More conversations about Extended Adolescence

I found out I am not the only one you know. I was at a meeting of MESA on Saturday. I was there to teach about Podcasting. I got there, did my first session, went to lunch, then went back to the room and got absorbed into a conversation on one of my pet topics.

I was trying to get a network connection to make showing podcasts in iTunes a little easier (read: possible. I've got to get a mifi) Well, as I sat there a couple of ladies, came in and sat down. After 5 or 10 minutes they asked "Why aren't you starting?" "Cause the keynote is going on right now and I start in about 30 minutes" "Oh, oops"

The ladies were obviously from the same district and I continued working while they launched in to a discussion regarding scheduling in a middle school. There had been an attempt made to create groups of kids with a "school within a school" model. I sat and listened for a while, then of course piped up and stuck my nose in where it didn't really belong. I asked, "So, to summarize, you are frustrated because a couple of electives that are only offered once a day are driving your entire schedule" "YES, you get it"

This led into a "why" and then a discussion about what really should drive scheduling at a middl school. One of the problems that was pointed out was an advanced mathematics and a unique approach to CTE I am not one to find fault or criticize, so I don't really find fault with attempts to create solutions that work locally. There unique situation was fine, but one part of the conversation was that it was found that students who had taken Algebra 2 in High School were more likely to be in College, this has prompted a change in requirements in some states to require Algebra 2 in High School. I think someone has cause and effect mixed up. I think a more effective interpretation of that data would be. Students who are going to go on to college are likely going to decide early and prepare by taking advanced mathematics. I mentioned to these ladies that I think we wait too long to let kids take a responsible role. They both mentioned that yeah, we keep kids in school longer and longer. More and more training before we allow them to step into responsible productive work environments. I don't think this is going to stay viable for ever. We can't continue an educating our kids as if everyone on of them will follow a route through a 4 year high school and a 4 year college or university with a General Education program. We are extending adolescence too long.

Smarts!

This month Edutopia has had an emphasis on Multiple intelligences from Howard Gardner. I like his work and have always been interested in learning styles and creating curriculum that allows students to explore the content along with different ways of learning the content.

One of the smarts that I haven't seen is technosmart. It exists, I am proof, so are all the unofficial tech support teachers that are always there to answer the questions about computers, vcrs, video, how to hook up the sound system, or why isn't the projector working. Teaching tech classes for 4 years also taught me that this was the case with learners. Some students just got it. All students could learn and most did learn technology skills in my class, like file management, multimedia creation, CAD, but some of them truly shined. I could throw any new program at them and they would master it within the week we worked on it.

In the video below, there is one statement too that speaks to what I have said before regarding extended adolescence. With 1:36 remaining one girl refers to the fact that they get to act like adults and take responsibility. This kind of relevance for students is what make learning real. they are learning to be not preparing to be. I would love it if my children could be in a class and school like this.

Response to "Fresh out of College, But can't land Work"

Normally, I ride the bus to and from work so it is mostly podcasts or books that are my companions. But earlier this week I drove and it was my old friend NPR. I heard several good stories and it reminded me of why I donate to Public Radio. One of the reports angered me so much I had to write about it.

The report titled "Fresh out of College, But can't Land Work" really frustrated me. I feel for the young lady in the report. As she states it, "I played by the rules" She stayed in school. Got good grades, chose a good field, all the stuff that is supposed to mean you will be a success. There were two failures from my perspective.

One, extended adolescence. I have written about this before, but it still seems supremely relevant. This girl was 23 and from the tone of the report I got the impression that she was striking out on her first job hunt. WHAT???? When I was in college, I held down several different jobs. Now, maybe she did too but they were University or Work Study programs that end when you are no longer a student. But still WHAT??? Why would our system fail this young lady by not providing real world actual paying job experience as part of her education. Again, I got the impression that she had gotten all the way to 23 and through college without society or her parents actually expecting her to take responsibility for herself. The message seems to be:

• Finish College
• Enjoy life
• Find yourself
• explore the world
• BEFORE you start to be an adult

Why do we devalue our youth by teaching them they must wait until they are done with college before they can start to work on their life and try to make a difference?

