Millennial Generation

I saw a segment on last week’s edition of Sixty Minutes about the ‘Millennial Generation’. The definition of 'millennial generation' varies slightly but generally to be a member, your birth year has to be at or after 1984. I have two children that are members of this group but fortunately my kids don’t have the characteristics of this generalized group. I find it odd that when I was making the decision to home-school these same two children, most of the reasons that I wanted to home-school was because I didn’t want my kids to turn out like the members of the ‘Millennial Generation’. I had no idea at the time that someday these characteristics would be attributed to the current generation of young people.

My two kids tell me that they can’t believe how unprepared their Millennial Generation classmates are for the real world. My daughter said that she couldn’t understand why their orientation was a week long. At the end of the second day, she said “How many ‘get-to-know-you’ games do we have to play - let’s get on with classes!” She didn’t need to attend the orientation session that showed students how to run a washing machine or a dryer either.

I have always said that the education system is exactly what parents want. It’s a quasi-daycare center that makes their children feel good about themselves. Bill Gates warned parents and post-secondary institutions that by continuing down this path of non-justified rewarding will produce individuals who are ‘sissy’ and can’t take criticism of any kind. Essentially he stated that the kids will not grow up in the real world and they won’t be ready when they graduate because they won’t be able to cope. I guess he was right.

I can hardly wait to say “I told you so” to all those nay-sayers that criticized me for my home-schooling decision. My two children have flown the nest, are paying for their own university education (through wages that they earned themselves) and fighting their own battles because I have given them the tools to do so. They also know how to separate their white clothes from the darks. Imagine that!