This is the first I have chosen to read about specific generalities associated with generations. I have been a career educator and have watched numerous groups come and go. I'm not usually the person who likes to get caught up in reading student records - so I can infrom my strategies according the the descriptions other teachers create regarding my students. I like to get a feel for students as I encounter them and then to see if I need to fill in any gaps if my instruction seems to be falling on deaf ears. I often feel the same way about the generalities attributed to the "Gen's." I think we get caught up creating paradigms based in similarities instead of appreciating each individual student. In the land of social media and the "Boomers" banter, I see how the stereotypes aren't incredibly helpful in building bridges. While I see and appreciate the historical events and the typical reactions individuals have to them, I get a bit concerned by overgeneralizing that creates some one-size fits all approaches. That being said, I have taught a community college class with my 87 year old scholar interacting with their 16 year old peers and wouldn't trade these interactions for the world. While I find encouraging our current shift toward making learning more interactive, engaging, and personally fulfilling, I doubt any single generation would not have benefitted from these approaches if they had been avaialble, and I believe that great teachers have always gone out of their way to make intentional connections between curricular content and students. I also argue that the remnants of what would likely be descirbed as the Silent Generation and the Boomers continues to plague attempts to modernize and jetison some very traditional measures that are used to define learning.
