Sat, 10 Apr 2010: Is this person in touch with "kids these days"?
I just read this advertisement on a listserv. I fully expected to read that Generation C students were cretins or crappy or some such but went on to read overwhelmingly positive remarks about Generation C. Is the person presenting this in touch with the general attitude that "kids these days" are terrible? They want to create? They want to communicate? And collaborate? OMG, where did THEY come from? Actually, from my classrooms over the years b/c that's what I saw, for the most part, among my students, in stark contrast to the gripes and jeremiads on fl teachers listservs.
"Have you ever wondered how to reach "Generation C" students? Students
from this generation expect to be able to create content, communicate
easily and quickly with others, and collaborate to solve problems."
Mon, 05 Apr 2010: Was there something magical about 1997?
One of the astounding elements of Ellen Shrager's excellent excursion into what makes "kids these days" seem different from when "we" were in school (1938 to 2009), was the specific year she gave for the great change-over: 1997. Perhaps she said '95 - I'd have to look at my notes - but around 15 years ago. Why astounding?
I remember 15 years ago; I had been teaching about 10 years then. The fact that I don't recall any major change isn't surprising b/c I don't see any major differences between students today and students in my day - the 50s. But then neither do I recall any change in our society, economics, politics, or intellectual and artistic life. Rap and hip-hop were long established; the Republican Party discipline had started up with Tom Delay but I cannot imagine that having an effect on students. What else? The Cold War had ended earlier.....
This is where a little more interaction on this blog would be helpful; maybe we can come up with something, maybe something in education that I was unaware of. NCLB didn't start until after 2000. The Monica Lewinski scandal? How so?
I think I know where my notes from that presentation are and I'll see if Ellen says anything about the cause. But usually, such major changes are the result of a long accumulation of interlocking and interrelated pressures, failures, additions, and so on. Things like immigration, the failure of the working class to see improvement in their economic status, the lack of on-going wars (soon to be remedied), migrations due to climatic catastrophes like the Dust Bowl. But there is nothing like that in the mid-90s.
Sun, 16 Aug 2009: What HAS changed in the last 30 years?
Here’s a quote from the NYT magazine today, Aug. 16, about how things might change over a 30 year period:
“It’s hard to argue that Americans collectively have become more irresponsible over the last 30 years; the murder rate has plummeted, and divorce and abortion rates have fallen. And our genes certainly haven’t changed in 30 years.
What has changed is our environment. Parents are working longer and take-out meals have become a default dinner. Gym classes have been cut. The real price of soda has fallen 33% over the last three decades. The real price of fruit and vegetables has risen more than 40%.”