More on Millennials’ Mini-Minds

George Rebane

The private sector is running into a problem marketing products and services to the millennials, specifically those in the most populous 24-27 age bracket.  They know so little and have been sheltered and/or diverted from the normal course of ‘adulting’.  An example of this problem is the one Scotts Miracle-Gro is having selling its plant growth products to these young adults getting started in their first homes.  Let’s make that real easy – these simple people don’t even know that it takes sunlight to grow plants, and that puts companies like Scotts into a quandary.  How do you tell these self-designated geniuses that they’re dumber than doorknobs and still get them to spring for your product.

This newly discovered deficit in the millennials is putting a companies into a bind attempting to revamp both products and advertisements so that they can be understood.  That this is a first in the annals of marketing and merchandizing is explained by Ellen Byron in the 10oct17 WSJ who notes (here) that “This age bracket, bigger than any other, is pushing companies to revamp marketing and products, including a lot of remedial education.”  Moreover –

Companies looking to grab a piece of that business, however, have run into a problem. This generation, with its over-scheduled childhoods, tech-dependent lifestyles and delayed adulthood, is radically different from previous ones. They’re so different, in fact, that companies are developing new products, overhauling marketing and launching educational programs—all with the goal of luring the archetypal 26-year-old.

Note here that we’re talking about the aggregate behaviors and practical knowledge that typify the 93 million Americans born between 1980 and 2000.  These are the victims of our educational system and progressive parenting.  Of course, there are the inevitable outliers (on the upper side) in whom we can still put our hopes.  The rest, … I dunno, maybe guaranteed national income?

Comments

[rl crabb]

I don't know, George. The crop of "millies" in Nevada County seem to have a pretty good grasp of agriculture, although I doubt if many of them are using Miracle-Gro. (Not organic, dude!)

[George Rebane]

rlcrabb 703am - Good point Bob. I assume that you are referring to the horticultural talents expended on our county's celebrated cash crop. The remainder of agriculture contributes less than 3% to the county's annual domestic product.

[Paul Emery]

Guaranteed national income George ? That was Nixon's idea.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 954pm - Indeed, and several other economists and social philosophers before him; and also much discussed in these pages - e.g.
http://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2015/05/guaranteed-national-income-guaranteed.html

[Robert Cross]

George, how does technology and social media fit into your 'dumb as a doorknob' scenario? Today's young people seem to be more interested in tweets, likes, and 15 minutes of YouTube fame than books and learning. Children between 5 & 16 spend over 6 1/2 hours a day in front of a screen, more than double what is was 20 years ago. At one time young people wanted to grow up to be doctors, police officers, teachers, firemen; to serve their fellow humans, but now the number one aspiration is to be a celebrity; a mostly selfish brainless talentless occupation. Do you think the relentless marketing of electronics and social media has played a role in the dumbing down of our nation's young people? Why are they more interested in keeping up with the Kardashians than physics and math, and as that seems to be the case, who is to blame for that parents, Madison Ave., MTV, left-wing econuts, wonder bread?

[George Rebane]

RobertC 948am - Great questions. My own experiences include being a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, teacher, and mentor. I belong to the school that interprets the aggregate intellectual deficits of our younger generations as being the natural result of a grand cultural shift that began approximately with the launch of the Great Society which included a radical change of direction in our public school systems. Astute observers over a wide spectrum of ideologies agree that we are now in the 'post-intellectual' age in America that is daily abetted by technology and the various flavors of social media.

For example, compare the writings of academics such as (left-leaning) Donald Wood - 'Post-Intellectualism and the Decline of Democracy' - and from (right-leaning) Allan Bloom - 'The Closing of the American Mind' - as typical of the many published essays analyzing the rise of "dumbth" (per Steve Allen) in our country. Stark and readily available evidence of all this is that our liberal neighbors (especially at the grass roots level) know nothing of this, or if they have heard of it, they then vehemently deny it as one more element of the great rightwing conspiracy.

And today one can most certainly add the parents pummeled into political correctness by the educational system, the media, and line-toeing government bureaucracies. We must recall that the cultural rot is already into its third generation. The Great Divide also has an intellectual dimension, smarter people of all political hues don't tend to mix with the less read; not much to talk about unless you're pandering for their votes.

[Robert Cross]

What about the marketing side of the equation? To what degree is marketing and sales influencing the young? The tobacco companies have been found to purposely aim marketing toward young people below the smoking age peddling a "smoking is cool" image. Ronald McDonald aims at elementary school children in efforts to get them to eat the unhealthy garbage they sell. You are what you eat; garbage in garbage out, not to mention obesity. I think Madison Ave. and Wall St. have more to do with the problem than left-leaning social movements from almost a century ago.

