Only 7%

"44% of eighth-graders in Singapore scored at the most advanced level in math, as did 38% in Taiwan. Only 7% of U.S. students scored that well." - Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

I don’t care what the debate is with budgets at our local, state, and national level. Pulling money from education, classrooms, teachers, and students is NOT an option.

Transformation or Irritation

I had a long conversation with my father over the holidays. My mom and fiancee escaped to the other room as it sounded more like a squabble over computer issues. But, it wasn’t. It was just two men trying to make sure each other was understood or simply heard. It was really a discussion about the differences of our generations.

I’ve thought a lot about that conversation as the new decade begins and believe dad and I fall into two, distinct, generational directions or trends. Directions I don’t see easily turning around.

I call the first generational direction Transformation (or a change into something improved or useful). I’ll call the other direction Irritation (or impatient and exasperation).

Transformation happens. Growth happens. Change happens. Our technical infrastructure is simply massive today and getting bigger (and smaller). Take, for example, my phone. Cell phones that take videos/pictures, surf the internet, send text messages, calendar items, retrieve/send email, calculate, look up words, record grocery lists, store music, and play games are common place. The newest Generation Z kids (born from the mid 1990s to mid 2000s) fluently work technology without even needing a lesson (though they barely remember 911 or comprehend the historical perspective). They are now about to graduate high school and enter the work force. And I have to say, they understand the concepts of Transformation. And you know what? They embrace change because that is all they know. GenY and GenX (me) get it, too, although in distinctly different ways.

The alternative direction is Irritation. Frustration happens, too. It is only human to believe we’ll live and dream forever and that we can accomplish everything we want if we just work hard at it. However, as the Baby Boomers get older I fear the reality is they can’t keep up. Today’s tech world moves too fast. And whining about it doesn’t help because nobody can slow it down (though virus designers do try). To make matters worse, the Gen X, Y, and Zers blink unknowingly as teachers. There is no text book or manual anymore. If you have a question, there exists only a quick link to a help menu or a phone call to person in India (speaking of irritation). The best answer you can get from a GenXYZer is to just “figure it out”. That is what we do.

I guess the best answer to my dad is to draw an analogy. If one truly wants to learn a language, get into a total immersion program. If one wants to learn Spanish, go live in Spain.

Generationally speaking, we are all shaped by the events, leaders, developments and trends of our time. The GenXers like me, dubbed in part as the internet generation, are fairly comfortable with change and are naturally going to align ourselves with Transformation. The GenYers, having started the Facebook, MySpace, blogs, and instant communication technologies love “the next new thing”. So, they are going to chose Transformation. And these GenZ kids are simply amazing to watch “go”.

The Baby Boomers do have a choice. And being irritated about the ongoing transformations won't get you credit for doing both.

Kids of Tomorrow ... I Hope

I get comfortable, no doubt. I like my daily routine. But, then time does this all of a sudden thing and takes on jet propulsion and I’m suddenly transported into a new dawn. I like that, actually. I’m not afraid of change. I endorse change. However, there is always a period of adjustment and that can be both enlightening and frightening.

I watch my parents struggle with changing technology. I don't want to be them. I fear that frustration. So, I keep up with the now. Constantly. I think. I hope.

This is a simple concept really. And I’m sure to be slapped upside the forehead like the V-8 commercials, but this time thing continues to escape me and I hate the catch up mode. I’m not at the forefront, obviously. But it occurs to me, and illustrated rather simply, that by the time one finishes high school there is a completely different world out there.

My example ... I was talking today with a recent high school graduate who is a month away from embarking on his freshman year of college. He is the son of a co-worker and I’ve been asked to provide him with enough work to keep him busy through mid-September. In other words, I’m providing busy work so that he has some college spending money (aka, beer money). I relish that idea. He is my data base flunke and learning a whole new computer system in just a few weeks.

However, in our daily conversations it has occurred to me that today’s high school seniors were born prior to the internet. Now they master it. How mainstream has the internet and email become in our lives now? Come to think of it, wireless technology didn’t even exist when he was born. And I’m not sure I could deal with being chained to an outlet with my laptop at all. Cell phones, then, looked like walkie-talkies because they weren’t of the digital variety yet. Now, I can hold the world in my pocket.

Consider all the political changes since 1991 (which was yesterday, am I right?). Music was just becoming mainstream on CDs and leaving vinyl in the dust heap. Now we have MP3s. HD tvs on flat screen have just come about in the last quarter of their lives. Etcetera, etcetera, etc. And I think things are gaining speed exponentially, not just in a nice upward bar chart curve in a power-point presentation (and when are those going away?).

My point is meant to be simple, actually. None of us live in the world in which we were born. I’m not saying run out and endorse the 8-Track and Beta Video tapes of today. But, we shouldn’t raise our kids to think in the now. Technology is getting faster, again exponentially in form. They need to be educated in critical thinking. Math is good. That, thank goodness, is still a constant (for now). Music, or the arts in general, is essential. Creative thinking is today’s martial arts.

The concepts of tomorrow are no doubt complex. If, as a parent, I wait for the schools to catch up, it simply is not the education they require to succeed. So … I encourage to obtuse. Think differently. Artistically. Encourage the out of the box. Because. If I parent for today’s world, they might not be prepared for tomorrow.