What’s this shift we’re seeing?
As an educator and a coach, I’ve been watching a very worrying shift in students starting college in the past few semesters.
Now, I don’t want you to think that I’m just someone grumbling about the “younger generation” or the “in my day” arguer. I’m not. Every single generation has it’s own strengths and weaknesses and I think that we are made better by those changes. But, something is shifting, and it has me worried.
The good things I’m seeing is that students are not afraid of talking with me and they seem to be responsive so far to help being offered. And these kids are smart. So, what’s missing?
A few things are standing out so far.
First off, it seems that most of these kids were never taught critical thinking skills and how to apply critical thinking in the real world. This lack is manifesting it understanding of basic cause and effect and how to overcome adversity when it inevitably presents itself in daily life.
Next up, and this is likely a result of the first, there is a learned helplessness that seems to be a result of having problems worked out for them. They haven’t had to work through failure. This is not their fault, they are a product of the system in which they were raised.
Lastly, they have not been taught skills for success. Now, as an educator, I deal with this in the form of academic skills more often than not. But, I’ve also seen that students have difficulty learning new things that would make their educational journey easier. Again, this is a lack within the system they were raised up through, but it is still their own lives that they don’t step up to learn the skills for.
I’m not entirely sure how to counter this. It is not a matter of bringing back “the good old days” so much as it is helping them meld necessary life skills with the new digital reality.
As a success coach and an educator, I want to help people gain those skills. But, the question is how? I do what I can to help the people who enter my office. But, how can I take this further. How do we educate a generation of young people on life skills that are lacking when they don’t even know what they don’t know?
