By Carol Phillips*

Nearly 20 years ago, William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote a book that theorized a 22 year generational cycle based on repeating generational archetypes called simply “Generations“. They called these cycles ‘turnings’. Children raised during a particular Turning share similar historical and cultural experiences, which results in their being like each other, and different from other generations. This was to my knowledge the first appearance of the word ‘Millennials’.

A chapter that begins on page 335 of 427 (paperback version not including Appendices and Sources), is titled “Millennial Generation”.

What makes this chapter on Millennials so fascinating twenty years after it was written is how uncannily it matches what we know to be true of how Gen Y is different from preceding generations.

Part of the reason for its accuracy is that the demographics of this generation were fairly predictable, even in 1991, and demographics are one of the forces that shapes generations. Strauss and Howe were able to accurately project the likely size (76 million) and make up (12% immigrant) based on fertility and immigration trends, even though only 33 million of them were alive when the book was published.

The authors were also tuned-in to the major shift in parenting and education as a cultural priority that was already underway by the early 90’s. This shift would prove to have a remarkable impact on Millennial self-perceptions, aspirations and values. Nearly twenty years ago they noted that “this new generation of children is being treated as precious” and “Boom parents and teachers have also been slowing down the childhood development clock — unlike the Silent, who sped it up.”

“First-wave Millennials are riding a powerful crest of protective concern, dating back to he early 1980s, over the American childhood environment. In1981, the year before the “Class of 2000″ was born, a volley of books assaulted adult mistreatment of children through the 13er (Gen X) birth years. Within the next couple of years, other authors began reconsidering the human consequences of divorce, latchkey households, and value neutral education.

In 1984, two kids as devils movies flopped at the box office, marketing the end of a dying genre and the start of a more positive film depiction of children.

From 1986 to 1988, polls reported a tripling in the popularity of ’staying home with family’….In general, Boomer parents are determined to set an unerringly wholesome environment for their Millennial tots.

Where Silent parents had brought 13erkids along to see $-rated movies made about them, Boomers take the Millennials to see G-rated movies made for them.””

“From 1976 through 1988 the proportion of students held back in elementary school jumped by one-third.”

One of the central tenets of the book is that the fourth generation in each cycle, the “Fourth Turning”, tends to be more civically minded and engaged. They look for signs that yesterday’s fourth graders might be more evolved as citizens and found it in Anna Quindlen’s observations that kids seemed to be “assimiliating society’s ’shalt nots’ about crime, drugs, polution and education with disquieting energy and unanimity.” (page 341) Twenty years later, we know from the research that today’s young adults are much more ‘upright’ than earlier generations in terms of their overall optimism, attitudes toward the environment and social action and behavior regarding drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy, and crime.

What Howe and Strauss could not have known in 1991 was the remarkable impact that technology and the most severe economic recession in over 60 years would play in shaping this generation.

Beyond demographics, two of the forces that are shaping up to be the most influential are easy access to information of all kinds and a realization that America’s high flying lifestyle is most likely unsustainable. They have already resulted in a more empowered, yet sobered, generation that is exhibiting very different consumer and media behavior as they move into their prime earning years.

BrandAmplitude’s latest ebook (“ How Millennials Are Different“) is focused on spotlighting the ways that Millennials are different from generations that came before at the same age. The book, which zeroes in specifically on longitudinal data from Pew Research and other sources, shows Gen Y is different in many significant ways, only some of which were predictable in 1991.

Nevertheless, what Strauss and Howe foresaw about how Millennials would be different from preceding generations based simply on cultural and demographic trends, they got remarkably right.

*Carol Phillips is the president and founder of the brand strategy consulting firm “Brand Amplitude.” She is also a Professor at the prestigious University of Notre Dame. Carol began her career as a market researcher and strategic planner at Leo Burnett. Later, as an Account Director, she led agency teams at four different agencies – Y&R, Leo Burnett, Mullen and JWT – for a variety of clients including Sprint, Nextel, Ameritech, Heinz, 7UP, and Philip Morris. She blogs at www.millennialmarketing.com.

By Cíntia Reinaux
A brilliant text written by Rubem Alves* uses a metaphor to explain why parents should be a bit more strict with their kids. Alves jokes that parents today wouldn’t be able to stand Michelangelo. They would say, what does Michelangelo have against marble?

Alves states, “…he had something against marble, because inside that marble was Pietà. Where would Pieta be if Michelangelo hadn’t been so tough on the marble?

My conclusion? Education is art. And nothing is more counter to art than leaving raw material exactly as is. Those who do that aren’t dreamers or artists. Feelings of guilt sprouting from motherhood and fatherhood often turn into Jello. A rock is still a rock. We need to know that love is hard.

Many people discuss the “trophy generation.” More and more, young people are rewarded, but not because they necessarily deserve it. On that note, Elaine Brumm** nails it when she writes, “doing something for the merit eliminates the equation…” New generations seem to not notice how hard life is and how much work it takes to obtain what you desire. Even if you work extremely hard, there will always be something which is simply out of your reach.

It’s rather preoccupying how much new generations seem to learn, very early in childhood, to systematically guilt others for their own failures.

If a kid get bad grades, he or she will often blame the school or the teacher. And that same kid grows up to be the employee who will blame his or her boss or external factors as an excuse for a stagnant carrer. And yet how could it be any other way?

