During a rambling (and rather loud) conversations with some old school-mates at the
breakfast table one day, we happened to move on to an observation directed at the
quality of work put up by college students nowadays who, one said, write so poorly,
judging from many essays and final theses they turned in. Another added that, being a
retired educator herself, she had likewise seen a decline in the analytical skills of
students who’ve studied under her classes. Gradually, our discussion graduated to
perhaps how the present crop may have been taught starting from the grader years
before we all (thank God) moved on to less serious topics.
In all fairness, I remember saying there ought to be some studies and stats that would
validate all these, lest they just fall under our own version of “Maritess” file. Since I have
also personally heard from others similar tales, wouldn’t it be interesting if we had the
numbers, percentages, coverage area and the time line which would support our
observations?
Similarly, I recall a video interview of Simon Sinek, a noted American author and
resource person who talked about the what ails millennials at the present time. In a
nutshell, he talked about how the present generation had generally been raised by their
boomer parents to feel like winners and shielded them from the harsh realities of today.
When the time came for these young people to be on their own and seek employment,
their expectations, built from that false sense of security and an entitled upbringing, right
away clashed with the real world, where one had got to earn a place and not merely
inherited or slid into one. Thus, for the many, as their expectations weren’t met and
failed miserably, they’ve no choice but to cope fast, however unprepared they were
when they entered the workplace.
Even as I agree on some points in his observations as perhaps true, I still wished they
were generalizations too; something real research might either disprove or take to be
based on fact. After all, it seems to me all these present talk about generational profiles
or the students of today being what and what they are not, all amount to nothing but just
interesting conversation pieces if we have no proof to give. We still have to have a
smoking gun if you will, and without that, we might as well also talk about astrology and
Aries-Virgo, Pisces-Leo compatibilities.
However, from a personal standpoint, I look at young people within my periphery and
detect a slight difference compared to how we’ve “moved” (thought and conducted
ourselves) during our time. I couldn’t quite place it though but I recall one dad when my
son was still in high school. He confided, “what’s wrong with the children of today,
they’re so very sensitive!” I said yup and thought afterwards, we’ve a hand in that too.
