Blog Post #5: Research
Blog Post #5: Research
The pandemic hit everyone so suddenly and hard that it is crazy looking back that it was almost 2 years ago. The pressure of the pandemic affected everyone differently, but after reading some research articles on how it affected students and specifically students who are known as GenZ (born after 1996) came out with some results that were surprising to me.
My professional experience even before the pandemic with students aged 9-14 as well as my personal
experience having a high schooler always lead me to believe that these kids were so much more advanced
in the technological department then I ever was at their age. I suppose my parents said the same thing of
me seeing how I am a millennial and windows 95 was my expertise. The data I interpreted showed that
this generation of people born after 1996, are the most diverse and also on track to be the most educated
group of people along with the most parents who have college education as well.
This made me reflect on my specific circumstance and that I am apart of the statistic where I have a GenZ
child and I have my degree-also my child wants to go to college and that was always an expectation of
him. I think perhaps my example to him, my struggles being a single mother and working while in school
showed him that if I can do, he surely can. I, too, as said in the article talked about how a lot of millennials do not come from a household of college graduates. My parents never even graduated from high school,
but that was the norm for them and still able to make a living. Nowadays, my mother being a waitress, has become disabled from waiting tables for years and has no social security or pension to fall back on.
What I was not surprised about but still super happy to see, was the results above. I think it is about time that our youth begin to speak out on issues that have been suppressed down and looked over. I also think that a lot of these results tie back to the educational piece that I spoke about above. It is the fact that there are more people becoming educated and experiences through education with new people and opinions that help these statistics. I hope we understand that these pressing issues are dyer in that we only have one earth and if we do not sustain it-there will be no more earth.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHi Rhianion!
DeleteAs a fellow millennial, it is interesting how we were always called out for being the tech wiz. As a middle school teacher of Gen Z students, I often times feel like I no longer understand some of the trends and lingo that students use while talking about online experiences. I often reflect on the accomplishments of our generation and wonder what Gen Z will accomplish in the way of technology. Even though this generation never knew a world without the internet, I still find myself teaching important skills like citing sources, creating a professional looking presentation, and obeying copyright laws. I think sometimes I assume they know these things, but they need to learn them from somewhere!
-Kate S.
Hey Rhianion -- I too felt excited that Gen Z has a more activist approach to politics and is more progressive in their stances towards climate change, gender neutral pronouns, etc. I'm feeling more hopeful about the direction our country is moving in after looking at the Pew Research. My husband and I are going to be starting a family soon and I was also considering the cultural and educational dynamics of our future children, as you discussed with your child and parents. Both my husband's parents were born in the United States and were college educated, where as both my parents were born in Greece and only one of them was college educated. Each successive generation that is born in the United States is more likely to finish school and go to college especially compared to immigrant parents and individuals brought to the U.S. as children. Time and change never do stand still!
ReplyDeleteHi Rhianion!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the perspective on your blog post because you and I went pretty different directions. I focused on some recent and really specific reports about how virtual learning and the pandemic affected Gen Z, and how they felt about it. You covered some very important more general comparisons between Gen Z and Millennials, and I loved the charts that you picked. It's really cool that you have a high schooler and have personal insight on some of the things the graphs reflect. It's beautiful the way you weave in the generational changes in your own family and your experience as a young and single mother when referencing the data - it made your blog post extra fascinating to read!
Hey Rhianion!
ReplyDeleteGeneration X'r here. Growing up, technology was fairly limited. Most of my classmates and I had PCs or Mac, but they were limited in functions -- mostly word processing and game playing. Few, if any, of us had modems. And the World Wide Web was just something used by academics and government agencies. It definitely limited our perspective of the world. We received information from newspapers and television news. Both of these sources tended to focus on local or national issues with only a smattering of international news. You could find a wealth of information at the library, which kept international newspapers and magazines focused on worldly affairs. But you needed to put this into your schedule and travel to the library.
Today, youths have the world at their fingertips. From news to historical information and even commentary, they can look into every corner of the globe. Of course, there is so much inaccurate, or outright deceiving information out there. We as educators need to help our navigate and evaluate the resources available. We need to teach them to examine everything with a critical eye and pursue a wide variety of trustworthy sources.
This generation is set to become the most educated generation to date. As you mentioned their commitment to social just issues can only make the world a better place.
ReplyDelete