Generation Y is perhaps one of the most promising generations that has emerged in a while. Expert multi-taskers, bathing in technology, with enormous cognitive capacities. Yet, these same skills are also the ones which get this generation labeled as: superficial, immature, egocentric, impatient, and anxious.

It’s as if all this potential hasn’t been properly channeled and cultivated. Of course, we couldn’t hope that young people would get to the workplace completely ready. Yet, how could they reveal their Pieta if they never learned to use a hammer and a nail?

And so, a rock is still a rock. I don’t think it’s too late. With a little strength, discipline, and help from elders, we will teach them to use the tools they need.

*Rubem Alves is a psychoanalyst, educator, theologist, and Brazilian writer. This is an excerpt from her book “Sobre o Tempo e a EternaIdade”, Ed. Papirus, 1995, págs. 37 e 38.

**Eliane Brum is a journalist for Revista Epoca. She describes the generation of self-deserving individuals in the text “ “A era dos adultos infantilizados” published on Nov 16, 2009.

Cíntia Reinaux is 25 years old and feels so proud of being from Pernambuco. She seems to be a great sister and her patience is always completely tested by his brother, a Gen Z. She is an administrator who loves Human Resources and, in her free times, she likes to tell stories about her adventures in Canada, from where she has recently returned, on the blog http://reinaux.wordpress.com.

By Eline Kullock
I just read an article on Folha On Line in which an actress, wearing a short dress (not even that short in the eyes of a baby boomer,) went to various prestigious Brazilian Universities (including the Law School at USP, FMU at University Ibriapuera, and PUC).  The actress, pretending to be a student, asked random questions like, “Where’s the bathroom?” just to test the reaction of students to her outfit.

Ironically, this actress suffered the same crazy reactions as the Uniban student Geisy Arruda, who was violently bullied, insulted, and ostracized by her classmates for wearing a short mini skirt.  The actress did undergo less violent reactions than Geisy.    In Geisy’s case, the police even had to get involved.

As I watch and reflect on this, I think about the pendulum theory.  Hippies created a counter culture, starting a revolution. Non-conformist went it came to war, they rebelled against the values of their time.

As society obtains certain liberal values, the pendulum seems to swing back to the other side.  There’s a rebellion against these liberal values, and a quest for a “middle ground” of the pendulum.

Are young people who rejected the micro-skirt attempting to express what can and can’t be done?  But this is the generation that CAN DO ANYTHING.   ANYTHING.  TOTAL FREEDOM FOR ALL.

Of course this “can do anything” mindset doesn’t encompass harmful actions, such as stealing, and killing.  However, it does include posing naked on the Internet.  It seems that young people don’t care about this.  “The body is mine, and I can do what I want with it.”    This has always been the message Gen Y has expressed.  A level of zero prejudice.

Even in my lectures young people are less prejudice than baby boomers.  There’s usually the sense that they accept people more as they are.  The accept diversity.

However, I’m really surprised at the number of weddings I see among very young people.  Up until very recently, wedding rates were low.  Our generation, the baby boomers, were revolutionaries.  We opened up doors for people to simply live together, without the need for a signed piece of paper, a priest, or a rabbi.

Generation X lived together and usually didn’t care so much about the tradition of marriage and religious ceremonies.   Especially because the fairytale of a virgin bride isn’t even close to reality anymore, it’s become totally irrelevant.   And yet, why is that in big Brazilian cities like Sao Paulo and Rio, I see more and more young people really wanting to get married?  What’s more, they want the classic wedding that we considered really old-fashioned in our day!

Does all this have to do with the shift and movement of counterculture?  Is this a movement of a current generation saying “enough!” to certain things?  Enough to “you can do anything?”   I can only understand the ban on the miniskirt (not only in the case of Geisy but also in all the Universities the actress went to), through the pendulum theory.   But if this isn’t the explanation, then I’m completely confused by the signals this generation is sending.  Perhaps some college students can explain what’s going on to me…

In Philosophy, ethics can signify what is good for an individual and for society. Through this lens, we establish a natural sense of duty in
relationships, and in society.

For a while now, I’ve been participating in numerous discussions on the implementation of a new subject in school called “Ethics and
Citizenship.” This
new subject would work with students to give them basic notions of life in society, incorporating Philosophy, which is no longer a part of the basic
school curriculum today. The subject would aim to help young people coexist better both in and outside of school.

This subject exists in many schools, but the problems continue, as they are rooted deeper, within the very foundation of education. Ethics and citizenship, from my perspective, is not simply a subject in school, with a fixed hour dedicated to them, and a Professor responsible for giving tests and grades. Rather, this should be the basis of all of education. Not to mention, the foundation of all human relationships.

To express these ideas better, I turned to my dictionary, my best friend at times of uncertainty.

*Ethics* – Part of Philosophy responsible for investigating principles which motivate, distort, discipline, or orient, human behavior, reflecting especially on the essence of norms and values present in society.

*Citizenship* – The condition of a person, as a member of the state, with rights that allow for participation in political life.

