If you’re a fan of the Mandalorian, you are all too familiar with the phrase, “This is the Way.” Spoken by the true believers of the way, there is no faltering in the path of the Mandalorian, living in anonymity underneath the infamous beskar’gam armor, literally translating to “iron skin.” I thought of the way during a professional workshop. Speaking with a social worker who now supports a local school district with restorative practices, we both emphasized how education has fallen into quicksand for the last, say, one hundred years. Yes, going back to the factory model of education emphasizing compliance, conformity, and memorization. In the middle of our conversation, I mentioned how Gen Z and Gen Alpha are different than any previous generation, and they will tell us by any means how they feel about school, themselves, and others, and continue to have difficulty appreciating education sitting in their seats all day as teachers tell them what to learn. This is when my partner said, “Yes, teachers are still stuck believing this is the way…” Enter Mando.
We know this isn’t the way. Vast amounts of research on best practices, non-traditional school models, social-emotional learning, student choice, and the list goes on–all stating that the way is not working. So what’s new, then? The younger generations. We can thank the Boomers for their dissent in the Civil Rights Movement and for teaching us how to stand up for our beliefs. We can thank Gen X for raising children deeply rooted in education. And we can thank Millennials for embracing collaboration and mental health as they now raise their children. The previous generations helped lay the groundwork for Gen Z and Gen Alpha to embrace the world we live in today, though it comes with its challenges. Before we lose yet another generation to standardized testing and scaffolding to the point of forever needing sentence starters, the shift must come within us to think differently about the students currently in our classroom and the newest members of the working community.
We know Gen Z is a generation of diverse digital natives with the least positive outlook on life entering a world shifting before our eyes, willingly remaining active and diligent both politically and socially. Gen Z is passionate about justice and believes more than other generations that climate change is caused by human activity, that we need a more activist government, that same-sex marriage is good for society, and that more forms and profiles need to offer pronouns outside of “he/him and she/her”. They are deeply rooted in breaking down traditional barriers. Having the opportunity to teach this generation since they entered high school in 2011, they know both more and less about life in ways that show their interconnectedness with social media and the internet 24/7, bombarded by news and images of painful events while having no assistance for how to balance life with “virtual” reality and physical reality. I quickly learned the importance of tapping into the world around them (not always around us) and providing opportunities to share their voices, collaborate on work, and choose the topics or means of the work itself– a short way of saying differentiation. I incorporated these practices not because they were best practices, but because they are necessary practices for this generation.
We know Gen Alpha is adaptive as they are the youngest generation to live through the pandemic and jump right back into routines, though not always smoothly. They are a generation born with technology and a deeper understanding of how things work, who ask Alexa or Siri the answer to questions they have about any subject, and whose iconic toy is a fidget spinner. This year, I ran focus groups with middle school Gen Alpha students and what kept coming up during our conversations was their desire for student discourse, for teachers to be more understanding of their emotions and needs, and for opportunities to learn things connected to their world and life outside of school. They want to play games as they learn and be able to move around the classroom. When I asked for further clarification, students explained that they were tired of assignment after assignment without the time to take a break or talk to their peers about the work. They want more opportunities to interact with one another (with some introverts expressing the importance of choosing interactivity) and question why they are learning certain topics or completing certain tasks irrelevant to what they need right now.
Our students today deserve more than this is the way. They are explicitly telling and showing us this is not their way. As we older generations support Gen Z and Gen Alpha growing up, we must understand that we are the ones who built their world of social media, fast processors, and now AI. We created a world of shorter attention spans, visual reading, and global interconnectivity. They didn’t ask for the world to be this way. Rather, they accepted it and are adapting to it in ways that will help them thrive. We haven’t really considered how we grew up vastly different and entered their world of interconnectedness later in our lives and that the world of our past cannot come back as technology and life keep moving forward. While we can continue to believe our way of growing up was better, despite the generation, there is no going back in time, only forward, and the way forward is listening to Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s needs, identifying what their actions are telling us, and shifting our practices to meet the needs of students today because it is what they want and need to succeed in their future world. This is their way.
References:
“Alpha Generation.” Iberdrola, https://www.iberdrola.com/talent/alpha-generation
“Characteristics of Generation X, Y, Z.” Iberdrola, https://www.iberdrola.com/talent/generation-x-y-z
Eldridge, Allison. “Generation Z.” Britannica, May 16, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Generation-Z
Parker, Kim and Ruth Igielnik. “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know About Gen Z So Far.” Pew Research Center, 14 May 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/05/14/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far-2/
“What Is Gen Z?” McKinsey & Company, March 20,2023. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-gen-z
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