I do not write about my professional life often. This is in part because much of it is confidential. But it's also because I do not like writing about myself. My experience will necessarily be subjective, and I much prefer to talk about objective matters. I don't think the public sphere needs one more "personal perspective."
With that said I am on the front lines of a crisis. I work with young people and have spent most of my professional career doing so. When I say "young people" I mean those between the ages of 14-21, mostly. And young men, mostly, at that. When I first got into this work nine years ago I didn't much consider it a calling. It was more of an opportunity. But today it is my duty. And I must be the bearer of bad news.
Young people are not OK. If you read that and think "This is going to be another blog about mental health that I'll read, feel slightly moved by, and move on with my life" then kindly sod off. I'm looking for people interested in action.
When I say young people are not OK I do not primarily mean mental health. That's true, but that's well-known and I don't have much to add with respect to recognizing that. I mean at a more basic level, functionally, young people are not OK. They are not ready for the realities of adult life. They are not prepared to live in a world without oversight and direction from adults.
I'm in organizational development. So much so that I developed my own job title and position, I wrote my own job description and convinced my organization of its necessity. And I've developed systems of process quality improvement. I've developed staff. I've developed programs. I've developed grant proposals and got them funded. Development is what I do, and I view implementation as the crowning goal of development. A process or idea not enacted is mere theory, and our organizations are too theory-laden as it is.
Apply this to young people. I develop programs to try to help them. I write requirements. I revise systems. I argue for change. I implement those changes when those arguments are convincing. The first step in development is discovering where you are in relation to where you want to go. Think of this like a staircase. The top is your goal. But to get there, you have to figure out how many steps it's going to take to get to the top AND get those steps in the right order.
In my work with young people over the last few years, we are increasingly down yet one more step. The goal, overall, hasn't changed all that much. But rather than starting from 4 to 5 steps down, we are starting from 8 to 10 steps down, and we are not yet at the bottom.
Let me make this practical. I've taught resume writing, to both young people and adults, for about 10 years now. I used to be able to assume everyone knew what a resume was. I cannot always do that now. I cannot assume they know how to navigate a basic word processor like Microsoft Word or even Google Docs. I cannot assume they know what constitutes professional experience.
Do you see the problem? I used to teach resume writing by giving tips about putting together building blocks that should, at a minimum, be in your head already. Now I have to help the young people build the building blocks. It's hard to explain just how exasperating it is to increasingly find every facet of knowledge or basic skill you should be able to assume people have must now itself be taught. Education of every type becomes increasingly difficult.
As another example, I recently gave a high school math teacher a copy of "What Every Sixth Grader Needs to Know" from the Core Knowledge series edited by E. D. Hirsch. Why did I give a teacher a book for several grade levels below what he was teaching? To help figure out what the existing students were missing, because it was obvious they were missing some basic mathematical concepts without which things like the study of algebra cannot proceed. In fact, I have begun consulting Hirsch's "New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy" (meant for 6th grade and below) in preparing my own history lessons for high schoolers because that is now the step on which I've found them.
In education, there is an idea called scaffolding. The idea is you scaffold around students, build supporting structures to help students grow taller just like a building needs scaffolding as you are building it up. There's nothing wrong with the idea of scaffolding, per se (the theory behind it is terrible but the practice itself can be useful). But again, it is wildly discouraging to find rather than being on the 7th or 8th story you need to go back and build scaffolds around the 5th or 6th story, then build those stories up, before you can even proceed to move higher.
But this is all a much bigger problem than students being behind in academic study. Young people are perpetually behind in all of life. It's not just that they cannot write a resume, but they don't even have the character to want to get a job.
The end result is embodied in the phrase "adulting." People my age do basic necessities like laundry and proceed to brag (or more often, complain) about it on social media heralding to the world that they are "adulting" the same way a young child heralds to the world that they are playing superhero. And this adulting, of course, is seen as a distraction from the good life of sitting down to binge-watch a series on Netflix or Disney+. It used to be that acting like a responsible adult flowed from the development of character and virtue, and entertainment was the distraction from hard but rewarding work. We've got everything reversed, and it is getting worse.
There are real-world consequences to all of this. We're going to have more diseases as dwellings that are perpetually not maintained become infested with pests. We're going to fall farther and farther behind the military technology of hostile nations like Russia and China because we both lack the drive to do great things and are too stupid to recognize why foreign policy matters anyway.
We are up against a clock. Today's perpetual adolescents will, at some point, have to live on their own. And they are woefully unprepared to do so. Once education is squandered in childhood it must be made up for in adulthood. If it is not then we're stuck with perpetual children in adult bodies. That's harmful to the individual, no doubt. But it's also harmful to society and the greater good. We cannot, and will not, survive as a nation on our current trajectory.
I started this by saying I'm looking for people interested in action. So what should we do?
First, if you know a perpetual adolescent, have an intervention. Step up and give them the uncomfortable but necessary news that they cannot live like this. If you are an adult living with a perpetual adolescent, stop enabling them. Stop enabling them to be irresponsible and unproductive.
Second, provide experience. I cannot emphasize this enough. There is no formula to building character and instilling grit. It must happen through experience. I humbly suggest the adults of young children take them camping, start out easy, but make it harder as you gain experience. Go to a local campground or state park first, and build from there. The mere experience of having to set up a tent before sundown instills more character than can be described. When you cannot camp, hike. Go cycling. Do hard things, and make them progressively harder so your child has to grow.
Third, if you are not committed to a local biblical church, do that. Why would those around you show commitment and take responsibility when you will not? Further, the community is invaluable. I know COVID has been disruptive, but work it out.
Fourth, stop debating this on social media (I say this, frankly, as a hypocrite; but it must be said so forgive me). Make your point. Some people won't agree. Ignore them and continue making your point. This isn't a debate, and we don't have time to get the theory perfect. Again, we are up against the clock. Better to take decisive action, even if some of it turns out poorly, than to do nothing as the ship sinks.
Finally, recognize that reality is your ally. God created the world this way, getting back to it is not nearly so hard as maintaining the facade.
In Christ,
Josiah
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