The first definition holds two key words: investigation and essence. I remember a film that I saw a while ago called *Teachers*. The story dealt with a young man who couldn’t find work after graduating from High School. Therefore, he sued the school claiming that the education he had received, was responsible for his unemployment. This made me think about the role of teachers. The teacher was played by the actor Nick Nolte, who decided to investigate, along with his students, what exactly was going on in the classrooms of this public school. He found a bit of everything. One teacher dressed up as historical characters to teach History. Another napped behind a newspaper while students took a test. One of the students asks Mr. Nolte to film the hallways, showing what goes on when the teachers aren’t looking. At that point, you see the teacher who suggested making the film smoking in the hallway.

Leaving the movie theater, I thought about the essence of what’s expressed on screen. A teacher, so liberal and modern, that he’s willing to collaborate to reorganize the school, even though it involves some not so good behavior. Is he being less ethical than those who let the school and its students sink into failure? Those who don’t want to see that they’ve got the future of society in their hands? “Do what I say, even though I don’t.”

The search for rights and duties of a citizen should be the very classroom, though it’s often not. The other day I saw an unfortunate scene. I was asked to be a coordinator for a class titled “Ethics and Citizenship.” During this particular class, the students watched a Cuban film, which illustrated an incredibly different society from our own, and introduced a discussion on ethics in Cuba. Through a typical Cuban family, one could see the bureaucratic day-to-day lived by those under Fidel. After the film, I though the teacher would start a debate in which students had to declare whether they were “for” or “against” the Cuban regime, discussing the consequences of a population, comparing and contrasting this with the Brazilian experience. Yet, none of this happened. Instead he launched into a political speech, talking favorably of the Cuban regime. After this, he promptly handed back their practice “Vestibular” (comparable to SAT). I think we all felt frustrated, the students and I. The teacher who taught Etics wasn’t so ethical.

I also remember reading an interview in Veja with Dr. Dr. Ben-Hur Ferraz Neto, a specialist in liver transplants. In the interview, he affirmed that the best health plan would be for operating rooms to be a black box. In these conditions of total non-transparency, just imagine how many fatal errors could be committed without anyone taking responsibility for them.

I think this could be a solution for the classroom, even though it seems completely unethical at first glance. In an educational institution people come together. Students and teachers, full of their own personal problems and anxieties, repeat themselves in a day-to-day dance. The black box is obviously a symbol. A box in which one can keep or record everything that has been done, everything that has been said in that environment.

In the same way that businesses don’t use a black box, no school would use it to clear up situations. And yet it could be helpful in certain situations of conflict, or as proof of crucial educational questions that may greatly influence the lives of children and young people studying in this environment.

I’ve taught at certain religious schools, which used a small transmission device, linked to the principal’s office to police students and teachers. Today
I hink that I could have participated in a better way. These school recordings should have given way to discussions about ethics that would contribute to creating better citizens, aware of their rights and duties. A reflection on whether their actions were good for those in class and for the society in which they live…

By Manuela Mesquita

Parents are not teaching their children to be citizens with an attitude.  This is the opinion of Dr. Içami Tiba, psychiatrist for whom, “There isn’t an ideal model for raising children.”

The author of 27 publications, the majority focusing on young people, Tiba believes that parents are responsible for the unstable and impatient nature of this new generation, who has trouble dealing with problems or tolerating things they dislike.   In an interview with the blog, he affirms that this generation of egocentric young people still has a lot to learn about differentiating themselves in the competitive workplace today.

What’s happened in society that has caused relationships within the family to change so much?  Parents have become much less rigorous and don’t exercise the same authority as before.  Is this mostly a product of mothers leaving the home to work outside of it?

This is a silent revolution that happened because parents, both men and women, don’t want to repeat the upbringing they had and didn’t like:  limits, discipline, and physical punishment.
The upbringing they received has pushed them to not repeat this with their own kids, as they strive to give privileges to their children they would have liked to have obtained from their parents.
In reality, this upbringing has not been adequate because it’s created kids who are not well brought-up, in the sense that they are not citizens who fulfill their obligations.  Their parents had these values, but they didn’t want to hold their children to these rigid standards, thus establishing a relationship between children concentrated on their own leisure and suffocated parents.
However, children in this day and age need to be very committed to obtain results.  They have to be competitive and have ethics.  However, parents teach their kids to be heirs, not successful entrepreneurs who obtain things on their own, advancing due to their own strength.
The fact that mothers started working outside of the home, has accentuated these tendencies, as parents try to compensate for their absence in a way that isn’t positive or healthy for the kids.  Of course, mothers can work, but they can’t please their child at whatever cost.  This intense “softening” has a negative impact on an individual’s professional life later on.

You’ve stated that 80% of delinquents today have been raised by their mother.  Erich Fromm argues that fathers have conditional love, whereas mothers express unconditional love.  How does this difference manifest itself in a child’s upbringing?
Women have the hormones for building relationships, and men have testosterone, which pushes them to compete, fight for their territory, and defend their interests.  For this reason, a male parent and female parent, balance themselves out perfectly.  One fights and the other protects, while giving the child the necessary resources for survival.  Imposing obligation isn’t massacring the child.  Rather it gives him or her the tools to be a man or women of great success:  having learned skills, the ability and will to learn, and the pleasure that goes along with that.
Human beings need to find pleasure in their work, but they have little time to align everything in their busy lives.  Children just want to have fun and they don’t want to learn.  However, not everyone gets to do what they love all the time.  There are aspects of work for instance, that you will never like.  Yet, parents don’t teach their children this.   For this reason, young people make their choices, letting go of a good job because of a small disagreement at work, or a fight with a girlfriend or boyfriend.  They have a low threshold for frustration, dropping out of University because they don’t like one subject.  As parents, our job is to teach them to handle these situations.

