What Does the Future Hold for Our Young People?

Our first grandson starts college this year. He and his family are traveling across the state today to get him settled in. The years went by much too quickly.

I reflected on my own college experience. I graduated high school in 1969 and attended the University of Hawai`i. Tuition was about $187 per semester. and living in a dormitory was affordable. I made new friends, got an on-campus job, worked during the summer, and learned to manage my time and money. I am hoping our grandson has similar experiences as he spreads his wings.

But times have changed. Today, the cost of a college education is unaffordable for many students and their families. There are programs which could lessen the burden on families such as loans, grants-in-aid, free community college, and dual high school/college classes.  These aids can be helpful to families, but often, students still need to take out loans in order to attend college. 

Perhaps a greater challenge for incoming college students, though, is deciding what to major in. When I went to college, I was determined to become a teacher. I was fortunate to be accepted to the College of Education and was able to secure a teaching job when I graduated. At that time, education was the most popular college major , but today, it's down to 5% or less of the graduates amidst a huge teacher shortage. Today's college students have many more options, and teaching is not a career path for most when there are many more college majors available today. 

During my years as a teacher and school principal, I continued to follow trends in education. I believed in the use of technology in classrooms so students could explore, discover, create, and share. Students learned with and from each other, and they taught each other as well. In fact, I often learned new technology tools from the students and teachers I worked with. 

I remember that back in 2013, coding was a new buzzword in education. I wrote an op-ed piece about coding that was published in the local paper. I read articles and watched videos about coding and the importance of students learning to code. I shared  this video with President Obama at a parent-child activity night about the importance of learning to code. Unfortunately, in most schools, coding didn't take off  and technology was only used as a tool to supplement the curriculum, not as a means to engage learners through collaboration, problem-solving, or creating. 

Today, 12 years have passed, and learning to code has lost importance as an essential skill for students to learn. No longer are coders in high demand. As this article shares, those students graduating with Computer Science degrees are having great difficulty in finding jobs. Artificial Intelligence can code much more quickly than a person, and despite the promise of a high-paying job after getting a degree, that is just not happening for Computer Science majors. Technology is advancing rapidly these days, and workers are not needed when AI can do the job faster and more cost-efficiently. Law clerks? Medical transcribers? Architect interns? Customer service representatives? These jobs could be done more quickly and efficiently using AI as opposed to paying workers. 

Our universities and institutes of higher learning are adapting to our changing world. Our K-12 schools must similarly adapt. Unfortunately, most K-12 schools have changed very little since the Industrial Age when schools were designed to prepare students for factory work: a standardized curriculum, a teacher at the front of the room who expected obedience from the students, students divided into classes by age; a school day structured to replicate the factories students were being prepared to work in. 

Our world is changing rapidly and our children are growing up in a much-different world today. They are digital users from the time they are toddlers, and schools need to change the way we view our students as learners. We underestimate their ability to learn on their own or with their peers. School could be more relevant if we allowed our students more flexibility in what they learn, who they learn with, and how they share what they learned with an audience of their peers as well as the community. 

This video was made in 2019, a mere 6 years ago. I was amazed when I first viewed it and I wonder how much more advanced our world has become since then. I wonder how our children who are just entering college will fare when they graduate four years from now. Will what they studied be applicable? Will they be able to find a job that pays a living wage? Will they be saddled with a huge loan which requires them to work more than one job in order to pay the bills? Will they have to go back to college to get another degree so they can find employment? Will they use social media to share their message as content creators or influencers? Will they decide to follow their passion and create art or music or literature for others to enjoy? Will they become entrepreneurs, creating a business or service that addresses the needs and wants of a changing world? 

In four short years, our grandson will graduate from college. Whether he can get a job could depend on the state of our country and the world in the next few years.It's up to all of us to give hope to our young people so they can achieve their dreams. Let’s work together to reimagine a world that is joyful, one that engages our youth and encourages them to be problem-seekers and problem-solvers, and gives them the tools to be self-directed, creative and critical thinkers who can make a difference in this world. I have faith in our young people. They are much more aware of the challenges in the world they are inheriting and they are determined to make a difference. Let's support them.