents than previous generations: • a. Brand Experiences: Generation Z and their parents are developing an affinity for and purchasing the same brands.  • b. Taste Commonality: They share their taste of recreation, entertainment, hanging around with their parents e.g. they watch the same entertainment channels that their parents watch. Many gaming companies are catering to family gaming segment.  • c. Family Values & Ethics: Generation X saw a social trend of divorces and thus, is expected to instill stronger family values, along with old notions such as work ethics, etiquette and resilience. This, along with a better education, will help Generation Z become more tolerant, respectful, and responsible.

3. More attributes… mix of Millennials/Gen Z • … Losing Interest in Cars/Driving: • “They think of a car as a giant bummer,” said Mr. Martin. “Think about your dashboard. It’s filled with nothing but bad news.”* There is data to support Mr. Martin’s observations. In 2008, 46.3 percent of potential drivers 19 years old and younger had drivers’ licenses, compared with 64.4 percent in 1998, according to the Federal Highway Administration, and drivers ages 21 to 30 drove 12 percent fewer miles in 2009 than they did in 1995. • [“Young Lose Interest in Cars, G.M. Turns to MTV for Help” [NY Times, 3/22 2012]  *not sure what’s meant here– trouble lights only light when it’s bad news? • Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation*** (2000). This work investigates the personality of the generation currently coming of age, whose first cohorts were the high school graduating class of 2000. Strauss and Howe show how today's teens are recasting the image of youth from downbeat and alienated to upbeat and engaged. They also say Millennials are held to higher standards than adults apply to themselves; they are a lot less violent, vulgar, and sexually charged than the teen culture older people are producing for them [advertising/marketing, films/media], and, over the next decade, they will transform what it means to be young. According to the authors, Millennials could emerge as the next great generation.[“Strauss and Howe”, Wikipedia] ***will be on reserve in Swain Library on 4/23 ff.

4. Semi-Pro Prognostication (one person’s view, again) • from The Blog of Penelope Trunk (http://blog.penelopetrunk.com) • (studies business trends and is a pro head-hunter) • Ms Trunk: • Here are some ways that the traits of Generation Z might play out in the workforce of the future. • a.) Generation Z will not be team players.We know from Strauss and Howe that as generations cycle, the team generations (such as gen y) are usually followed by individualist generations. So it is not surprising to see trends that the same thing will happen over the next decade. Gen Y are great team players. In fact, they are so team oriented that they often feel that nothing is getting accomplished at work unless there has been a team meeting about it. But they are not likely to teach the value to their kids. In typical parent fashion, parents stress what they are lacking so that their kids don't lack it. This is why, for example, first generation immigrants often do not teach their native tongue to their American kids. • b.) Generation Z will be more self-directed. • c.) Generation Z will process information at lightning speed. • d.) Generation Z will be smarter.Generation Y is the most educated generation in US history. By far. It's not just that they have access to more information and teaching. But also, they did more homework than any of their predecessors, and Gen Z will continue to amplify this trend.

5. And so: Apparent Questions With some rudimentary observations…. 1. What is the (new) relationship of information to knowledge? Knowledge continues to be constituted from data, from bits of information. What to emphasize, what to leave out, is clearly a step on the road to building ‘a judicious view’ of some subject or other… 2. What new skills areas should we be teaching? In this new data/information age, we need to teach superior methods of collection and assessment, leading to the ability to make sound hypotheses that evince widespread support in the ongoing literature on the subject, especially since data/evidence weighing and testing (as suggested in #1) will be ongoing– and at an accelerated rate, most likely…  

6. Questions, cont’d. • With a few locally applied guesses… 3. Should our fundamental subject areas (math, english, history, science, language, the arts) shift to take new modes of knowledge collection, utilization, analysis, presentation into account? Probably not... The past being a useful knowledge foundation, a series of steps rising… 4. Do we place many more homeworks and major assignments on tech/online platforms? Most likely, the kids are natives… but maybe some handwritten classworkas well… not a biggie to many kids…but variety is, well, a good thing…

7. And So, Tentative Conclusions… • And so, from this smattering of evidence and discussion, it seems likely that • a.) 21st century teachers will need to continue to monitor “knowledge parameters and implementation” as manifested in evolving academic and business models in order to better tailor their online and classroom teaching modes to new “agoras of ideas” that spring up beyond our walls... • b.) Building a range of teaching deliveries through use of a variety of online and text-based approaches to learning will help our students to develop the flexibility that they will need to succeed in the collaborative, fast-evolving 21st century… • c) Teacher coaching and training, and ongoing professional development, will be more important as we move forward into this brave new world!