How can mothers or fathers exercise a “double role” in a society where so many parents are divorced?
In this case, children still have a mother and father.  If a couple divorces, it’s due to their own problems, and shouldn’t impact the raising of their children.   What you can’t do is continue fighting while separated, throwing your kids in the middle, trying to turn them against the other parent.

The concept of raising children has changed a lot.  Psychologists argue that you can’t punish a child too much, and that you need to stimulate creativity.  What are your thoughts on this?
I can speak from my clinically based experience. What I’ve noticed is in this modern way of raising children, parents become less and less demanding of their kids, allowing them to make their own decisions when they shouldn’t.  For instance, allowing them to stop their studies at a crucial moment.  A lot of kids start to work, making some money, and gain a false idea of freedom.  So parents may think “At least my child is working,” and yet this is the result of a total lack of preparation.

How should we raise this generation?
I think that to be human is to have the capacity of learning along with our mistakes. In this modern way of raising children, the kids who aren’t given the skills to manage the results they obtain, aren’t ready to make decisions yet.  And so parents need to take care of this and assume responsibility.  If their children don’t understand this and want to join the workplace anyways, they won’t be successful because they lack maturity.  If parents continue to be too easy on their kids, listening to their every caprice, they’re not raising them or doing them any favors.

How does the Internet influence the raising of children?
If parents don’t dedicate themselves to learning, they can’t educate. While raising children, it’s important to be aware of the latest advances.  Parents today need to understand MSN, Orkut, etc.  The Internet has a lot of great things, and some bad things too.  It depends how you use it. Parents need to use the resources their kids use, in order to relate to them.  Young people have never had so many resources to meet and connect as they do today.  On MSN it’s possible to connect with all your friends in one day.  The same thing happens with blogs and on social networks.  The vision is different, and we don’t even need to leave the house.  We just need to press a button.  Young people know what’s happening with their friends, and they make plans.  If parents tap into these resources, they will gain in their own professional careers, and also communicate more effectively with their children.

In your opinion does virtual contact substitute physical contact?
Physical contact needs to be better appreciated.  For parents who just want to please their kid, regardless of the circumstances, it would be better not even to have this physical contact.  They could just control everything virtually, and when they actually did meet face-to-face, it would be without the conflicts and fights, that end up happening precisely because of the absence of parents.

At school we learn to socialize and to share things, like our toys.  But when children turn into teenagers, their reality turns into something else.  We become individualistic, wanting to earn money. This provokes a lot of confusion.  How do we go about this problem? Does the way we teach young children need to be more realistic?

Even in the Vestibular (the exam used to get into University in Brazil), a hard-working student who studies in a group, will do better than someone who studies alone.  Similarly, in a competitive sport, athletes develop skills individually, but the team solidifies their strength.   Champions are the ones who are among many others.  Nobody wins completely alone.  If school cultivates group participation it helps the student’s development.
It’s good for the student to realize that the world is competitive.  Those who are on the sidelines, will at some point, be fighting the same fight as everyone else.  Yet, if you have this knowledge, you become stronger, than you are as a lone individual.  This also relates to one’s professional life.

Many argue that this generation is less generous than past generations.  Do you agree?
I agree because this is a product of the way they’ve been raised.  They’ve done drugs, they’ve become more egocentric, they don’t give value to hierarchy, they want results on a short-term basis, and if they don’t see these results right away, they want to move somewhere else.  They don’t have a strong career vision for themselves. In your career you need to get your hands dirty.  They can’t handle this.  They’re self-centered and that’s due to the way they’ve been raised.

In your book “Família de Alta Performance” you explore excellence in the quality of life of an individual.   However, we know that currently it’s really difficult to reconcile everything in our busy lives.  Is it possible to have an extremely successful career while also being  an excellent mother or father?  If so, how?
By trying to do things in the best way possible.  No mother or father is going to be the best they can be, if they aren’t dedicated to understanding the current Educational system and the way kids are being raised, making their kids benefit from the best advances available. Business professionals need to update themselves constantly.  The same goes for parents.  It’s not a question of constantly being with the child, but actually knowing what he or she is doing.   Teaching at a distance is an example of how the virtual can be really productive.

In your book you also talk about how certain changes could make our lives better.  Could you cite some of these changes?
The first is the way in which parents can make their kids happier people, by making their child a citizen within the household.  In other words, parents need to instill a principal of collaboration within the household, called the citizenship of the family.   Just like at work, you don’t wait until the last minute to take care of things, or wait until the day before a payment is due to present the result to your boss.  The same attitude should apply for family citizenship.

How do you think the raising of children will evolve in the near future?
I believe that when facing a problem, we need to mobilize our resources to overcome it.   Those who mobilize resources are those who win.  This generation is bothered by how difficult it is to join the workplace in a time of such economic crisis.  Since a lot of people are suffering, there are going to be a lot of new things popping up, and they are impossible to predict in today’s market conditions.

