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Generation Z Forgoing College for More Hands-on Experience
Good Day!
News that can only happen in Florida! A 9-foot alligator outside an elementary school in Wesley Chapel, Florida was wrangled and subdued after a good fight worthy of a prime time slot in the octagon. No children were hurt or eaten during the alligator’s rampage. The alligator was asked for comment after he was captured, and he replied with a simple grunt that could only be interpreted as, “I’ll be back!”
We hope you have a good morning and cheers to your morning brew ☕
In today’s newsletter
Students are choosing alternative career paths over college
Special needs student beaten as teacher records
Chess improving student test scores
Students are saying “no” to college
The prospect of attending college has been shifting in importance for Generation Z. Why go to college to end up with mediocre job prospects and a large debt that could have been better spent on a down payment on a nice, starter house (well, if those still exist). Instead of putting all that money into a degree that may not lead to a cushy, well-paying job, Gen Z is getting down with their technical side. Out of the 50 states, “…36 states enacted over 120 policies related to Career and Technical Education (CTE),” according to this recent study.
High School students participating in Shop Class
California leads the way, having invested $3 billion into CTE programs since 2015. This has not only created world-class robotic labs, welding shops, film studios and many other programs that fall under the umbrella of CTE, but also paved the way for inspiring success stories. Students like Elle Mayor, a high school senior in California, are finding fulfillment and success outside the classroom. Mayor, disenchanted from the day-to-day, monotonous motions she goes through in her classroom, has found her passion as a pharmacy technician, a part-time job she looks forward to after school.
According to research conducted by the Walton Family Foundation (Yes, the same Walton’s that own Walmart, so understandable if you take this with a grain of salt):
The research reveals that the most influential driver of Gen Zers’ happiness is their sense of purpose at school and work. However, just 48% of Gen Zers enrolled in middle or high school feel motivated to go to school, and only 52% feel they do something interesting every day.
As teachers, we can probably sense that “vibe” that students do not want to be in the classroom. If you are a millennial like we are, we did not have the distraction and/or access to information that this younger generation does now. The sense that there is something more out there than having to go to college is probably a simple product of kids today being able to access information at a speed in which our dial-up modems in the '90s and early 2000s moved at a snail’s pace compared to today. Today's kids see the opportunity to make a good living beyond just taking the route many of us were told would be the road to money and comfort.
Blue Collar Job | White Collar Job |
|---|---|
Mechanic: $48,014 | Accounting: $59,606 |
Plumber: $55,160 | Civil Engineer:88,264 |
HVAC Tech: 70,590 | Attorney: $97,777 |
Elevator Installer/repairer: $99,000 | Physician: $214,096 |
This is a limited example of a few typical blue-collar and white-collar jobs. What is shown is the median salary, and most of the top earners in the blue-collar jobs listed can easily make more than $100k with enough years and experience. All without a college degree, and not to mention, most of these jobs are part of unions that can offer superior healthcare plans comparable to and sometimes better than those in white-collar jobs.
Gen Zers are taking a different trajectory regarding what and where they want to be after high school. Still, one thing for sure is that they want to be more financially independent and carry less student loan debt, if any, than older generations.
We can respect that.
Special needs student beaten by classmates
A teacher at George Washington Carver Montessori IPS 87, part of the Indiana Public Schools district, allegedly allowed a student who had special needs to be beaten by his classmates. This occurred during the first 3-months of the school year. When the student told his mom, Corrie Horan, no one wanted to listen to her. Only recently has evidence come to light when a video of the child being beaten surfaced from the teacher’s phone. The teacher, Julious Johnican, is currently being investigated by the school district. This past week, Horan released a statement:
Every child deserves to learn in an environment that is safe and nurturing. I am committed to ensuring that the tragedy my child endured serves as a wake-up call for all involved in our education system. It is my deepest hope that this painful episode leads to significant changes that will protect countless other children from ever experiencing similar harm or having to go through what our family did. This is not just about my child; it’s about all the children in our schools.
George Washington Carver Montessori IPS School 87
It is a shame that in an institution in which we are responsible for educating the future generation, there are people who subvert the mission of what it means to be a teacher. On top of that, there are teachers who are engaging in salacious relations with students like former Teacher of the Year Jacqueline Ma, teachers who engage in salacious relations and buying their students alcohol, and a teacher who was set to marry in 3-months before she was caught having a relationship with her 5th-grade student.
To be clear, the decline in respect for teachers as a country has been declining independent of these incidents. Yet, incidents like these do not help rebuild trust in educators. There is so much in the way of teachers right now, and it is no surprise that nearly half of those who go into teaching are gone by their fifth year.
The road to fixing education is a long and arduous one.
Checkmate!
At eStem East Village Elementary in Little Rock, Arkansas, a bet on Chess being incorporated into the curriculum has been paying off. NWEA, an assessment that tracks student growth over time, showed that those students who partook in playing a game of Chess showed great improvement from fall to winter:
48% of chess club students showed growth in reading
76% scored higher in math
Students who were previously struggling now met grade-level benchmarks
Two kids playing a game of Chess
The program is implemented for fourth through sixth grade students and rotates through the classrooms. There is also an after-school program, which has become so popular that there is a waitlist to get in. During lunch, students are asking for chess boards!
This is one of the most innovative practices ever because once you put chess in the class, you put math into class, you put science in class…You get that cross-curricular interplay in the game, so it’s very revolutionary.”
What students are saying:
“I used to rush in my work. Every time before we do chess, we meditate, and it always slows my thinking down.”
“In general, it helps me with a lot of things. It helps me think. It helps me be calm.”
It is amazing that bringing something into the classroom that is not necessarily “academic” can help improve students' academic cognition. As a country, our education system seems to have stagnated, and making huge, drastic changes might not necessarily be the answer; it seems like even the little things can make a big difference.
Is college necessary to be successful in today's world? |
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On this day…
In 1862, Mexican army General Ignacio Zaragoza led 600 men into battle against an army of 6,500 men of the Second French Empire, known as The Battle of Puebla. Among the ranks of the French forces were the revered French Legionnaires. It was a battle to be remembered. Oftentimes, Cinco de Mayo gets confused with Mexican Independence Day, which is on September 16.
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