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New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Gen Z Is Barely Holding On to the American Dream
Elizabeth Swan is a teacher. Her dad was a teacher. Her aunt was a teacher. 'I went to school to teach during a time we were told, 'There's a teacher shortage. You will always have a job and be in high demand.' And that has simply not been true,' Swan, a 27-year-old Illinois resident, told me. She is licensed to teach middle and high school history and social studies yet has been able to find only a substitute position that pays her $32,000 a year. She's in a long-term relationship with a software engineer, and they each live with their families in the south suburbs of Chicago. Swan's American dream, she said, is to be 'debt free, unafraid of homelessness, not fearing lack of insurance. And perhaps the dream that public education remains alive, so I can have a job.' Ideally, she would like to get married and have kids, but she feels she needs to move out on her own before that happens, which right now feels impossible. 'Even the worst place is still going to be, like, $1,300 for a one-bedroom. It feels almost insane,' she said. Swan wants to be able to provide things like summer camp for her future kids and to stay solvent even if someone has a major medical issue or some other unavoidable blip. Over the past few weeks I have read almost 200 reader responses to my prompt to members of Gen Z about what they're thinking about their futures. I asked them about how they saw their career prospects, the future of homeownership, what they thought about family formation and what retirement could look like. I wanted to talk to young people in this moment because so much seems in flux. I wondered: Do they embrace the earlier vision — house, steady job, kids, the white picket fence of it all — or do they want to tear it all down and go full YOLO nihilist? While I can't claim the responses to my call-out are a gold standard, nationally representative study, they offered a good deal of situational, gender and geographic diversity. I followed up over the phone with a dozen respondents — the ones who seemed especially thoughtful, and whose stories echoed major trends that I picked up in the responses, which are backed up by economic data. While they might be remaking the dream around the edges — for example, thinking about buying property with friends instead of with a spouse — the Gen Z respondents I spoke to still wanted most of the old dream (get married, buy a house, have kids — not necessarily in that order); they just didn't think they could achieve it. Almost none of them thought they would be better off than their parents, even if they described themselves as coming from generational poverty. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Learning To Learn At Your Own Pace
In training In her memoir, The Empathy Diaries, Sherry Turkle writes about her third-grade teacher thought that all children should be taught Shakespeare, and when the students encountered a reference to sex, the teacher would say, "'You'll understand later; you don't need to understand all of Shakespeare now.'" Turkle comments, "When I consider it, I think that permission not to understand was its greatest gift." It was a lesson she carried into graduate school, and since Turkle is now a professor of social studies and a licensed clinical psychologist, it was a lesson that had great merit. And perhaps to the rest of us. So often, we encounter new ideas when engaged in wrestling with new activities and projects. We feel overwhelmed and may be tempted to abandon this new venture. Yet, it may be wise to take a step back and reflect that what we do not know immediately—and certainly cannot master—may become accessible in time. Anyone learning a new skill—be it for professional development or personal enrichment—needs to understand that mastery is elusive and requires diligence. We know this, of course, but too often, we entwine our ego in our quest to learn, shortening ourselves to the experience of genuinely learning. Turkle's third-grade teacher's lasting lesson is all in good time. Akin to this notion is learning to go with the flow. So often, you need to jump into the project in midstream, not at the beginning. And so you may drift for a bit, moving with the current but not precisely sure of the direction you are headed in. So, to avoid being washed away, you look for familiarity—something recognizable that you can apply to where you are at any given moment. For example, in music, learning to play in an ensemble requires reading music and counting the beats. You can get away with playing things your way if you are a soloist. Not so playing with others. You must join in, keep time, and hit the right notes; otherwise, your misplaying stops the music. The resultant looks – even smirks from fellow musicians – remind you that you must slip into the flow or get swept away. But at the moment, the fear of not fitting in—of not doing your job—can be paralytic if you let it. The challenge is to remind yourself of your skills and apply them best. Mastery will not come overnight, but going with the flow can. Trust yourself. Remembering your initial limitations when learning can help you educate those you manage more adeptly. Seeing them struggle, perhaps not with the same issues you did, but struggle nonetheless, should spark empathy. You can feel their pain and help them regain a sense of equilibrium by exerting some compassion. Reassure them that their difficulties are part of the learning process. This approach is especially helpful for new employees whose sense of flow is oppositional – they feel that they are gulping from a firehose. There is no single learning methodology. It is up to individuals—with the guidance of others—to point the way.
