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Chapter Six Who Will Our Students Be in a Postmodern, Postdenominational, and Materialistic Age? Richard Franklin The study of large groups of students is intriguing, complicated, exciting, and extremely beneficial. Many academicians, particularly those in the disciplines of sociology and psychology, do a good job of keeping up with the latest developments and current thinking about young people, and through their research they often make significant contributions to our understanding of the traits, motivations, and aspirations of college students. Although professionals and practitioners charged with the responsibility of nurturing students on campus attend conferences, read journals, and participate in personal and professional development in their functional areas, their research contributions are minimal compared to many of their faculty colleagues. If I were a betting person, I would wager that not many university administrators , even those within student life, have spent much time learning about the students who voluntarily come to our campuses to get a college education. I have been in the student-life profession for over thirty years, and I must confess that even I most often take a micro view of the students who are already on campus rather than a macro view of who they are and what forces have shaped them before they arrive at our doors. These conditions exist in spite of the fact that many courses in student personnel services and higher education curricula attempt to foster a macro view. Most graduate-trained student-life professionals have had at least one course focused on the American college student, and we certainly should have had a course devoted to student development theories, including theories of cognitive, psychosocial, and faith development, and of typology, as well as theories about other ways students grow and mature during their collegiate years. But most of these courses stress fundamental characteristics of students 101 SchmelVita Future.indd 101 SchmelVita Future.indd 101 4/11/2006 1:20:31 PM 4/11/2006 1:20:31 PM 102 Who Will Our Students Be? that do not change significantly from cohort to cohort. They often do not address the differences that arise in each incoming generation of students as a result of the changing social, economic, and political environment in which they were reared and in response to specific great historical events, such as those of September 11, 2001. Let me draw an analogy from sports, and since at the time I write this we have just experienced March Madness, basketball will provide a good example . Not much has changed in the basics of basketball in many years. The floor is still ninety-four feet long and fifty feet wide. The goal rim diameter is eighteen inches, and the goal is still fifteen feet from the foul line. The width of the foul lane is still twelve feet. Most baskets still count as two points, and the free throw still counts as one point. It still takes five fouls for a player to be forced to leave the game. Although within the last decade a three-point basket was added to the game to make it more exciting, the rules of the game have remained largely unchanged. But what has changed are the players. Would anybody deny that they are faster, quicker, taller, stronger, and generally more skilled than in the past? Their physical attributes and understanding of the game make possible new coaching strategies that would have been impossible with less talented players. As a result, the way the game is played has changed, even though the fundamentals of the game have not. In a similar way, students today pass through our gates and enter our “courts” with the same fundamental needs as their predecessors to develop cognitively, socially, and spiritually, but like today’s athletes they have different capabilities, motivations , and expectations than those of students ten or even five years ago. All of this is to say that we in higher education can serve our students more effectively if we have a better understanding of who they are and what their expectations are when they arrive on our campuses. Neil Howe and William Strauss have been forerunners in presenting a model for understanding the upcoming generation of students, labeled Millennials , based on a peer personality of the cohort. Among their works are Generations: The History of America’s Future 1584 to 2069, 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?, and Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation.1 Howe and Strauss define generations...

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