As a social studies teacher and political science major I enjoy following politics and the theater that is our discourse. I’ve gone through whatever stages you want to call them. From pre-teen “I don’t care, and I never will” to hard-core activist and campaign organizer. I see the world differently now and the fun is somewhat still there, but it would really be a lot more fun if we knew what we were talking about.

I would never assume I know “what’s going on”, or to have many answers. And regardless of your views, there is an element of emotion and identity in our political views that cannot really be measured equally. Specific issue debates will always be divisive and unpersuasive. The tragedy of our political theater today, is the level of animosity is so high, there is no persuadable Middle. Our political process is an exercise in mobilizing enough informed, angry voters to stand in line on a Tuesday in November.

I don’t have the slightest clue how to fix this, but I do know unless we make an effort to get smarter, it is not going to get better. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has spent a large amount of her career and her retirement championing the cause of civics education. Unfortunately, we have diluted our discourse to the point, we avoid it or discuss it less and less. She could be onto something.

The less informed we are, the easier we are to control, and that usually isn’t good for us. It can also lead to severe misunderstandings such as this, and this  Often leading to a path riddled with tragic results. The delusion so many can be sold is much easier when there is no understanding. Tierney Sneed’s article here gives us a great example of this lack of understanding in action.

The basic understanding part is nowhere near as "fun" as the controversial part, but it's where we have to start. I was a big fan of The West Wing. It was on as I was in college and was just good tv. (The eerie similarities of its last season and 2008 are for another discussion.) In a discussion with Donna about their opponent Gov. Rob Ritchie and what he expects of a leader. The setup is Gov. Ritchie has some self-help guru as a “consultant” and Josh wants to exploit that. I couldn’t find a video clip but it’s from the Red Mass episode The discussion is on the self-help guys books and how he’s just cribbing from old philsophers and dumbing it down. It culminates is the lines spoken by Josh below:

What does this remind you of? "I believe in hope, not fear." "I'm a leader, not a politician."

"It's time for an American leader." "America's earned a change." "I before 'E' except after 'C'!" It's the fortune-cookie candidacy! These are important thinkers, and understanding them can be very useful and it's not ever going to happen at a four-hour seminar. When the President's got an embassy surrounded in Haiti, or a keyhole photograph of a heavy water reactor, or any of the fifty life-and-death matters that walk across his desk every day, I don't know if he's thinking about Immanuel Kant or not. I doubt it, but if he does, I am comforted at least in my certainty that he is doing his best to reach for all of it and not just the McNuggets. Is it possible we would be willing to require any less of the person sitting in that chair? The low road? I don't think it is.

I don't think that's too bad of a place to start. 

In a piece for The Atlantic Scott Samuelson makes a passionate argument for teaching the liberal arts. As he says, they are called The Humanities for a reason. We have real problems in this country. Problems no one is going to fix on their own, and we need ideas. Those ideas aren’t going to produce themselves. It’s up to us as teachers, and up to us as citizens to engage each other honestly and intellectually. That can’t happen until we get a little more intellectual and our politics to get a lot more honest.  Here’s hoping...

A thought or two on Generational Conflict.

First of all… WOW, if you didn’t catch the OU KS game, watch the replay. One of the best games in a while… Now I have to follow that performance. It’s not gonna, but I‘m hoping it can help someone anyway…

I have a feeling as I find my voice the concept of culture in education will be a strong theme in my writing. I am a geography teacher, with a social science degree after all. The eclectic collection of so many cultures within our school walls provides all kinds of complex opportunities. Inter-Faculty cultural relations shape a school’s culture much more than most factors. I read a couple of stories today related to millennials and how they are perceived by other generations. It never hurts a profession have an honest discussion about how we can be better. Hopefully some of these ideas can help if help is needed…

Sometimes you read an article and agree with it, sometimes you don’t. Then sometimes someone says something to wildly off-base and ridiculous it requires attention. I don’t have a lot of commentary on this article that hasn’t been said before. I will say the tone of both this article and the TIME article loaded with “statistics” and “proof” carry in the grand tradition of taking the kiddos out to the woodshed. This isn’t any new controversy or any new excuse. Younger generations “hearing it” from the oldies is all but a rite of cultural passage. And while portions of Stein’s assessment are backed up by “facts” and “numbers”, an incorrect interpretation of those facts and numbers can grossly misrepresent the makings of a large group of people. A rebuttal to such cultural commentary can be found here.

Each school and each relationship is unique. I would encourage you to look for more on this topic as it will clearly be a large part of our collective environment. The Millennial generation is entering the workforce and a number of “us” are in the ranks of teachers now. Several are in college and the babies of us are rounding out their formative years as Obama’s administration draws to a close. The First President they helped elect, both in 2008 and 2012.