Wouldn't it be so much more effective if as students were progressing along their skill continuum they suddenly subtly started doing the actual work. What if they didn't even notice they graduated. What if the shift from "learning" and "doing" the job was so gentle that students became employed almost without awareness. I am so frustrated with the delineations and demarcations we have. Why can't a 13 year old do the work rather than prepare for the work? Why must they wait? Why are we extending adolescence into the midlate-20's. We force so many to wait to live their lives because they aren't old enough yet? Why? I am not advocating a return to the negative and almost slavelike conditions of the apprentice system, but rather the positive aspects of learning alongside the hands of a master while actually doing the work coupled with time to study and learn about other things students may not know exist. I am convinced that the vital role of work as part of the formative adolescent years is being abandoned. The best way to get authentic student achievement is to facilitate opportunities for them to do authentic work.

The very last quote from the report was what really got me:

This isn't at all what she imagined 23 would be like. She was supposed to be working toward the next big thing: dazzling her family and friends with her accomplishments, on her way to becoming a successful adult. (emphasis added)

WHAT??? On her way to... legally she has been an adult for 5 years and emotionally, cognitively and physically for something probably more like 8 to possibly 10 years. Granted at 13 she was not experienced enough nor does research support the idea that 13 years olds are completely matured cognitively or emotionally, but they are well on their way and could certainly start to really work and not wait until 23 to start becoming an adult.

Citation Nods:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101647874
Dr. Tim Tyson's UCET 2009 Keynote address (7 March 2009 held in Taylorsville, Utah)

Isolated Adolescence

few weeks ago I wrote about how we have extended adolescence right into the late twenties. Another great failing of that is that we have also isolated adolescence. For years in the classroom, I noticed that kids are very focused on engaging with each other. That is normal, natural and probably good. But in the 10 years I was in the class room I watched the growth of the cell phenomena. Cell phones were considered a nuisance item when I started teaching in 1998 but not a student in the K-8 School I taught in had one. Then I moved into a 7,8,9 Junior High. Cell phones were still banned as a nuisance item but were uncommon. Maybe 12-15% of the students had one and I don't remember confiscating many. Eventually that number moved up and I started ignoring the ban.

"Mr. Jorgensen, I need a calculator"
Do you have your cell phone?
"Mr. Jorgensen there aren't enough stopwatches"
Do you have your cell phone?"

Eventually the ban changed and students were allowed to have phones in the hall before and after school, but I was actually told personally that I was required to confiscate if I knew they were in my class. I get it. The technologies we have actually allow us to choose who we interact in based on common interest without regard to geography. If I don't like the class then I can engage with someone else somewhere else! That makes teaching hard because I need them to engage with difficult high level questions right now with me that aren't nearly as emotionally connected as sending out a quick

wru?
PE
Fun
rlly! :)
cul8r
lunch?
pizza yeah :)

I've been reading the book Emotional Design by Donald Norman. He is a psychologist and Computer Scientist who studies design for human-centered products. He has a lot of good things to say and was involved with the design team at Apple. He made reference in his book to the fact that by using the Cell-Phone we can escape the loneliness of the crowd. I can be walking downtown amidst strangers who I am afraid will judge, condemn and ignore me, but if I start chatting on my cell phone then I am connected.

I am afraid this happens too much with adolescence. Kids are connecting with kids. We have a 20:1 35:1 40:1 adult to student ratio in the classroom. When you connect the kids to all of their online interactions kids daily interactions are probably approaching 150:1 ratios of adolescents to adults in their lives. And I am thinking I am being very conservative and only talking about the other adolescents they actually engage with regularly for more than just inconsequential interactions.

