the problem with youth!
As a high school teacher, my students often tell me that I simply don’t understand what it is like to be a student in the 21stC! That the unceasing strain of social media, emails and school work is incomparable to previous decades, and thus, I must sympathise with their plight.
Yeah, nah!
But fortunately, they have a teacher who looks far into the distant past to find examples of exactly what they complain about. It is true that adults have been complaining about youth for millennia. Now I don’t wish to add fuel to their fire and encourage some sort of millennial revolution. But I do want them to see that their complains are not unique. Perhaps there is something about that awkward transition from teenager to adult, an awkwardness that binds millennia of youth to the same complaint.
In the history classroom, I always encourage my students to find the similarities between the people of the past and ourselves. What human experiences do we share? What successes and failures can we identify as our own successes and failures? Teaching empathy is not possible, but encouraging students to find the humanity in the pages of the textbook, or the words in the primary sources goes a long way to demonstrating that the essence of humanity has not changed, despite the vast time difference.
So back to my students who think that I don’t understand. This year, I will commence my senior history classes with a close reading of a BBC article: ‘People have always whinged about young adults, here’s proof!” The author has gathered a range of complaints against youth dating for the 4th CBCE to the present day. Lo and behold, there is a consistent theme! But does that tell us about the unbridled passion of youth or the simpering judgments of adults? This years, I am going to ask my classes to lead a discussion about the content in the article. If they think no one in previous decades understands what it is like to be young, then how do they account for the millennia of complaints against youth? For those who complain about the youth were once young themselves and the very target of the criticisms. What lesson can we learn about humanity and the shared human experience across millennia?
If you are a high school, history teacher, there is an additional activity here:
Provide the quotations and refences WITHOUT the dates to each student. Ask them to chronologically order the quotations by using hints in the quote and in the reference. This requires them to look for clues in language, grammar and punctuation to see if they can identify the changing nature of language and expression.
I’d love to know how you go with the activity and what comments your students share regarding the content.
Go forth and conquer!
