Millennials: The Entitled Ones

My name is Julia, and I am a Millennial (“Hi, Julia”). A millennial is someone born from 1984 and on. Some call us the experimenters or as my mother likes to call the “computer geniuses” as she squints at her Facebook screen. Currently finishing up my last semester of my undergrad, I decided to take a class I knew would ACTUALLY help me in the future, something that I can relate to and put forth towards my own practice: Children and Technology. During our first class we were shown this YouTube video entitled: Millennials - What’s wrong with this generation? I felt the dire need to respond to the video so before continuing with this blog post, sit through the necessary 15 minutes (trust me).

Simon Sinek begins with the biggest jaw dropper, hair flipping, scoff-worthy remark: Millennials feel as though they are entitled. As if? But, as I heard more, I realized that he was right. As painful as it is to admit the negatives about your whole life, it was too correct to not watch. We were “dealt a bad hand”, it is not our fault that were like this. I do agree with that.

I agree that along side all the wonders that I explored like digging for worms, trying to beat my brothers in a game of road hockey and intentionally scraping my knee to match my best friends’ at the park, there was also that shiny thing waiting for me when I got home: the computer. Now, as a millennial I do believe that I was also lucky to have been able to have a computer at the age of 7 I think. My father working for a circuit board company was too interested to not buy one (also, I think he actually needed it for work).

Anyway, when listening to Sinek speaking about all these different aspects of technology and our world, I could help but nod and agree. After watching the video I couldn't only reflect on myself. Instead I thought about my responsibility as a future educator (and parent) and the hand that the next generation will be dealt. One thing that Simon mentioned toward the end of the video is the idea that everyone is becoming impatient and that instant gratification is almost like a drug to the world. This worries me in the field of early childhood.

When teaching a child, you NEED patience, time and hard work (from both ends). The child must trust themselves to work consistently to reach an end goal. What if not seeing instant results diminishes that drive? I do genuinely believe that children as a species will always have that general curiosity and perseverance that will carry them to discover things in a positive way.

So what do we do? These so called entitled people are going to be leading the generation in a few years to come, and then they will repopulate the earth with more entitled people. What will the future look like? Some of those entitled people (me, apparently) will be teaching children, can you believe that! I take on the challenge to influence the next generation in a way that Simon Sinek may not think is possible. I take on the challenge to find a healthy balance between everything a child should be exposed to.

This debated whether I should make this my first blog post, as many reaching this site may be parents already or current ECE’s. It is just a representation of how scattered I feel about this subject. To finish it off, I do believe that I was dealt a bad hand, but is that just my entitled self making excuses…again?

Julia

Video courtesy of YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HVHULmy6gE