Michele Monaco and Malissa Martin's 2009 article, "The Flight of the Millennials in Higher Education", is an interesting interpretation on the impact of the parent’s generation on Millennial’s college experience. The main discussion focuses on the differences between Millennials whose parents are from the Boomer generation or from Generation X. While Boomer parents are involved in their child’s education, Generation X parents have taken it to the next step. Monaco and Martin (2009) state that “They want immediate access to all the data to ensure that the institution is a sound investment of time and money.” (p. 25). I disagree with the level of involvement that Generation X has in their child’s college education. For many young adults, this is their first step into independence. It is important for them to learn to achieve on their own and to make their own decision without parental influence.
Personally I did not agree with the choices for societal influence for the Millennial generation. I have never seen Prince William as a popular icon. I don’t even know the movie “Three Men and a Baby” (Monaco and Martin, 2009). Personally, the entire classification of an entire generation into a single neat category has always bothered me. While each generation does share certain experiences, I see very little that is productive about labeling everyone born from 1981 – 2000 with the same characteristics. As a Millennial, I feel that we have started to move past the need to stereotype. While it is important to realize that there are an increasing number of parents who demand access to their young adult’s personal records, I believe that the educational experience should continue to focus on meeting the needs of the students rather than the demands of the parents.
You bring up some great points and provide a good critique of this article. I agree with you that it is unfair to stereotype an entire generation. While there are clearly events that we may have experienced as a generation, it is hardly fair to say that all members of that generation experienced things in the same way. I was actually surprised by the example of Three Men and a Baby. I wondered how many in "your generation" would identify that as a key signifier of "Millennials." Some people suggest that the labels of "Boomer" and "Millennial" are more about attempts to "market products" to us than they are explanatory frameworks about who we are. I anticipate having good discussion on these articles in class.
ReplyDeleteAnthony-
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your idea that trying to stereotype a generation doesn't quite work. I also have never seen Prince William as an icon (maybe Michael Jordan would work, though), and I have never seen Three Men and a Baby (although I've always been jealous of Tom Selleck's mustache). The fact that these were chosen to be Millennial icons illustrates that every individual is going to have their own interpretation of what our generation values and appreciates. Trying to make any generation into a caricature simply does not work.
To follow up on you and Steve's responses, I thought the article generalized too much. Yes there are certain charachteristics that could describe an entire generation, but it is too simplistic to simply say that Prince defined an entire generation.
ReplyDeleteThree men and baby? Really? I was surprised by that too. How about “Fight Club?” But then again, the first rule of fight club is that…oops. I am agreement with all of you about the error of generalizing us into generations; I don’t think it is a valid approach. I posted a comment about that on Scott’s blog, so I won’t go into it here. But suffice it to say, it should be revamped.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, disagree with your thoughts on how involved parents are in a child’s collegiate education. I would be will to bet that your experience with college and life is so different from the majority of the other college students. I think the same thing probably applies to most grad students, too. We tend to be more self-motivated and independent. I think that the majority of the other college students are very self-reliant on their parents, and need to be walked through the first 2 or 3 years of college. Before I was a pilot at Pinnacle, I was a flight instructor at BGSU, and saw this kind of thing all the time. Before that, while I was in college, I saw this attitude from a lot of my peers.
You are right that a college education should be about the student and meeting their needs, but just because it is right does not mean it is happening…