Originally written to be part of my internship report
As a requirement to opt to the Bachelors Degree in Modern Languages in the University of Los Andes
“I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message”
Steve Irwin
Education is considered to be one of the most important pillars in the development of an individual within a society.Some authors argue that education, indeed, is vital in the first stages of childhood. In this sense, Loveless (n.d) asserts that children enrolled in early school programs usually tend to have less behavioral issues as well as finishing highschool and pursuing a higher degree diploma (para. 5). With this, one could claim that education, above all, the educational system plays a fundamental role in many aspects of the formation of individuals. Similarly, Loveless argues that one of the most prominent benefits of the education system in individuals is the development of interpersonal and social skills. (para. 3). In this sense, the benefits of education could be taken as an example of the impact it has not only on his childhood but also on the course of a person's life.
Thus, the education of an individual is also important in other aspects besides his personal development. At the collective level, the education system is affected and has an impact, as well, on society and the economy of that society. Bharat Kumar (n.d), explains that the benefits that educational systems bring to society are innumerable. Within its broader objective, it argues that education seeks to complete the process of implementing the values and rules that society requires in its individuals. Moreover, he argues that at some point schools complement the knowledge imparted by the family from the early stages of the infant's life. “The school devotes much, of its time and energy to the matter such as co-operation, good citizenship, doing one’s duty and upholding the law.” (para. 3). However, this does not only extend to these aspects. Kumar (n.d), declares that among other things, the educational system also teaches social identity as well as confers status and "class" within the social organization since it is organized according to the type of education that an individual has had.
Similarly, as Nobel Prize winner T.W Schultz states, education rather than a disbursement is an investment. (as cited in Patrinos, 2016, para. 7). Since, as Harry Patrinos (2016) explains, investing in the education of young people would report profits at an economic level since it would be invested in the human capital of future generations that will be part of the new labor generation. Nonetheless, the price of education and its accessibility has an important aspect in this equation due to the price of education in many countries has increased over the years, the United States being the best known for its exorbitant educational costs, especially in higher education. Ripley (2018), explains that the United States spends on college more than almost any other developed country, “including the contributions of individual families and the government (in the form of student loans, grants, and other assistance), Americans spend about $30,000 per student a year—nearly twice as much as the average developed country.” (para.4). For this reason, throughout the decades in the United States, has emerged a remarkable contrast in people's perspective towards higher education, especially the importance of continuing studies beyond high school to obtain a better future. In this sense, this dilemma of perspectives highlights the vision of the Baby Boom generation and Millennials (Generation Y) who stand out for their varied opinions regarding the feasibility and need for higher education.
With this, the purpose of this paper is to explore the economic and social context of each generation taking special focus on university higher education to finally have a deeper knowledge about the role education plays according to generations and what this could mean for the evolution of educational systems for future generations.
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Generation labels. Baby Boomers: an insight
First, it would be necessary to define what is meant by generational labels or cohorts. Story (2014) defines this term as a group of people born in a period of time that share certain characteristics or behaviors and beliefs that, taken together, are different from other groups (para. 5-6). Moreover, Kakasa (2019) explains that these labels began from the generation that lived during World War II, which was named the Silent Generation. After that time, another one of much more prosperity began in which there was a notable increase in the birth rate. This generation would be called “Baby Boom.” With this, it could be said that Baby Boomers or people belonging to this generation comprise people born between 1944 and 1964 although it would be important to emphasize that these criteria are not strict since there is not an exact rule to define the end of one generation and the beginning of another. Thus, in terms of characteristics of such a large group, it is quite controversial to delimit the general thought or features due to the fact that these criteria may not describe every individual belonging to this generational cohort. However, the events and bakground of importance could be mentioned in order to seek to have a more accurate perspective of this generation.
A relevant important factor on the social level would be the activist character of this generation such as the hippie movement which constituted an opposition to the materialistic values of the dominant middle class of the time (Britannica.com, 2020). As a fact, this movement was originated in the colleges as a form of merely social protest against the mainstrain consumerist culture. Nevertheless, consumerism was common due to the privileged economic situation the US was experiencing in the momento this meaning, Baby Boomers were considered a richer generation compared to other generations.