But do you think there’s going to be a sort of pendulum swing?  Are parents going to go back to the way they were before, becoming more strict in the way they raise their kids?  Do you think this should happen?  Or are there more modern ways to raise a happy child?

I don’t think things will go back to the way they were before.  There’s a movement which aims to prohibit everything, but that doesn’t work because children need to learn.  They need to ask why.  However, they can’t ask questions that don’t lead them anywhere.  A child doesn’t have to question studying or education.  This isn’t a question that will make him or her grow.  If we aren’t able to separate things, we will think that all questions are good, or all of them bad. It’s not that simple.
Laziness always finds answers or excuses not to do things.  We need to establish family citizenship.  Studying and education need to be an obligation, whether our children like it or not.  The most important thing is for people to start learning, and to find what they like through this process.  Today there are many more opportunities for happiness than unhappiness.  But to tap into them we have to be competent, and dedicated to an eternal learning process.  The raising of our children is currently going in the wrong direction, so we need to turn around, and grow.

By Ines Schinazi

Perhaps what makes Generation Y’s educational experience most different from the experience of past generations is the overwhelming presence of technology in the classroom, and all the implications this brings.

While cell phones and laptops are often considered to be distractions in school, they can also be powerful learning tools, as demonstrated by UT Dallas Professor Monica Rankin in “The Twitter Experiment.”

Prof Rankin explains that she saw an opportunity to use “…the technology and equipment that students are very comfortable using already, and incorporate that into what we’re doing in the classroom to give them an alternative and a new way to learn.”

The Twitter Experiment makes us think about how technology is “flattening” education. Twitter changes traditional class dynamics, stimulating more dialogue within class, while also allowing for class information to be diffused to a global audience.

Prof Rankin describes her own Undergrad experience as consisting mostly of “…the kind of talking head at the front of the room, addressing a large group of students, and the students passively trying to absorb all that information.” She says, “There was very little interaction between the Professor and the students.”

While there are obviously many problems that come with using Twitter in class, the playing field between Professors and students is leveled, as communication between both parties is facilitated, stimulating a dialogue rather than an ongoing lecture. As Prof Rankin demonstrates, Twitter allows her to achieve a level of class participation that would otherwise be impossible in such a large class.

The “flattening” of education also transcends the classroom walls, flowing into the larger realm of society, making the information discussed in Rankin’s class, available to anyone who can access Twitter. As Cameron Quitugua, one of Prof Rankin’s students, explains, “We’re putting stuff that college students are paying for to learn, out on the Internet, and that college students are researching, out on the Internet, for other people to find. I’m really big on Wikipedia and the ability for you to find whatever you need to know on the Internet. For us to put more History and knowledge out there, through intelligent discussion, is pretty cool.”

In an exclusive interview, Prof Rankin speaks about her experiences conducting the “Twitter Experiment” as well as her thoughts on the growing intersection between Education and Technology.

Image: Professora Monica Rankin
Ines: In the video “The Twitter Experiment” you state that prior to the experiment, you weren’t really familiar with Twitter yourself. So what exactly drove you to incorporate Twitter in your class?
Prof Rankin: That’s exactly right. I had never used Twitter. I had heard about it, but I didn’t know a lot about it. What I did know, was that people could send updates through computers or by text messaging from their cell phones. I was teaching in a classroom that had limited technology already built-in for students. A lot of students would bring a laptop to class, but not all of them, and everyone brings a cell phone to class. Some professors are upset by this, and try to ban cell phones, since they see this as a distraction. But I was thinking maybe there’s a way to incorporate the technology and this equipment that students are very comfortable using already, and incorporate that into what we’re doing in the classroom to give them an alternative and a new way to learn.

Ines: Clearly, Twitter successfully encourages a great deal of student participation. From your experience, why do you think this is?
Prof Rankin: I think there are a couple of things. To be very practical about it, students found it interesting. It was different and I think that attracted their attention to start with. This is something that many of us had never seen in a classroom before, certainly not in a class of this size with 90 students. So I think just having a slightly different approach automatically peaks their interest a little bit. But further than that, I think that our use of Twitter really appeals to a lot of students who might not be comfortable in a traditional classroom discussion setting. In any typical discussion that I’ve done regardless of the class size, usually what you will have is about 10% of the class dominates the discussion. The vast majority of the class may say one or two comments, but they remain pretty quiet. Then you have another 10 % of the class who says absolutely nothing. Well I think that Twitter changes that dynamic significantly and it allows people, who’s strength might not be speaking in front of large groups of people, it allows them to have an opportunity to play to their strengths. It gives them the opportunity to incorporate things they are comfortable with into the learning environment. It changes the dynamic quite a bit. I was really pleased with what I saw happening in the classroom for the most part. I think certainly there are a lot of problems with Twitter. It wasn’t the ideal solution, but I think that with what we had to work with in the classroom, and what we had access to, it was one of the best solutions we could have found for that particular semester.