A critical element to the Millennials as a group is their diversity. Their remarkable diversity. This is a result of the immigration waves from the past several decades predominantly coming from Latin America and Asia. While diversity is a good thing, conflict is going to occur if the culture and institutions are not prepared. As Ana Swanson points out here. She states:

“Part of the reason could be that younger Americans are far more diverse than older generations, and race- and ethnicity-based disadvantages continue to loom large in the U.S., the economists say. White and Asian families are far wealthier than black and Hispanic families in the U.S., across all age groups.”

Just as an aesthetic critique the article, while doing a decent enough job at assessing the problem, the solutions provided still lie in the models of the past. This is not shaping up to be a good plan in the voting booths. (That is an issue for another several dozen blog posts).

I’ll say this for now, decisions are made by the people that show up. Until the younger generations become engaged politically that table will continue to be dressed and set by a party that won’t be around to pay the tab.  These past several years, as more and more incidents involving police and people of color are brought to light, the Millennials are finding out, sometimes in painful and fatal ways, that Obama did not end racism.

Now, I do not think reasonable people believed that racism was “over”. It is worth noting both Generation X and Millennial’s are the first two generations to not live through Legally sanctioned segregation in this country. The distance these generations are from those incidents, coupled with enough conscience-soothing examples showing the contrary, did make it possible for things like this to happen.   The majority culture in America is slowly coming to the realization minority communities have known all along, racism is still around, we just found new ways to hide it.

This brings us to the difficult part. What do we do? Can we at the very least admit there are problems that need attention? I bring this up because teachers have to be aware and understanding of how those around them interpret the world. For some this means a shift in paradigm. There are parts of our profession we must rethink. The generational conflict is always going to be in the classroom but, the retirement of the Boomers and the entrance of the Millennials into the workforce could possibly pose a problem within organizations and the culture as a whole. Cummings article ends with an assessment that schools should listen to:

Whether these claims are entirely accurate, everyone seems to agree on one thing: To Gen-X, Boomers and Millennials are incomprehensible in large part because they seem to waste time on things that don't further one's self-interest or one's career. But Boomers and Millennials seem to understand each other just fine. We want the world to be a better place when we leave it than it was when we arrived. Gen-X needs to keep that in mind in order to understand what makes us tick.

Again, none of this is a perfect assessment and each person is unique. But we are shaped by our culture and have to understand the other generations were shaped by theirs. This is difficult the larger the generational and cultural divide, and something schools are accustomed to. All groups could learn from one another. Ultimately, as teachers we must make a decision. Whether we know it or not, admit it or not, get credit for it or not, we are always going to be a part of the culture’s development. Understanding that can help us do our job more effectively, as father time so inconsiderately continues to move us further and further away from the emerging generations.

Where the Name Comes From

I’m going to go ahead and get the “where the blog name comes from” post out of the way. 

Depending on which set of numbers you look at I am either one of the older Millennials or one of the youngest Generation X members.. I like to think I get to pick the best of both since no one seems to know where to put people my age, as this blog discusses.

There is very little music I don't like. I was raised on Neil Young, CSNY, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Joe Cocker and the like. Throughout my formative years as a teenager my music tastes were impacted by both generations. I lived through the evolution of “Grunge” to Modern Alternative Rock to the popular music today, some of which my children and I enjoy together.

My daughter and I at an Of Monsters and Men concert this past December.

I listened to music on vinyl, cassette, CD MP3, and now I’m back to Vinyl. I have Nirvana's Unplugged album serenading this entry, and is an album I’ve owned in all of the above mentioned formats.

My taste in clothing, TV shows, my sports heroes and teams, and my political views were equally mixed by the confusion of my generational ambivalence. I left High School and entered college with our country having a surplus and functioning economy. Our generation had everything to look forward to, we were going to inherit this amazing economy and be more successful than our parents (that whole American Dream thing). Well, I entered the workforce with my degree and the rumblings of the housing crisis and Recession. I fully understand the older generations wanting to know where their jet packs and houses on the moon are. We feel like we are missing something we were promised too, specifically jobs and access to capital. Those are critical to a country's economy and its ability to keep the promises to the future generations. Oh, and we STILL didn’t get jet packs and moon homes. I’m not mentioning hover boards here but I will leave this gem because you need to see it if you haven’t.

My choice to identify more with millennials has a lot to do with my students and how the generation as a whole is treated in our culture. Kids always look lazy to older generations. And I’m not about to say we are the first to be ridiculed, looked down upon, and blamed for things remarkably out of our control. But we are the first to have this happen to us in our country’s history. I absolutely abhor the litany of articles, op-eds, and commentaries belittling, degrading, ridiculing, and dismissing the Millennial generation, not taking into account the changes in our economy, and putting this new world in context.

This video is in that last link but I’ll put it here too because it’s too good for you to miss. Also, I’m sure you have seen this one. Some of the numbers are already outdated, which further shows the rapid pace of development. But it also gives some perspective. It’s good to keep what we are preparing our students for in mind. It also serves as a better conclusion to this post than I ever could.