This troubles me. There has always been a generation gap, but even with one there was not the same possibility for an underculture to develop so completely unsupervised as we know have. We have seen it growing for years with the rise of gangs, bing drinking parties and other stuff, but I honestly think there is a solution. There has to be a more concerted effort by adults to engage in this world that is already engaging our kids. We can't abandon the territory to 'them' because if we do they will engage with others and there will be some of 'them' that are adults, but not necessarily the adults that we want with our kids.

I really didn't want this post to sound so gloomy. I am actually very excited about the ability to connect. I am having a lot of fun with it and excited to see good things happening. I just look at the ratio that existed at one time during an older age based on apprenticeships and mentoring that put young adults firmly into a situation where they were expected to work with and alongside more experienced adults as being much more secure for all of us. I see so many adults who feel out of touch with teens. They are like we were when we were teens. They are people with hopes, dreams, ideas, fears just like adults. Less mature, less experienced possibly, but also more hopeful, less cynical, and jaded. We are all people and we need less isolation. The technology can create that but we have to shape it to our needs, desires and hopes. We can connect all of us.

Extended Adolescence

Education is good, education that disengages students from life is bad! I spent 5 years teaching Science and the whole time I was I had this unsettled feeling that what I was doing wasn't helping kids. I was teaching them useful, interesting and potentially fulfilling things, but I felt like I was preparing them for a future that I wasn't sure would exist.

Then I went into Career and Technical Education. Don't get me wrong, I loved science, and I loved teaching science, but suddenly the whole focus was on definitive skills that students need to succeed. My whole being was at peace with this view. Now, this is not my whole philosophy of education, but definitely a component of it.

We need more work! Not more homework, but more actually engagement of kids with life. I know there are hundreds thousands hundreds of thousands of example of teachers in every country, state and subject area that do exactly that, for me it took the focus of CTE to make it real for me. I was in a conference (not sitting, but actually in a wood shop building rockets) when a veteran teacher approaching retirement made the comment to me that what we have done wrong is "Extended Adolescence". Something buzzed. I turned off the band saw and something clicked. We really have extended adolescence.

I was married at 21 with a full expectation that now I am responsible for myself and my wife and future family. It seems from the messages of the media-ated culture that now, not only should I have waited until I was completely done with college, but waited until I was well established in a career before I 'settled' down. I think one major flaw in this is that we are seeing more and more parents wanted to intervene for their adult, but not yet mature children. 22 year olds who haven't yet taken any responsibility for themselves. I have actually even read articles about how to set rules, and guidelines for our college children. What???? Aren't they in every legal sense adults and independent? By the time my kids get to that point, I don't want to have to enforce rules and guidelines, I hope by then that my children and by extension the students I taught can govern themselves.

So, how do we do this, I think the same way my folks and their folks did. Expect accountability. I started feeding the pigs when I was not yet in school. My job was to collect the bucket of table scraps my Mom collected and walk out to the pig barn and 'slop' the hogs. My son has to slop the 'dogs' but the principle is still valid. I think we must do more to reinforce to our young people, and more in our schools to provide opportunities for the students to contribute meaningfully, significantly, financially, and morally to the communities. I believe this is possible through more, better and deeper work study and apprenticeship programs. Young people should begin earlier exploring career options and doing the actual work. We teach all the time that students need to experience lots of variety so they can choose what interests them. I agree and this includes doing the actual work! Students need to work, as young as junior high (7th grade or 12 years old) Students should have options to work as part of their curriculum, and not contrived simulations, but actual work. I believe I became a teacher at least in part, because I spent a portion of my High School career as a student aide, and found that I liked the work, I liked copying papers, I enjoyed grading assignments, I liked talking with the younger students when I was a few grades older than them.

Students need to experience work. They need to be expected to contribute! We need to reduce not extend adolescence. I do believe kids should still get to be kids, but when 24 and 25 years olds are still having parents call their "teachers" to explain why they didn't get their homework done we have reached the ridiculous. Lets bring back work!