Now before a bunch of folks start writing, "Get off my lawn", and criticizing me for condemning millennials, let me state that I like cultural analysis, and that necessarily involves noticing differences over time, region, and other factors. It is in that context only that I offer the following quote from a "boy" who, with his twin brother, recently committed to play football and study at the University of Minnesota: "It is very important. Dino and I are so close. I'm just very happy we're spending the rest of our childhood together."
When I was in college, we thought of ourselves as adults and were regarded as such by administrators, professors, and parents. Adulthood brought with it the freedom to drink, to have sex, to buy a car, and to make one's own decisions. Forty percent of my high school graduating class went to work, not to school, after HS. Many had families, jobs, and apartments years before I graduated from college. Going to college did not infantilize us or postpone adulthood. College was, in effect, our job at that point in life.
A couple of years ago I met with a former student of mine for a round of golf and a couple of beers. He was then 26 years old, a lawyer and engaged to be married. At one point, in talking about working in the law firm, he referred to his peers and himself as "kids". I stopped him and asked, "Mike, you're 26 years old. When will you stop seeing yourself as a kid?" He responded by saying that he saw his parents, not him, as adults, but maybe he should reconsider.
Today I read that a HS student perceives his college years to be a continuation of his childhood - something I would have thought ended well before he entered HS. It provides food for thought. How did we come to this degree of change in forty years and just what does it indicate?
When I was in college, we thought of ourselves as adults and were regarded as such by administrators, professors, and parents. Adulthood brought with it the freedom to drink, to have sex, to buy a car, and to make one's own decisions. Forty percent of my high school graduating class went to work, not to school, after HS. Many had families, jobs, and apartments years before I graduated from college. Going to college did not infantilize us or postpone adulthood. College was, in effect, our job at that point in life.
A couple of years ago I met with a former student of mine for a round of golf and a couple of beers. He was then 26 years old, a lawyer and engaged to be married. At one point, in talking about working in the law firm, he referred to his peers and himself as "kids". I stopped him and asked, "Mike, you're 26 years old. When will you stop seeing yourself as a kid?" He responded by saying that he saw his parents, not him, as adults, but maybe he should reconsider.
Today I read that a HS student perceives his college years to be a continuation of his childhood - something I would have thought ended well before he entered HS. It provides food for thought. How did we come to this degree of change in forty years and just what does it indicate?