The architects of the Generation “Me” are at a crossroads amidst a sudden cultural shift while overcoming an ultra-conservative (mis)education from the past.
The point of this commentary is far away from an attempt to define and understand millennials, they are multi-hyphenates. This article is to deconstruct their historical causality and the consequential effects, today. Millennials are forged by a blacksmith raised in fire and honed by multiple unrest. A sword created through an encompassing smoke is strong and yet tend to be malleable. No generation than the Y’s are affected by the ebb and flow of rampant societal changes. These changes are worth exploring, for one glaring reason. From the onset, millennials were taught conservatively with a pint of liberalism, it’s utterly confusing.
From a Renaissance age of great minds think alike to bandwagon culture, I understand that it does sound abhorrent and yet there is painful progress from the age of enlightenment to the age of endless selfies. It’s our generation’s Mona Lisa for all, no ink required, merely pixels. Yes, that’s quite an imaginative leap. The world is a sovereign realm and yet we are tangled with invisible strings. In the 4-corners of a conservative classroom lies a century old dogma wherein the goal is to educate to serve, not to create — an education structured to promulgate capitalism and downplay critical upsides of a socialist structure, albeit an equal, progressive society for all.
Millennials were armed with a torpedo meant for the seas but the intended target is high up among the stars, they were weaponized for a war that ended decades ago. It’s an ancient, sank ship that is floating on the surface because no one ever dares to question educational institutions.
There’s been an cyclical momentum happening since the dawn of the new millennium, it’s quite obscene and relentlessness in its pursuit to decentralized everything that are structured. From media (Film and TV), education, politics, dating, and sex — the only thing that is not revolutionize is religion. A generation where their playground was set on fire and it has been burning ever since.
The world we live now is an abundance of theatrics and unnecessary deception. A time wherein a generation grew up in a strict environment and lack of appreciation. Therefore, many aim to please for all the wrong reasons. A time when everything you strive for takes awhile — A clockwork of monumental quest to find your identity in a world full of moving gears. Every brick in a wall requires a sledgehammer swung with tenacious effort.
A (mis)education can be life-threatening, it precipitates a slow death, it’s akin to breathing in toxic fumes when the supposed life source is oxygen. We may be overreacting but worse is to be stoic — an apathetic optimist. In a simple virtue of time, these could all be possibly naivety and yet only legend’s time can tell. This period of time wherein millennial are emerging and yet still in the background requires new philosophies, merely supplying classrooms with Ipad's and touch-typing instead of handwriting does not automatically equates to "advancing" education, it's a visual front to satisfy an underlying (mis) education.
Students of today need a different skill sets to adapt to a rapid changing world, everyone requires to be taught differently and embrace radical creativity. According to Andreas Schleicher’s World Class: How to Build a 21st-Century School System, schools must be able to cultivate curiosity, imagination, empathy, entrepreneurship and resilience, the ability to fail constructively - to learn from mistakes among our children as the next generation will create jobs rather than seek them. There is need to build capacity and motivation for lifelong learning well beyond schools and graduation.
As Einstein once stated, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Simple.. it is wrong to educate a new generation by the ways of ancient, paternalistic life. Understanding history is crucial, it is meant to be adapted and move forward, not repeated, repeatedly. Education for our times, as Malcolm X stated, it is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
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