Professors - Know the Generations in Your Classroom - The 13th Generation (Gen X)

By Meggin McIntosh

Students in the generation immediately younger than the rebellious Boomers have typically had a very different upbringing (which is why each generation gets "identified" in some way or another). Increasing numbers of these students are staying close to home to attend college, while working full-time or in several part-time positions. Many have been at least partially supporting themselves for several years, and have accumulated significant debt through tuition costs (which have risen faster than the inflation rate) and/or the purchase of what were once considered luxury possessions for students (cars, electronic equipment, etc).

More so than previous generations, these students may be the product of "dysfunctional" families. Many younger students are the children of parents who have divorced one or more times, sometimes remarrying other divorced parents, thus forming "blended families." Other students are the children of parents who have never been married. Such situations have contributed to the stifling of psychological and academic development during the student's most formative years, residually affecting their college-age performance. Unfortunately, these students have often "discovered" that commitment to other people hurts as much as it heals.

The Baby Boomer parents of students in this age bracket were more likely to have been employed under the unsettling circumstances of "downsizing" and "rightsizing" and to have changed jobs and residences. As a result, their college-attending children had changed elementary and secondary schools far more often than was the custom only a few decades ago. Such students often exhibit socialization problems throughout their college years, isolating themselves, becoming medically depressed and sometimes turning to unhealthy lifestyles. Many Generation X students were "latchkey kids", and may have been entertained frequently by television programs and videos with violent and otherwise negative themes. Parents, exhausted when they arrived home after working long hours and an extended commute, neither read to their youngsters nor provided coaching for homework assignments during students' early years.

More likely to have worked part-time while in high school - often well past what most would consider reasonable hours - today's "20 - 30 something" college students have not been as focused on school success as those of two decades ago. Because of their employment, these students are less likely to have played organized sports and/or been involved in other constructive school activities, so may have failed to learn the skills of cooperation and compromise often learned through school-based extracurricular activities.

While they were barely old enough to drive an automobile, many maintained their own households, frequently cohabitating with equally unsophisticated peers. They may have engaged in all sorts of other "adult" activities for which they were insufficiently prepared and have developed extensive coping mechanisms for dealing with the challenges of their lives. Without structure and consistently communicated standards, many have not developed the self-discipline-some might call "responsibility"-that we typically associate with success in higher education.

From another perspective, 13th Generation students have grown up in a society largely influenced by consumerism, materialism, increased demands for individual rights, and decreased time horizons for nearly everything. One fast-food chain promised to deliver their products "your way" - a theme which has been replicated in thousands of advertising messages that have inundated the minds of students in this age bracket. These students have been conditioned by the aftermath of Watergate, Three Mile Island, "insider-trading" and other high-profile ethical scandals, contributing to a mindset of cynicism and lack of respect for all authority figures - including, not surprisingly, college professors. Speaking spontaneously and angrily of the alleged misdeeds of others and lodging complaints-even lawsuits-have become common behaviors. Students of this generation are quick to proclaim their "rights." They perceive professors as service providers, class attendance as a matter of individual choice and grades as "pay" to which they are entitled for meeting what they perceive to be reasonable standards.

A litany of reasons, including-but certainly not limited to-depersonalized schools, public school teacher-turnover and over-emphasis on standardized tests, have contributed to a less than effective primary and/or secondary education for many students. A large number of these students began college and required remediation in reading, writing and mathematics skills. Conditioned by their "surfing" through MTV and dozens of other cable channels, violent computer games, instantaneous access to the entire world through the Internet and other widespread technology, 25 - 40 year old students often exhibit extremely short attention spans and an affinity for color and rapid movement - qualities difficult to recreate in many traditional classrooms. These students have heard themselves identified as members of "Generation X" and perceive an outside world that dislikes and perhaps even worse, is unwilling to invest the time to understand them. This self-image often drives a self-fulfilling prophecy of boredom, negativity, and lowered academic expectations that exhibit themselves in the classroom.

Many college professors, who remember a time when students were perceived as more "responsible" and "appreciative," appear to expect today's students to miraculously act this way and become frustrated when it does not happen. Investing quality effort only with those students who display more conservative, traditional values is not a prescription for achieving the degree of learning success instructional leaders expect. All educators have a responsibility to all students-and to the profession-to accept all students "where they are," and to guide them toward an outcome, which our highest standards indicate is appropriate. As Stephen Covey, himself a professor and author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, encourages us to "seek first to understand, then to be understood" - a "must" to achieve success with students from the Gen X (or 13th Generation)-who tend to be very different than we are (or were).
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