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Association of American Colleges and Universities, October 2000
Greater Expectations National Panel
The Ambitious Generation
America's Teenagers: Motivated But Directionless
by Barbara Schneider and David Stevenson
Yale University Press, 1999, 321 pages
Recommended to the National Panel by Katharine Oliver,
Assistant State Superintendent for the Division of Career
Technology and Adult Learning, Maryland State Department
of Education.
Summary, by Ross Miller, AAC&U
Drawing upon the results of national surveys and longitudinal studies, the authors present data that indicate that American adolescents have very high ambitions—higher than at any time in the 1970s or 80s. This significant rise in ambitions is not limited to a privileged few, but is consistent for both men and women and across racial and ethnic groups. The contrast with past generations is quite marked:
- 90 percent of today's seniors expect to attend college (up from 55 percent 40 years ago),
- 70 percent expect to work in professional jobs (up from 42 percent).
Ambitions are frequently misaligned: students fail to establish clear plans for attaining their ambitious goals. A majority of students have limited knowledge about:
- professions (television often being their sole, inadequate source),
- educational requirements (choosing colleges that lack degree programs in their intended area of study), and
- the future demand for workers in the fields of interest to them (with five to six times as many students expressing a desire to study law and medicine as will be required to meet projected needs).
Parents and students alike may fail to realize the connection between educational experiences and their work opportunities.
Even high schools filled with high achieving students and offering the most rigorous curricula may emphasize only the process of getting into college and not link it to any other kind of planning for the future. Many students have a "career goal" of going to college!
With aligned ambitions, a student is more likely to select courses, participate in co-curricular activities, and arrange for early job experiences that enhance their chances of reaching their occupational goals. The development of aligned ambitions can be fostered intentionally through the actions of parents and schools. Parents must help their children, when younger, prepare for adulthood by guiding them to:
- organize their use of time,
- engage in purposeful activities,
- gather information and make informed decisions,
- assess their own strengths and weaknesses,
- seek help when needed, and
- persevere in mastering specific skills and tasks.
As students go through school, parents should:
- know what their children are studying and what they plan to study so that prerequisites are taken,
- arrange for tutoring assistance or other academic help as necessary,
- learn what their children's social and intellectual strengths and weaknesses are,
- help them learn to use time alone constructively,
- help them find productive jobs (if they are to work) that will provide better understanding of the world of adult work,
- assist with college applications and selection and provide financial support for post-secondary education.
High schools can assist students through:
- providing more activity-based organizations in which students develop talents and skills, learning from advisors about work in particular areas of interest,
- helping students think about their college choices and encouraging them to select high school courses carefully according to what they will need for college admission and subsequent study,
- arranging work internships that expose students to careers matching their ambitions thus providing opportunities to learn about the educational and work pathways leading to those careers.
Editorial Comments:
These suggestions for action by parents and schools are certainly not radical, but rather read like a list of good practices worthy of the widest possible implementation. Considering the "swirling" patterns of attendance that are now typical of college students, efforts toward fostering aligned ambitions may help many high school graduates avoid costly missteps of wasted time and resources during their post-secondary studies. The wonderful news that adolescents have high ambitions should spur parents and educators alike to provide the requisite knowledge, experiences, and personal support that enable students to choose goals wisely and plan their paths in life thoughtfully.