A New Jobless Era and Its Effects

While this article is a little old, Don Peck in the The Atlantic provides a bleak but interesting look on how the high rate of unemployment will affect Americans for a long, long time.

The article attempts to go beyond the unemployment statistics and make readers think about the widespread effect of what he calls the "new jobless era."

Since I'm a teacher, the section where Peck talks about the Millennials interested me. Using a number of sources, the author discusses how the focus on building self esteem might have set up young adults for a wicked fall. One of the authors that Peck paraphrases, Jean Twenge, author of Generation Me, relates the interesting point that the focus on self esteem has created people in their 20s who are "more confident and individualistic. But that may not benefit them in adulthood, particularly in this economic environment."

Twenge also offers her perspective on the Millennials: "You'd think if people are more individualistic, they'd be more independent. But it's not really true. There's an element of entitlement--they expect people to figure things out for them."

Another source Peck uses is Ron Alsop, who notes that today's youth "need almost constant direction," and "[m]any flounder without precise guidelines but thrive in structured situations that provide clearly defined rules."

And even more interesting from a teaching perspective is Peck's own thoughts on the situation: "Trained throughout childhood to disconnect performance from reward, and told repeatedly that they are destined for great things, many are quick to place blame elsewhere when something goes wrong, and inclined to believe that bad situations will sort themselves out--or will be sorted out by parents or other helpers."

While this is only a section of the article, many of the points hit home with me. In particular, I find that independent problem solving is a skill most students need to seriously develop, and it's a skill and habit of mind I try to instill by prodding them to be active learners by making them work hard when drafting and revising their writing while also putting the onus on them in class, not using passive learning, lecture-style foolishness that might simply enable their desire to have their heads filled and not work for meaning and connections on their own.

As Twenge opines in the article, "self-esteem without basis encourages laziness rather than hard work."

Okay, I'll step down from my soapbox now.

Click HERE if you're interested in reading "How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America," and it's about a lot more that what I've just prattled on about. Much more.