Ines: You mention how the “140 characters” limits the sorts of comments students can make, but at the same time really forces them to make a concise argument, which they often have trouble doing. However, from your perspective, do you think 140 characters risks making class discussions too superficial, limiting the ideas or topics one can explore?
Prof Rankin: I suppose there is always that concern. I’m not overly concerned about that myself. I think that the new generation, raised with all this technology, have learned to process information, in a way that us older folks don’t really understand. I think that with having a small snippet of information, a lot of people can take that small snippet, and go through a deeper internal process, of understanding it and analyzing it, and kind of picking it apart. I think that I would prefer students have access to a larger character limit. 140 is really quite limiting. I think that allowing them to form more complete thoughts with a larger character limit, would be highly beneficial. But I also think that forcing them to limit those statements to some extent is a really useful exercise. It really helps them form “to the point,” “concise,” arguments. So I’m not overly concerned about it. I didn’t see that it was a problem, especially the way that we combined Twitter with group discussions. I don’t think Twitter alone is going to be the solution, but combining it in various ways, can help get around some of those limitations.

Ines: In the video, many students seem to like the idea of not having to speak up in front of a large class. Twitter offers that comfort since they can just express their thoughts through writing.
However, do you ever worry that as technology increasingly intersects with education, students may lose the ability to convey their perspective “out loud?”
Prof Rankin: I’m not terribly worried about that. I think that instructors are going to come up with new ways, all the time, to incorporate the various modes of communication. One of the things that we did in the experiment in the classroom, is we actually did have them working in small groups where they were interacting with each other, and then based on what they were talking about in their small groups, that’s what they would “tweet.” So it wasn’t like a classroom of students, completely isolated as individuals, doing nothing but using technology, and not speaking to anyone. There was a lot of face-to-face and personal interaction going on, in their small groups. I was roaming the room the entire time, interacting with the groups as I was going around. So it was kind of a combination of all of these different methods and I think that worked really well. Students could talk to each other in the small group setting, and they could also share their thoughts with a group of 90 people, and do it fairly comfortably.

Ines: As a college educator you prepare your students to enter the workplace. Obviously, the classroom is changing. But how do you think the workplace is changing and does incorporating technology and social media in class help students as they enter the professional world?
Prof Rankin: My impression is that students are going to get far better practice at using technology and social networking than what I can provide in the classroom. I’m certainly not an expert on anything technological or anything having to do with computers or digital media. So the actual “hands on application” of using those kinds of technologies, I think I’m the last person who needs to be training people.
But I do think that what students get exposed to in the classroom are new approaches to using things like this, and new ways to combine technology and Humanities for example, that often times are considered to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Education is certainly not the only area that’s looking at innovative ways to combine these types of things, and challenge the way that people had traditionally approached these kinds of things. They’re certainly going to face those expectations when they enter the workplace, the kind of “thinking out of the box” and the “looking for alternatives.” So hopefully this exposes them to what some of the possibilities are, and how some people are trying to face those challenges.

Ines: Did you notice any differences in terms of the way female and male students use and interact with Twitter in class?

Prof Rankin: I didn’t actually pay a lot of attention to gender differences. I didn’t do as good of a job as I would have liked in tracking who was using a computer or a cell phone, and we also had a number of students who weren’t comfortable doing either, so they would just handwrite notes. I didn’t think about it early enough in the semester, to actually keep very specific statistics on that kind of information.

Ines: Since you teach History, which is a pretty traditional discipline, did you encounter a lot of resistance, in terms of other Professors or students, as you brought Twitter into class?
Prof Rankin: I wouldn’t really call it resistance on the part of students. I think some students were reluctant to participate in the public forum of Twitter, and others didn’t have the same access to the technology.
Either they didn’t have a laptop that had a wireless connection, or they didn’t have an unlimited texting service on their phone.
I think that a lot of the students who didn’t directly participate opted out of it more for practical reasons, than because they had some fundamental disagreement with what we were doing. But you know, I think others weren’t into social networking and weren’t really comfortable with it, and I think that’s fine.
The reaction I got from other Professors has been mixed. There’s a lot of Professors that have been really interested in it. A lot of my colleagues at UT Dallas have asked for more information and have tried to look at ways to see how they can incorporate similar kinds of experiments in their classrooms. I’ve talked to a number of colleagues at other Universities.
But I’ve talked to other Professors who say that they would want absolutely nothing to do with this kind of thing. That this has no place in the way they conduct their classrooms. And I think that’s fine. I think that’s one of the great things about University Education. Students get access to Professors who use a wide variety of approaches and come at their classrooms with various strategies and variety. So the Professors who are comfortable with it, will start “playing around” with it. Those who aren’t will not, and students will be better off, having those different experiences with those different professors.

Ines: From the Professor standpoint, did you find it at all chaotic or overwhelming to have to field all these Twitter comments in such a large class?
Prof Rankin: I think that it would have been more overwhelming for me, had I not had a really good Teaching Assistant. My TA Megan Malone, was a really integral part in making this successful. She helped to monitor the digital discussion, while we were in the classroom, and while things were unfolding, so that I could be going around the room, and interacting face-to-face with the students. If she hadn’t been helping me “behind the scenes” I think it would have been a very different environment, it would have been much more chaotic, and a lot more for me to handle by myself.

Ines: You make clear how positive Twitter can be in a large class. However, what about using Twitter in smaller classes? Is this something you would consider?
Prof Rankin: I would consider using it for a smaller group. I’ve given it some thought. I think a lot would depend on what we’re trying to do in the class, and what we’re trying to accomplish, and what kind of students are in that class. I’m not using it right now. But I haven’t ruled it out for smaller classes in the future.