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London in November 1967. (Photo by Rolls Press via Getty Images) |
With this, it could be posible to debate that the context of a generation has a considerable impact on the perspective they have on many aspects of life. In this form, education being an important pillar in life, could not be exempt from this influence. Thus according to Census data (as cited in Ness 2013) only 26, 8 of the Baby Boomers obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher. However, taking other data into account, this information would provide a clearer approach as to what these statistics would mean for the general perspective of this generation about the importance of higher education. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (2012) points that Baby Boomers with Bachelor's degrees or high were estimated at 84% (men) and 71% (women) employed from the age of 18 to 46 years. In addition, BLS explains that individuals with university degrees tended to have a 2.9% increase in their income annually (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019, para. 1). Futhermore, the Barron’s website (2019) explains that in 1990, the Baby Boom generation held 21% of the country's wealth (para. 3). Nowadays, it is also argued that this generation currently holds 57% of the nation's wealth, which represents a high percentage compared to later generations (para. 5).
All this established, this information in conjunction could point to a fairly positive perspective regarding the importance and vital aspect of higher education for a better future. However, there is no general consensus on the perception of education for this generation other than the interpretation of the data. In other words, this data could lead us to interpret the view Baby Boomers have on education as an achievable step to have a more prosperous career.
Millennials, underemployment and student loans: Is it worth it to keep educating us?
In contrast to the clear perspective that exists regarding where generations begin and where they end, there is no general consensus on the years in which the Y or Millennial generation ends and the next one begins. On the one hand, authors as Howe and Strauss in their book Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069 (1991) indicate that Millennial generation starts in the year 1982 and ends in the year 2004. While on the other hand, Dimock (2019) considers that individuals born between 1981 and 1996 belong to generation Y. For the purpose of this paper, this perspective will be taken into consideration over the one indicated by Howe and Strauss since, in constrast, Dimock uses recent and considerable events to highlight an important point in the history of society that could differenciate the point of view of Millennials and their subsequent, generation Z.
With this, “Millennial” generation is considered as a optimist generation, raised with the “follow your dreams” vision (Rouse, 2019, para. 2) despite the fact of being considered a generation that will be less economically fluid than the previous ones. In addition in the technological environment, Millennials grew up with computers which makes them more familiar with interfaces and new technologies. Thus, Rouse describes Millennials as comfortable with social life on the Internet (para. 7). This added to its optimism is evidenced in the aptitude that this generation has for self-promotion, especially in social networks. Also, Rouse argues that these traits result in unreal expectations when entering adulthood and the labor field. This is reflected in the high rate of underemployment of this generation. As Rouse explains, “[Millennials] find themselves employed in unrelated fields or underemployed and job hopping more frequently than previous generations” (2019, para. 3).” In fact, in contrast to this optimism, this generation faces a strong challenge in the workplace. Dimock (2019) states that Millennials bear the consequences of the economic recession to such an extent that this is the factor that has adjusted their decisions, especially in the United States (para. 10). In this regard, Stahl (2016) in his article states that in 2013 in the United States, 41% of Millennials reported being employed in jobs that required less or no qualification (university degree) although these figures have been increasing to such point of reaching a percentage of 51% (para. 2). In addition, Lutz (2017) also states that this employment problem in this generation is little treated by the public, partly due to the shame on the part of the individual of not being fulfilling a job at their educational level and since the attention towards Employee versus unemployed problem keeps being more relevant making the issue less important because in the end, the individual is still employed (para. 2).
Similarly, this employment issue has as consequence various aspects such as in medical insurance, real estate acquisition and payment of student loans. This is reflected in an article by The Guardian (2016) in which the 56.5% generation of Millennials in 2014 were considered working class (para. 5). Thus, he also states that this happens in the case of young adults of this generation because they embark on university studies acquiring student loans and upon graduation they are caught in debt.
