Annual Conference

A Generation to Define a Century

"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given.  Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

Historian, economist, demographer, and author Neil Howe uses that 1936 quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt to sum up the expectations and potential of the kids who currently populate our classrooms. His ASCD Annual Conference General Session presentation offered perspectives on the educational implications of teaching a generation of students he calls “the Millennials.”

The first Millennials were born in 1982, he said, and graduated high school with the Class of 2000. “Remember “Baby On Board” stickers on minivans?” Howe asked. These are those babies, growing up now in a high-pressure world and thriving in ways that seem alien to their Baby Boomer and Generation X parents—and teachers.

“They don’t mind the pressure,” Howe said, “as long as they feel like they’re getting somewhere.” Educators can help Millennials by recognizing that these boys and girls have unique characteristics. Know them and you’ll know Millennials.

“Seven core traits mark this generation as different from Boomers and X-ers,” Howe said. “This generation is special, sheltered, confident, team oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving. All of this has implications for school reform and school curriculum.”

Because Millennials consider themselves special, educators should:

• Encourage parental involvement. “Get the helicopter moms on your side,” Howe joked.
• Ask the public and media to support efforts to improve education. They want to.

Millennials are sheltered – they are used to being watched over, and expect it. That means educators should:

• Emphasize school safety and accountability.
• Take a fresh look at class and school sizes. Smaller will be perceived as better at providing “structured communities that let no one fall through the cracks,” Howe said.

Since Millennials are confident, they are “collectively optimistic about their economic prospects. The new idea is that every child is college ready, not just job-ready,” he noted. Educators should:

• Stress positive outcomes for everyone.
• Use contextual and project-based environments.
• Craft personal progress plans to guide students’ learning and growth.

Millennials’ are team orientation may be their most notable quality. “They like groups, they like applying their energy to community projects,” Howe said. “They use technology to plug into the group, through instant messaging and user groups and e-mail.” To tap that collective goodwill:

• Teach team skills.
• Build community service into the curriculum.
• Provide opportunities for students to help other students.

Millennials have relatively conventional hopes and dreams. “They define their life goals in terms of career, work-life balance, citizenship,” Howe said. “They plan ahead. And they trust big institutions in ways that Boomers haven’t.” For educators, this characteristic invites a back-to-basics approach:

• Create core curricula that every student is expected to master. “Make sure that every task is achievable with directed effort,” he said.
• Celebrate progress.
• Continuously monitor, assess, and redirect learning. “The best schools for Millennials instantly detect—day to day—the progress of every student,” Howe said.

Millennials are pressured. Structured activities fill most hours in their days, but they generally respond well to pressure. To take advantage of that skill while minimizing burn-out, educators can:

• “Stress long-term life planning and guarantees over short-term opportunities and risks,” Howe advised. Forget learning from mistakes; “Millennials don’t want to make any mistakes,” he said.
• Structure learning around goal mastery.
• Reverse engineer curricula, starting with where you want students to be at the end of the year. “A sense of destination is what Millennials want in their curriculum,” Howe said.

Millennials are achieving; they embrace educational challenge and want higher standards. Three-quarters say they want to attend four-year colleges. Acknowledging that penchant for high achievement, educators should:

• Build challenging curricula.
• Emphasize achievement over aptitude and effort.
• Incorporate cutting-edge computer technology into the curriculum.
• “Finally, encourage teachers to set an example themselves of professional achievement and lifelong learning,” Howe said.

“This generation is going to define the 21st Century much like the G.I. Generation defined the 20th Century,” Howe said, recalling the cohort that weathered the Great Depression and won World War II. “They are going to face many burdens as they grow older: geopolitical, environmental, fiscal, economic. When you look at this generation—protected, team-playing, confident, collectively optimistic—you see some of the traits that we saw in their grandparents.”

ASCD’s Whole Child Commitment: Reframing Education

ASCD is starting to shift the dialogue from schooling to learning—and in doing so, reframing the definition of education, observed ASCD Executive Director Gene Carter during Sunday’s ASCD Annual Meeting. Carter and ASCD President Mary Ellen Freeley reported on the state of the Association during the annual convening of leaders and members.

Freeley opened the meeting by highlighting the work of the ASCD Board of Directors during 2005-2006, activities that included strengthening the Leadership Council and its influence, participating in ASCD’s first Leadership for Effective Advocacy and Practice Institute, and refining the nominations process.

“It has been a wonderful year, a productive year, and a year of growth and positive exploration,” said Freeley.

Carter outlined how ASCD is accelerating its work to promote the needs of the whole child—which recasts the definition of a successful learner from one whose achievement is measured solely by academic tests to one who is knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically engaged, prepared for economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling.