Ines: The Twitter experiment makes us think about the ways in which education is evolving. How was your own learning experience in college, most different from the experience of your students today?

Prof Rankin: Well that was a long time ago. But when I was in college there was very little interaction, particularly in some of the traditional courses like my History courses. There was very little interaction between the Professor and the students. Aside from the traditional lecture, [there was] the kind of talking head at the front of the room, addressing a large group of students, and the students passively trying to absorb all of that information. That was the traditional approach, and that was essentially what I was exposed to as an Undergrad. Things are far different today. More often than not, Professors are trying to encourage more interaction from students, a kind of active participation from the students sitting in the classroom, recognizing that there are a lot of benefits to the learning process, as students become more engaged. I think that’s a great advance that Education has made over the last several decades, as more and more Professors are engaging those types of approaches. I think technology will help to facilitate that. Precisely what I was looking for, when I decided use Twitter in the classroom, was to be able to engage 90 students, all at the same time in 50 minutes. And I think the more technology continues to evolve, the more opportunities and options they’re going to be for educators to use technology to help do that.

By Fabiana Gabrielli e Bianca Ferreira

Lots of people talk about Generation Y’s superficiality. Researchers find that it takes Gen Y more written pages, to say less, compared to past generations. Also, it’s often stated that the time they spend on the web, robs them of a dedicated attitude to deeper issues.

They are supposedly self-centered. Egocentric. They only think about their own personal success. Yet, the experience I just lived in the past week actually says the exact opposite. Thankfully.

I was lecturing for University students, at USP, and was really impressed with the way these students seem to counter every stereotype about Generation Y. About 80 students were sitting there, excited to hear about management and leadership.

From the large amount of interaction and discussion, it was possible to see, just how hungry these students are to learn. I noticed a high intellectual level, and a strong desire for personal development.

These young students, who were around 20 years old, talked about the Kyoto protocol, macroeconomics, and touched on rather deep questions, with much ease, as if they were simply adding something to their Facebook profile.

They weren’t just Business or Economics students either. One student talked about the history of Cuba and Panama. I think everyone was curious to know his major. We asked, “Are you majoring in History?” He replied, “No, I’m Pre-Med.”

Regardless of their area of study, these young students showed diverse knowledge, that’s much broader than we often imagine. I think we have to work on stimulating this. I was extremely happy after the lecture. After all, Generation Y will be leading and representing us in the future.

As HR professionals, we left the lecture, wanting to “know more.” We wanted to be closer to them. The language we speak isn’t always the same. But being part of Generation X myself, you get the feeling that it would be extremely enriching for all of us, if we made an effort to get closer. Clearly, we’d be able to dig into more of the valuable knowledge they have to offer.

Bia Gabrielli is a director of Grupo Foco and Bianca Ferreira is a consultant of Grupo Foco

Today I come not with answers, but with questions. Lately, I’ve been hearing lots of people complaining about how Gen Y doesn’t have the same sense of respect other generations had. They don’t really respect their parents, their elders, or even their Professors.

Past generations, knew that their parents had gone through a lot of trouble to make the world better for them. Our Professors, (while, there were some crazy ones, I admit) did everything possible to make class more interesting. Our grandparents (at least my grandparents) tried to teach girls to sew, believing that this would make a positive difference in our lives. We tried to avoid these sewing lessons. Escaping, while always maintaining a visible level of affection. We didn’t want to hurt our grandparents, of course. They wanted to teach us, though we often didn’t feel their lessons were particularly useful or relevant.

In the movie, “Va, Vis, et Deviens” which I’ve already cited in another post, a mother gives up her son to another mother in Israel, because she doesn’t have the means to raise him. The boy does go live in Israel, but he never forgets his real mother. Once he graduates, he goes to find her, in Ethiopia.

Gratefulness, acknowledgment, and love, are constantly present in the mother’s attitude. She gives up her son, so that he can become someone and something in the world. The same feelings also exist in the boy. As a young man, he searches for his mother, in the middle of a refugee camp, in pain and in solitude, searching for hope. This movie moves me in various ways, and this is why I’m referring to it, yet again on the blog. The mother’s dedication and certainty that her son will return is very touching. A certain scene makes me cry, no matter how many times I watch the film.

Today, some young people feel that their parents don’t fulfill more than their basic obligations, especially if they don’t buy them the latest computer, TV, or car.

Today many parents give their children elaborate vacations, trips abroad, and stays in extravagant hotels. They hand over all the money they’ve been saving, their heart booming with pride and accomplishment. And I wonder how these kids actually receive these gifts. Actually, perhaps the adequate question is how they deal with gifts, often feeling that it’s simply part of the parental obligation.

Often, upon returning from vacation, parents greet their children with affection. They ask, “How was the trip my dear?” In return, they usually get a sentence that would barely fit on Twitter. The response being an unenthusiastic, “It was alright.” To parents’ despair, the much-needed details are not provided.

But when and why did this all change? When did acknowledgment become banal? What has changed in society? What has changed the way we raise our children so that they don’t realize that we are doing the best we possibly can?

