Selected Text:
Shaw, H. (2013). Sticking
Points: How to get four generations working together in the 12 places they come
apart. USA, :Tyndale.
Sticking Points: How to get 4 Generations Working Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart
Introduction:
How to survive the classroom is an aspect of
teaching which we must all decipher. As
new teachers, navigating classroom management, expectations and evaluations
will be a challenging task. Student
interactions, teaching strategies and preparation, are all necessary facets of
this profession, in which will grow over time through perseverance and
experience. One area of the educational
landscape which may prove to be less straight forward is how to work together
as a whole system of learning; students, parents, fellow teachers, and
administration. One of the most
difficult tasks, through which we as new teachers must navigate, is the
expectations of those around us.
Specifically, what does our administration expect us to be doing,
balanced against, what the parents think we should be doing, what the students
think, and last but not least, what we think we should be doing. As we have
found out in the faculty of education, there is not one central way of teaching
or learning. There seems to be no magic
bullet to the transference of knowledge, skill and critical thinking. Everyone brings a different solution based on
their experiences, background, or even generationally. Understanding these generational differences
is invaluable for teachers to understand.
Knowing how to work together across generational gaps is key to
understanding one another in our schools, which leads to achieving our goals.
That’s where Hayden Shaw’s book Sticking
Points: How to get 4 Generations Working Together in the Twelve Places They
Come Apart can be helpful.
Summery:
Working in a school means working with a very large
number of people. Expectations are as
diverse as the setting. Shaw focuses on
one aspect of diversity we as future teachers must recognize; generational
diversity. Shaw’s book is not written
for teacher/educators, rather it is for anyone working with and across
generational divides. It is important
for teachers to recognize the necessity to take this in to account as, much of
our practice, and expectations are shaped by our generational influences.
Shaw begins his book up by giving an
overview of the four major generations in the workplace. There is a chapter dedicated to each of the
four generations looking specifically at their characteristics, but perhaps
most importantly, events which lead to the formation of their ideology and behavior. They are not explicitly
defined as I have attempted to do; rather, Shaw continually and gradually
defines each generation by giving examples, mindsets and characteristics often
found within each group. I have
attempted to take what I have gathered throughout the entire book in order to
give a succinct, yet brief definition, which Shaw does not attempt to do. This is a brief summary of some of the most notable
aspects of each chapter about the specific generations, and what shaped their behaviors and worldviews.
Traditionalists:
Chapter 4. Keep Calm and Carry On
This
generation includes anyone born before 1945.
Other names given to this generation include, Builders or the Great
Generation. The Great Depression played
a major role in developing this group’s economic worldview. There is a distinct focus on thriftiness,
saving, and frugal spending.
Traditionalists tend to see spending on credit as threatening to
security. Traditionalists were enormously influenced by periods of great global
conflict (both World War I and II, as well as the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima). Traditionalist can carry a strong sense of
seriousness as well as duty and honor.
Although there a very few
traditionalists left in the work place, they are important to recognize because
they are most often found in places of power (Shaw 2013, Pg. 51). Within the field of education this means we
encounter Traditionalists in our school boards and our administrations.
Baby Boomers: Chapter 5. Do Your
Own Thing
Baby
Boomers are the generation born between 1946 and 1964. The name Baby Boomer comes from the idea that
this large influx of births was the result of the end of the Second World War,
and the return to ‘normal’ life.
According to Shaw, Baby Boomers can be understood by being shaped by
four major ideas/events in their lives.
These are what Shaw describes as “Ghost Stories.” These are what Shaw
explains as “I remember where I was when...” type moments (2013, Pg. 43). These are the types of things that shape
generations. They aren’t simply singular
moments, but moments in history; ideologies of a time.
For the Baby Boomers, Shaw says the
four major ghost stories are The Boom of
Babies, Affluence, Television, and the Generation
Gap (Pg.65-69). These moments shapes
boomers to become a hard working, yet expectant generation. There was enormous economic growth during
this time period in which many Baby Boomers have found success through the rise
of the middle class. There is an
understanding within this generation that success is directly linked to hard
work. The harder one works, the more
successful one will be.
Once again, due to the age of this
group, they are most often found in places of management and power. They are our principles and our
superintendents. They still largely make
the big decisions; do the hiring, do the placements, the observations, set
policy, etc. They are still the bosses.
For now, Baby Boomers largely run our schools. For this reason it is essential for us to
understand who they are, and what they value.
Shaw does an excellent job of telling us that the Boomers are a group
who searched for meaning throughout the 60’s and 70’ and largely found it,
finally, when they settled and began setting the economy in motion as it was
through the 80’s and the 90’s.
Generation X: Chapter 6. Get Real
Generation X includes
anyone born in 1965 and 1980. This group
has often been labelled, much to their chagrin, slackers. This is the MTV and the Kurt Cobain
generation. Misunderstood would often be
how these individuals describe themselves.