As part of the multi-year, whole child initiative, ASCD convened the first meeting of the Commission on the Whole Child in January 2006. “This Commission of leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners, from a wide variety of sectors, is looking at the competencies and habits of mind that young people need for healthy, productive lives,” said Carter. “We have challenged the Commission to make actionable recommendations that will take the report into the media, boardrooms, and legislatures for continued inquiry and, ultimately, transformative change.” He noted that the Commission will reconvene in July to set benchmarks for moving its work forward.

“The impact of our work will only be felt on a massive scale—and make a significant difference in the lives of learners—if, and only if, we make our voices heard,” said Carter. Accordingly, ASCD has been successfully mobilizing for advocacy and expanding opportunities for member influence. ASCD’s advocacy staff, Legislative Committee, and state/local teams have been working on pushing the issues with important implications for public education. Carter observed that affiliates have undertaken increasingly complex influence and advocacy roles both at the state/provincial and national/federal levels.

“The positions adopted by ASCD’s Leadership Council continue to guide our influence and advocacy work in four areas—the achievement gap, high-stakes testing, whole child, and health and learning,” said Carter.

The ASCD executive director called the past year a “record-breaker” for ASCD—with 175,000 members in 135 countries worldwide, 60 affiliates, and three new connected communities. He also reported that ASCD experienced the best financial year in Association history—continuing a trend seen four out of the past five fiscal years.

“The time is right for the ASCD Community to find the passion to go beyond where anyone before us has traveled,” Carter concluded. “Can we reach significance both in today’s world and in the legacy we leave for tomorrow’s children? I think we can.”

"Help Kids See Themselves as Whole"

Bonnie St. John, Paralympic skier and Sunday’s General Session keynoter, offered perspective for educators who wonder why school sometimes fail to serve the students who could benefit most.

Don’t worry about anything that’s missing, unless it’s your own commitment to finding ways to help kids reach their full potential.

“It’s not about lack of resources. It’s about lack of vision,” she said. “If you’re a student, someone can help you believe. If you’re a teacher or principal, someone can help you get the vision. And that’s when things start to happen.”

St. John said she has relied on a strong sense of the possible — what could be — since she was a girl. When she was five years old, a medical condition led to the amputation of her right leg. Since then, she has won silver and bronze medals in international Paralympic ski competition and become a successful executive coach and sought-after speaker.

She credits her mother — a single mom who was a teacher and principal — with helping her learn not to dwell on limitations, but on the power of a singular idea to transform lives.

“As educators,” she said, “you can help kids see themselves as whole, that they have everything they need” to be successful. Sometimes that means learning that what looks like failure can be achievement in disguise.

When St. John won her medals at the 1984 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, her original goal had been modest: just make the U.S. Disabled Ski Team. Once the competition began, she found herself in an unexpected place after her first run down the mountain: First place.

“But there are two runs,” she recounted. “Before the second run, we had gotten word that there was an icy spot, and women had been crashing out.” Conventional wisdom said a solid, conservative trip could realistically net a gold medal. Avoid the dangerous ice and victory could be at hand.

“So I’m on my run and the adrenaline is flowing and my friends and sponsors and teammates are cheering,” St. John said. “Now I think I’m past the ice, and I’m gonna win. Now what happens when you think the worst is past and you relax?

“I crashed,” she remembered.

“There I am laying in the snow on my derrière. Now you all are high profile leaders, so you know what it’s like to screw up right in front of everyone. So you know what I’m talking about. I just wanted to disappear. But I got up, got my equipment together, and finished the race.”

Lo and behold, it was good enough for third place. “That’s this bronze medal I’m wearing right now,” she said, flashing the hardware. It turned out that every other top skier had fallen too. Proud as she was, St. John said she learned something that day that was even more valuable than her medal. “The women who got gold and silver got up too. But they earned their medals because they got up just a little faster than I did.”

Photo credit: Mark Regan

Leaving Your Mark on Your School

When water damaged the student murals at Baboquivari High School, in the Tohono O' odham Nations School District, southwest of Tucson, Ariz., the school took digital photographs of the murals that would soon be destroyed when the walls were repaired.   

The following fall, however, almost all of the student mural artists returned, and recreated their works, from digital photos, on the halls of the new high school site.

For the Tohono O' odham Nations, these student murals were powerful symbols of culture and identity. Many schools use student mural projects as ways to convey individual student ownership, identity, and a sense of belonging within the larger context of the school setting.

Learn more about the benefits of student mural projects at this Annual Conference session:

# 1451 Student Murals as a Tool of Ownership in Urban Schools Saturday, April 1, 5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Presented by Virginia Dean and Roxanne Wueste, Ft. Worth Independent School District, Tex.

See more Tohono O' odham Nations school murals.