I have two sons. Andre is the youngest, and he’s 25 years old. When he was 7, he made me laugh a lot, when he wrote me a note saying:

“Mom, know you don’t have to treat me like gold anymore, just treat me simply as your son.” I still have this note today. I’ve framed it, and plan on giving this precious note to his children one day!

Daniel is my eldest son. He’s already married, and the father of my granddaughter. I feel for him when he wants to kiss my granddaughter and she responds with, “Not now daddy, I’m busy.”

I want help in understanding when and why the world has changed. The way children notice, measure, and acknowledge, the love of their parents has changed.

My questions are: For the parents who feel that they don’t give their kids enough, does this have to do with being emotionally distant because of work? Do parents express love in the same ways as in the past? Does school have a role in discussing this topic with students? Why or why not? Is love weaker in today’s society? And has parenting become all about obligation?

If we’re able to understand these questions, though I know they’re not easy to answer, perhaps we can reflect on how businesses should deal with Gen Y’s general feeling (of course there are always exceptions), that the world is there to serve them.

Perhaps, we can prepare Gen Y for a world in which nothing is free. Even in a collaborative society, even with the Wikinomiks model, and even with the best of friends.

The feelings of gratitude, affection, love, and empathy, are all emotions that prepare us to truly be a part of this world. If this is not learned or understood, we would all be autistic. We would be a sad world of 6 billion solitary people. We would be unable to build anything as a society, or as a family. Even for our own children.

The new website “Unithrive” aims to match Harvard students in financial need, with Harvard alumni who are willing to make interest free loans to support these students in their educational pursuits.

What makes Unithrive particularly interesting is that most of this “social networking” “lending” and “borrowing” will most likely take place between different generations.

Most broke college students will probably belong to generation Y. The wealthy members of Generation X, Baby Boomers, and Veterans will help out by providing loans.

These “transactions” will probable stimulate a great deal of intergenerational interaction. It may even help establish actual relationships between parties, since borrowers are required to provide a certain number of “updates,” regarding their education.

Also, this site may be one of the first networking sites in which power dynamics have greatly shifted, and traditional hierarchal structure floats back to its roots.

On Facebook, our mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, and even grandparents, beg us to simply “friend” them. We’ve got to explain the point of blogs, and the way to tweet.

Although older generations catch on quickly, younger generations still seem to have the “upper hand,” which comes from their sharp intuitiveness.

However, a site like “Unithrive” potentially changes everything, as it gives older generations their power back. The job networking site “Linked In,” is perhaps similar in the sense that it also shifts online power structures. Older people are often more experienced, have better job positions, more work connections, and therefore more to offer than most young people on the site.

Just like in the real world, the appearance of money and job status in the online world, changes everything. It’s as if the “online cliques” that are so precisely segregated by age group, suddenly bust open, stimulating dialogue and relationships between generations.

I’ve already written about how unprepared and unqualified many Brazilian teachers are.  However, I haven’t yet spoken about how unprepared our own children are, when it comes to learning.

The 2009 June edition of the Brazilian magazine “ISTO E,” contained an article titled ““Profissão de risco: professor” (“Teachers:  A Risky Profession.”)

The fact is that many teachers have suffered aggression from their students.  Actually, 26 percent of teachers attest to having been threatened by their students, in a study conducted by “The Secretary of Education belonging to our Federal District.”  I don’t believe that this number varies a great deal in other Brazilian cities.

But why does this happen?

First off, Brazilian education hasn’t evolved very much.  Students still write in notebooks and carry binders.  They must stay glued to their seat while the teacher talks nonstop.  In rare cases, students get to work in groups, and do some “hands on” research.

Interestingly, these same students live their lives (outside of the classroom), without much capacity for concentration over an extended period of time. They are constantly doing many things at once.

I once saw a speaker who affirmed that classes had been broken down into 50 Minute segments, because of a study that proved this was the average length of a child’s concentration.   Well, this study was recently conducted again.  Guess what the average attention span was?  Seven minutes!   That’s why MTV as well as television channels geared towards kids have such short length shows.  If things are too drawn out and lengthy, they lose their consumers!

Imagine an attention span of 7 minutes.  What kind of teacher is going to be able to grasp these kids’ attention?

Also, there are other factors.  Our kids (upper middle and upper class Brazilians) have maids, and some even have drivers.  These domestic workers are the employees of the entire family, and I believe that this greatly affects children’s behavior in school.  Certain students feel that they are in the same right when it comes to their education.  I’ve even heard teachers complaining, that they couldn’t hold back certain students, because they would argue, “I pay you your salary.”

These are by no means easy problems to solve.  If in the household, teenagers and preteens, question everything, then why can’t they question school?  Why can’t they question teaching methods?  Why can’t they argue against not being able to use a cell phone in class?  If they have the capacity to concentrate on so many things at once, then why can’t they text, as they do in all other settings, except for school?

We must discuss new teaching styles and methods for our children.  We must put ourselves in their shoes.

The movie “ET” relates to this idea.  The little boy and ET get along very well, even though they come from completely different worlds.   Other people just wanted to pick ET apart, dissecting this strange creature.  But between ET and the boy, a mutual curiosity was born, as they openly accepted each other’s differences.  So why can’t we remodel our education system, using the same ET attitude and soul?

I love studying the future.  That’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.