“I’m definitely scared, mostly because I’m paying so much for myself and for my student loans, so I can’t put that money into a nest egg,” she said. “How will I ever be able to put down money for a house? How will I be able to afford a wedding?” (The Guardian, 2016, para. 11)
Hoffower (2018), explains that, in fact, the life of this generation is more expensive than previous generations because the cost of housing. It is up to 39% more expensive than it would have cost previous generations to buy a house in the United States in addition to general rental costs that have increased up to 46% compared to 1960 (para. 13-17). Despite these significant problems in the lives of individuals, educational costs have taken center stage in conversations about the general discontent of Millennials. The StudentLoanReview website explains that the cost of the semester in a university has doubled since the time of previous generations such as Baby Boomers (para.3). Some authors, such as Hoffower, claim that the costs of higher education increased 129% based on the cost of an undergraduate degree in a private school (para. 22). In fact, the Investopedia website estimates that in 2019 the total debt of a 1.41 trillion dollars which represents a progressive increase compared to previous years (para. 4). As a point of comparison, in previous generations an estimated 43% of Americans took student credits while currently about 54% of students need student credits to be able to finish their studies.
Although the situation facing Millennials economically is more complicated than their predecessors, they tend to be a more educated generation. A study conducted by Bialik and Fry (2019) states that in the Y or Millennials generation, 39% have a Bachelor Degree or higher compared to the Silent Generation (15%) or the X generation (29%). Hence, as the demography of this generation that has studied university is wider, the perspective on the importance and future of higher education is more diverse. On the one hand, authors such as Selingo (2016), many factors such as lack of information or education costs cause many students to abandon their studies which could lead to less educated generations. In his words, this could be solved with more exposure to the different work options so that the young person has opportunities to know the field beforehand before deciding what to study (para.13).
On the other spectrum of perspective, other studies indicate that the increasingly expensive cost of university education might be worth it. Dowling & Yahnke (n.d) conclude that according to the study of Bialik and Fry (2019) the payoff of a person with a university degree is much higher than that of a person with highschool diploma. Likewise, statistics show that the average salary of a university graduate in 2018 was valued at $ 105,000 annually in contrast to the average $ 49,000 annually earned by an individual with no higher education degree. With all this, pointing out a fixed perspective on higher education is complex since although the income of a university graduate is greater than that of a high school graduate, student credit and underemployment rate weigh on the arguments of those who point that maybe higher education and its costs need a reform to better adjust to current times.
Gen Z: Where is higher education heading? Final thoughts
At present, the role of the new generation is beginning to take on more importance in the field of higher education since the individuals of this generation are entering the college. Due to this, there is a divided perspective on what path this generation will take when starting this new stage. Although many young people are beginning college, it is considered that the Z generation has a clear memory of the examples provided by the Millennials. In this sense, Craig (2019) states that the university's affordability crisis, student loans and the underemployment problem that the previous generation has experienced has greatly adjusted the perspective of many on taking “Faster and cheaper pathways” (para. 5) in order to obtain a better opportunity in working life. Similarly, Jenkins (n.d) agrees with these reasons and adds another highly important “Sixty-one percent of Generation Z who are still in high school and 43 percent of Generation Z who are in college say they would rather be entrepreneurs than employees when they graduate” (para. 23). Therefore, all these factors could mean a significant decrease in university attendance however despite this, many authors point out that the Z generation, like its predecessor, consider education as a fundamental element in the formation of their goals. Meadows (2019) asserts that 80% generation Z’s young adults recognize the value of higher education against 20% who claims that it has no value or influence (para. 3). With this, we could infer that despite the obstacles, the Z generation is interested in continuing their education beyond high school. Thus with the evolution of education and technology, new alternatives have emerged to make education a little more accessible for new students, among them, the most prominent is online education. Etherington (2018), explains that online education is turning higher education into more affordable since among its benefits, it allows the student to eliminate certain costs such as housing or transportation, in addition to having the possibility of obtaining prestigious degrees at lower prices compared to the traditional education. This allows many students to continue to the next stage in their training.
With all this described, we could finally understand that with the changing times, the necessities, possibilities and responsibilities of individuals have slowly mutated to what they are today. In this sense, previous generations such as Baby Boomers firmly believed in education as the only means of having a better future and, in fact, statistics show that they were mostly right. However, in later generations such as the Millennial, raised in many cases by the Baby Boomers, the dream of higher education was even more alive but at a cost that was progressively escalating and that in addition to causing them debts, having a different economic situation In previous generations, they were faced with completely different challenges in the workplace. To conclude, higher education has also had to evolve to better fit these new dynamics along with a generation increasingly interested in learning more and changing forecasts. beyond affirming, we can only conjecture that it will happen in the future of higher education, however, it is possible to visualize how traditional education will be adjusted more to the needs of today in order to continue to remain valid in the dream of future generations.
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