As an educator I see the generation we are producing on a daily basis and I am worried. Why am I worried? Is it because they scare me? Is it because they appear to have too much freedom? Freedom of thought and of action as well? Am I worried because the generation of young people who are going to run our businesses, lead our countries and educate the following generation of the future do not seem to possess the same moral and ethical values that my own generation does? No, while all of these points appear to me to be valid and cause some concern, I am worried mainly because I simply do not understand the next generation.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? How often have we heard our parents and grandparents say that they things were better when they were young? Yes, they will say, we had to work harder to achieve less, but it was worth it because it built character. I would not be the man I am today if I hadn't had to ride my horse to the river and then row across to get to school, is something my father has often told me. That is all fine, I am sure that all of the hard work done by my parents and their parents to create a country and a society in which we could all live is appreciated by everyone, but that does not mean that they understood our desire to play sport, or to get a higher education or to write. Likewise, I do not understand the generation of children that we are producing through our education system and with our postmodern parenting styles that defocus the actions and behavior of the child in favor of a mythical social context in which a child can exist free of labels and therefore consequences.
But, I hear you asking, if you are an educator how can you not understand the very people you are educating. Well the answer is that I, just like the children in my care, am a product of my own personal history and my own personal journey. In short I am a construct of a combination of my environment and my experiences, just like everyone else. This is what philosophers would call a constructivist model of existence and it has been embraced by educators, psychologists, sociologists and many other ists who shape our current social and cultural environment.
Now, here is the real rub. The constructivist model so eagerly embraced by post-modern thinkers and those who are in a position to influence policy with regard to education and social issues, including myself, is largely responsible for the direction, or lack of direction, that the next generation seems to possess. This is because by embracing the idea that each person is the product of their own environment and experiences, we have removed the idea that the almost infinite varieties of experiences that people have, need to somehow be directed towards a useful end. In other words, we sacrificed the environmental factor in favor of providing as much experience as possible with little or no consequence for actions that are either anti-social, dangerous to themselves or others or all of these things. As an educator I have observed this phenomenon manifesting in various ways. These include the provision of material possessions following little or no effort, the removal of consequences for inappropriate behavior and the encouraged lack of respect for those in authority.
To return to the question at hand, in terms of the future experiences and life choices for people I expect that these will expand dramatically towards the perception of better life opportunities. Employment will continue the trend towards increasing fluidity and more perceived free time. I think that what this will mean in reality is that people, in general, will work more, but in less formal situations. The desire for this kind of lifestyle, with its apparent freedoms, will mean that people in more developed societies will move away from repetitive, manufacturing type jobs, and these will move to offshore organizations where labor is cheaper and employment is more structured.
However, there will be a price for this flexibility of opportunity and this will manifest in a reaction against the appearance of freedom from responsibility by those who have attempted to embrace it but who natural temperament or type of employment do not really lend themselves to unstructured vocations.
I believe that while the next generation are moving towards a social structure that is more fluid and in which action and consequence are more separated, while employment opportunities and lifestyle are also becoming more diverse and decentralized, this will cause a reaction and a move back towards more traditional approaches to life and society. In short then, things are getting both better and worse followed by a return to more traditional values.
