It seems that the word of the year is “adulting.” As the tail end of the millennial generation are going to college and starting their careers, many have found they seem to lack basic life skills. These lost skills range from simple housework to financial literacy to much deeper psychological gaps. Many Millennials have openly blamed a variety of possible scapegoats for this break in knowledge, but probably the most widely accepted culprit is the public school system. Older generations have often pointed out that Millennials were not exposed to subjects like Home Ec and Shop in school, and perhaps if we had been we would know how to perform tasks like ironing. But is that really the pinnacle of adulting?
First of all, I would like to be clear that it is the curriculum and general environment of schools being blamed, not necessarily the teachers. I mean, let’s be honest, we all know teachers don’t really get to decide what they cover in class. Also, I am not trying to be yet another Millennial with yet another excuse about why I have trouble functioning as a normal human being. I just personally believe that everything present in our world today has a cause, some clearer than others, and currently I'm analyzing this one.
Throughout my school career, I received exact instructions. Instructions about what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Most Millennials learned to follow these instructions and do nothing more. Very often, even if the student is correct, any building upon previously learned concepts is discouraged, because every student must be on the same level. I can see where these ideas come from, and of course everyone learns at a different pace, but for many students these practices stifle creativity, sometimes for good.
Moving forward into college shows a hugely disconcerting amount of freedom and choices. There are legends of students who skip class and still make A’s on the tests, professors who rarely take attendance and often little or no directions for assignments. When facing the first major project of the semester, some students are lost. An assignment with no directions? How will we know what to do without a step-by-step process spelled out for us? After so many years of rigid rules, it can be very difficult to break out of that system and think for oneself. It is at this time that a student can perhaps once again tap into his or her childhood creativity and innovation in order to make his own path in this new setting. Many if not most Millennials are able to revive their natural ability to make choices, which has been stifled for years by the public school system.
The fact that this is even a problem, however, shows how cold and rigid the public school environment can be. There is very little room for creativity, innovation, and free thinking in the public school system. We have no idea what we're missing out on by forcing children and young adults into cookie cutters, and this is beginning to have an effect on the shared background of the Millennial generation.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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