Harnessing the Power of the Millennial Generation

Howe is author of the AASA book Millennials and K-12 Schools.

Meet the Millennials, the new generation of young people, born since 1982 and now passing through America’s K-12 schools. Find out what’s different about this generation, and why it presents enormous opportunities for today’s educators.

Characteristics of the Millennial Generation
Everyone notices the Millennials’ new take on pop-culture and technology: from flip-flops to iPods to texting. But what many teachers and school leaders do not understand are the deeper shifts in attitudes and behaviors that Millennials are bring to America’s schools. Shifts such as:

• Their closeness to their parents, with whom they are in constant contact—parents who have become teachers’ number one professional headache with their constant intervention, monitoring, and demands for their children.
• Their knack for teamwork and a natural instinct for peer collaboration in situations where prior generations of students would be more inclined to compete against each other.
• Their confidence in their ability to meet adult expectations, both as individuals and as a generation.
• Their need for structure and constant feedback, giving them a (positive) reputation for teachability but also a (negative) reputation for dependence.
• Their conventional life goals, reflecting the rising share of young people who someday hope to become good parents and reliable citizens with close families and “balanced” lives.
• Their aptitude for technology, which enables them to achieve their goals through group-oriented digital infrastructure that would never occur to their elders.
• Their desire to plan ahead for long-term, no-risk career paths—making them far more likely than prior generations of students to develop 5- or 10-year plans for their future education and careers.

 Unlike Gen-X students back in the 1980s, Millennials are not high-risk, low-sweat free agents. They would rather not fly solo — and would rather plan ahead than “just do it.” Unlike Boomer students back in the ‘60s, Millennials are not alienated from the system or trying to “teach the world to sing.” They are close to their families — and would be happy to learn the school song, if schools ever gathered together to sing it.

Many teachers don’t know what to make of Millennials and their invasive parents. In their confusion, they often see this generation as merely a liability or challenge. They worry that Millennials don’t have the skills, outlook, or dedication to meet each new hike in SOL and NCLB thresholds or to do well in the global economy.

How depressing. And how wrong.

Tips for School Leaders

With the right tools, the Millennial generation presents enormous opportunities for today’s educators. Some of our many recommendations to school leaders include:

1. Get “helicopter parents” on your side by enlisting them as allies in a joint effort to protect and educate their “special” son or daughter (take a cue from colleges with their parent orientations and college-parent partnership contracts).
2. Offer tight cycles of feedback and redirection in the classroom, including continuous monitoring of every student’s progress.
3. Make security measures conspicuously present in every school (clearly marked perimeters, security personnel with uniforms, rules prohibiting dress or behavior that set a dangerous tone). Define sheltering broadly to include the seamless deliver of mental health, social, disability, and wellness services.
4. Harness students’ team skills in the classroom through group projects, small learning communities, and interactive networking technologies.
5. Emphasize alignment everywhere—for schools, coursework, and teachers—and closely articulate secondary with post-secondary education.

Today’s school leaders are navigating a complex generational landscape as they struggle to best serve Millennial students, to align their agendas with the priorities of the new Gen-X parents, and to navigate a multigenerational education workforce—including the new entry-level Millennial teachers.

For more information on this topic, please pick up our new book, Millennials and K-12 Schools, published in association with AASA. In this volume, my coauthor William Strauss and I tell the in-depth story of who this generation is and where it comes from.

We explain what Millennials are looking for in school, their lives, and their future careers. We summarize what schools are getting them wrong — or right. Most importantly, we teach your school how to work with Millennial strengths, not against their weaknesses.

Understanding these generational dynamics and how to leverage them can help educators fulfill the missions of their schools in the decades to come.

America’s leading generational expert, Neil Howe is President of LifeCourse Associates and the author of many books on Generations in America, including the AASA book Millennials and K-12 Schools: Educational Strategies for a New Generation. (AASA members save 5% using coupon code AASA at checkout). How is also an AASA Executive Consultant. To learn more his work, or to schedule him to speak at your next event, visit www.lifecourse.com/schoolkeynote.