Giving Kids Some Autonomy Has Surprising Results

The New York Times ^ | Jan. 2, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET | Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In a polarized nation, one point of agreement deserves more attention: Young adults say they feel woefully unprepared for life in the work force, and employers say they’re right.

In a survey by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation of more than 4,000 members of Gen Z, 49 percent of respondents said they did not feel prepared for the future. Employers complain that young hires lack initiative, communication skills, problem-solving abilities and resilience.

There’s a reason the system isn’t serving people well, and it goes beyond the usual culprits of social media and Covid. Many recent graduates aren’t able to set targets, take initiative, figure things out and deal with setbacks — because in school and at home they were too rarely afforded any agency.

Giving kids agency doesn’t mean letting them do whatever they want. It doesn’t mean lowering expectations, turning education into entertainment or allowing children to choose their own adventure. It means requiring them to identify and pursue some of their own goals, helping them build strategies to reach those goals, assessing their progress and guiding them to course-correct when they fall short.

This approach works because it teaches kids strategies they’ll need to succeed in work and life — and keeps them invested, too. But a survey of over 66,000 young people that we conducted with the Brookings Institution and the education nonprofit Transcend showed that very few middle and high school students regularly have the opportunity to work this way. Only 33 percent of 10th graders report that they get to develop their own ideas in school. The result? In third grade, 74 percent of kids say they love school. By 10th grade, it’s 26 percent. School feels like prison, many teenagers told us over three years of research. The more time they spend...

[zeestephen]

"Recent graduates feel unprepared for the future..."

If USA parents are depending on public school unions and tenured professors to prepare our children for the future, the USA is doomed!

[MayflowerMadam]

I also despised school, except Music and English. Had to get good grades in everything, though, for my Regents Diploma. Still... hated it.

[Jolla]

Retired about 5 years ago, I get a surprising number of calls from placement firms wanting to hire us boomers again.

[Reily]

And yet they produced some of the greatest minds of the 19th & early 20th century! They must have done something right!

Differences between their implementation then & Implementation now:

They had class discipline & something to teach.
In the modern US copy of the system, we have no class discipline and nothing to teach!

[goodnesswins]

Do not click in them, then.

[redfreedom]

I was 10 when I drove my first full size tractor. At 16 I hired on as an out of state grain truck driver, with no drivers license. In my mid 20’s I was driving big rig truck hauling dozers and excavators with no brakes or proper lights at night. I learned at an early age to take risks.

A kid today is simply afraid to take the simplest risk. Who knows, they might see their own shadow and exhaust themselves to death trying to run away from it before it kills them.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I got the best job of my entire life after I retired. Worked at it for five years until I started having health issues. I would have kept working, but I just physically was not able to. Been retired for a year now. I hate it.

[Alberta's Child]

This is not a school problem. It is a parenting problem.

When the first of my friends began raising kids in the 1990s, he told me one of the things he found most astonishing (and disappointing) was how much the parents of his children's friends micromanaged their lives.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

And yet they produced some of the greatest minds of the 19th & early 20th century! They must have done something right!

That's because they were the only game in town.

There are lots of other ways to learn besides in a military/prison-preparatory system.

The number of home schooled kids who excel in college proves that.

Some of the most successful people nowadays don't even bother with "higher education" that is just the Prussian system deja vu all over again.

[Myrddin]

In a survey by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation of more than 4,000 members of Gen Z, 49 percent of respondents said they did not feel prepared for the future. Employers complain that young hires lack initiative, communication skills, problem-solving abilities and resilience.

I found all of the missing attributes on the way to Eagle Scout. Too bad the BSA was allowed to be shredded by gay activists and perverted leaders.

[cgbg]

Most of the mass media is enemy occupied territory.

Know your enemy.

[Myrddin]

Part of family responsibilities for me included cutting 90 gallons of ice plant off the sidewalks each week, mowing the lawns, doing the dishes after dinner, sweeping the pool as necessary, repairing problems around the house when my dad was deployed.

[SaveFerris]

WINNER 🏆🏆🏆

[MayflowerMadam]

“repairing problems around the house when my dad was deployed.”

I’ll bet you wish you’d had YouTube back then!!

[T.B. Yoits]

[Myrddin]

My first disappointment in kindergarten was when the teacher instructed one of the students to show the location of the "lavatory". I was mentally primed to see a "laboratory" with glassware, bunsen burners. How disappointing to have misheard the instruction. New vocabulary word for the day "bathroom" == "lavatory" in teacher speak. C'est la vie!

[lastchance]

It could also be the result of helicopter parenting.

[Reily]

People are capable of learning even with a “Socratic\Aristotelian-Walk-Around-the-Garden-Method”. That works very well if you have the right people. People who want to be there. In the example you site homeschoolers are self-selected (parent selected); self-selected toward a bias of wanting to learn and learn at a higher level. The discipline needed to learn is there also. It’s provided by their parents even if it’s not as obvious as your description implies. If the parents applied the same style discipline that occurs in public schools the results would be no better.

It’s an apples and oranges type of comparison only similar at a superficial level, that is both sets of “students” involve children. That’s where the similarity ends.

[lastchance]

Don’t forget dear old Thomas Dewey.

[lastchance]

It is an opinion piece. So take it on its own merits.