Shaw describes this group as one that grew up after the exciting times
of the 60’s and 70’s and experienced, “Divorce, latch key kids, multiple
recessions, global competition, missing children on milk cartons – Gen Xers learned
to roll with the bad news and land on their feet (2013, Pg. 78).” Shaw explains that Gen Xers are a “squished”
generation, stuck between the two much larger groups – Boomers, and Millennial. They have been waiting to take over from
Boomers for a long time, but have yet to actually do so.
This group is just waiting to take
over, according to Shaw. Which is important
for us as Millennials to understand, in so much as we must recognize that the
teachers working in schools already (the ones approaching middle age,) our
co-workers, will soon be our bosses. For
Millennials, we must understand that Gen X feels as though it has been waiting
a long time to get in to leadership roles, which means they will have opinions waiting
to come out. They may do things very differently
than the Boomers have done. Our school
policies may change when the full scale turnover in administration begins. Most importantly for future teachers from the
Millennial generation, it may be wise to recognize our tendency to try and work
past Xrs and find ways to work with them.
Millennials: Chapter 7. Can We
Fix It? Yes We Can!
Millennials are the generation born
between 1981 and 2001. Most of the teacher
candidates in the Faculty of Education are Millennials. This is a group is large and emerging into
adulthood quickly. Millennials are categorized
by their desire to be creative, imaginative, resourceful, tolerant and forward
thinking. It is no question that the
eruption of technological development between the time Millennials where born,
and the current day has given Millennials a sense of unending possibility. Much like the Boomer generation was with economic
development, Millennials view technology as central and unshakable to a
fault. Millennials can be characterized as eager, but also arrogant. Shaw writes
that Boomers have described their experience with Millennials as, “...(they) come in expecting to be taken
seriously even though they have no “real world” experience (2013, Pg. 94).” This is not a glowing review of the
generation according to Shaw. This is
the generation we must understand, because it is the one to which we belong. It is the only one we can control because it
is ours.
Shaw suggests that Millennials have
been most significantly shaped by, Heavy parental
involvement, Fear of low self esteem, The consumer age, September 11, 2001, Technology
Everywhere, and what Shaw describes as Emerging
Adulthood (2013, Pg. 94-103). There is
no sense of urgency in this group, but there is a deep sense of
possibility. There is a willingness to
figure out what exactly one needs, and is able to do before committing
oneself. This can be difficult for older
generations to understand. As a
Millennial, I think it is important to be aware of our youthfulness and lack of
experience in the school system and, correspondingly, choose deliberately to
take advice and remain quiet on certain issues at certain times. But, I do believe Millennials have a lot to
offer by way of imagination, and willingness to try new things which can be
extremely valuable if harnessed.
Critique:
There are only a couple of issues worthy
of critique within Hayden Shaw’s book.
The book can tend to be written in an overly anecdotal. It is heavily based on stories, and loosely
based in fact. This is acceptable, in as
far as generational tendencies are difficult to quantify, however, it may have
been helpful to talk more directly about possible solutions to
inter-generational conflict than simply about the fact that they exist.
The second critique I have is very
similar to the first, and that is that, although he caveats the fact that much
of what goes on in the book may seem a lot like stereotyping, Shaw really does
not try to avoid the issue. Although the
information is extremely relevant and helpful, it can, at times, feel as though
he is painting the generations with such a wide brush as to miss some of the
more mundane reasons for mis-communication within any organization.
Other than these to minor concerns, I
found this book to be extremely helpful as a teacher candidate Millennial. I found the information up to date, relevant and
supportive of some of the struggles I feel I am already having within the
institutions of education. I would recommend
this book to any teacher candidate, as I believe it will help them to
understand the tendencies of those they work with, and for.
Connections to the Field of
Education:
Shaw’s basic thesis is that in order
to work together well, the four major generations must recognize the
differences between them, and do as well as they can to empathize with each
other. The most important thing we can
do to work together cross-generationally is to communicate with one
another. This stems first, from having
as much of an understanding of one another as possible. To understand what shapes generation behavior is to understand what shapes generational ideology. This is why Shaw spends so much time in his
book discussing the differences between the generations, and where they come
from. Shaw goes in to depth on certain
topics, such as ethics, communication, loyalty, etc. yet at the base of each
anecdotal analysis is the need to learn about one another, to empathize with
one another and to communicate with one another. These central themes play repeatedly
throughout the entirety of the book.
As far as the field of education is
concerned, we as teacher candidates (most of us Millennials) must learn to be willing
to give our respect to the older generations for what they have done and are
doing. This means not going in to
practicum and trying to change everything about the cooperating teachers
classroom on the second practicum block.
We as Millennials need to be willing to listen to the wisdom of the
educators who have gone before them before we give our opinions, and to ask for
advice. This does not, however, mean
that we should remain silent. We must
continue to do what we find works best in our classrooms, even if it goes
against what some of the prior generations believed about education, yet we
must learn to do this is a less aggressive and arrogant fashion. If we can find ways to do diplomatic in our
approach to change, then we will gain the respect we so deeply desire from our
predecessors and peers. This is the most
valuable thing one can take away from Shaw’s book; The knowledge of other generations
and the knowledge of one’s own. If we do
that, perhaps we will be able to work together with our Baby Boomer principles
and alongside our Gen X co-workers.
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