[George Rebane]

RobertC 1219pm - Yes, there you have it Mr Cross - capitalism vs socialism. Capitalism games the system by enticing voluntary behaviors, while socialism heavy-handedly mandates required behaviors under promise of punishment while funding its enforcement agencies with other people's (mostly those of the punished) monies. History has already judged these two competing systems, that's why it's important today not to teach history to our young.

[Paul Emery]

I'm still recovering from the immoral doctrine of Manifest Destiny that was pounded into my head when I was a kid.

[Todd Juvinall]

Oh my! Paul Emery had something pounded into his head!

[George Rebane]

PaulE 158pm - What was more immoral about Manifest Destiny than the centuries of warfare between the indigenous tribes which kept them from advancing one iota in the scheme of humans inhabiting the earth? I submit they were not as capable as their ingenious and courageous forebears who arrived 12K years before them. Laggard cultures always pay a great price for their deficiencies when encountering more advanced and vibrant cultures. Would you desire that Homo Sapiens had deported themselves in any other way over the millennia? (Consider your hot button to have been pushed.)

[Robert Cross]

George: I think another aspect of the capitalism vs. Other (there are other ways than pure socialism like the hybrids that exist in Scandinavia and seem to produce excellent results) that relates to education is the drive on the part of capitalists to privatize education creating an education for profit system instead of the free public education model the founders envisioned. The drive to privatize for the last several decades has been focused on corporate created standardized testing (which most folks trained in education often disagree with) that produces questionable results that have been used to bash teachers and the education system. Both of these function to demean and degrade public perceptions of public education to make the proposition of privately run 'public' education more palatable to the public,

It seems that in countries where teachers are valued the outcomes are far better than here. Numerous studies have concluded that parental attitude toward education is a key factor in student achievement. Here, you have corporate interests telling parents that the education system doesn't work and teachers are worthless which is, in turn, passed on to their children. The children, in return, see no value in an education and spend their time texting, tweeting, listening to their personal music list with earbuds firmly in place, and trying to figure out what outrageous thing they can do to get on YouTube. Thus you have the dumbing down of America.. not by progressive ideology but corporate greed.

[George Rebane]

RobertC 518pm - To become a teacher in countries that value education requires high academic performance and demonstrated preparation in the subjects to be taught. That requirement has long since disappeared from America's public schools in which the aggregate of teachers come from the bottom academic quartile still having to work hard to get jobs of last resort. And capitalists do nothing to integrate progressive politically correct teaching methods, which clearly don't work, into the classrooms.

And you seem to have a nuanced view of socialism, but one-size-fits-all capitalism. In case you haven't heard, K-12 education is not a profit making venture as the P/L statements of private schools attest - therefore, no greedy capitalist seeks to bend the pick in that market. But it is an industry attractive to the marginally capable who would not make much headway at companies in competitive industries.

Finally, no one educates and trains better than the US military in all of its branches. And these programs are based solidly on using qualified teachers, excellent educational materials, and extremely standardized testing for both promotion and certification of skills.

[Paul Emery]

CAn you show me the Christian justification for genocide against weaker peoples and taking their land and destroying their homes and belongings? Are we not a nation based on Christian Judaeo values?

[Todd Juvinall]

OK Paul Emery. As a white man with privilege, I suggest you show us all how you will act out your contrition to the "genocide" your forebearers foisted on the native people. Then we will see what it means to be wonderful.

[Gregory]

George, RobertC...

Some words of a math professor I know ...

"The head math guy for Smarter Balanced was also the most influential [hired as the chairman] of the 3 leaders for mathematics of the CCSS-Math and an important member of Alan Schoenfeld's ridiculous MARS Balanced Assessments (a forerunner for Smarter Balanced) and the head math guy for the ridiculous New Standards Reference Standards and associated Exams (another forerunner for Smarter Balanced) and an important math guy for California's (most ridiculous of all) CLAS fiasco (another forerunner for Smarter Balanced). How many times are we going to bet that the Instant Replay will come out differently this time?"

The "mathematics educator" he was referring to is Phil Daro, who as a bright eyed freshman at UC Berkeley thought he was going to be a PhD particle physicist, but physics was hard. So he changed to being a math major. But mathematics was hard so to get a degree, he changed majors to English.

This is the guy who has been directing math education in California since the 1992 Mathematics Frameworks for California Public School, which he directed. It took a decade to mostly move our schools away from the Daro vision only to have him hired (with Bill Gates' money) to do to the whole country what he did to California 20 years ago.

Bravo!

No, it wasn't capitalism that drove him to drive Math Education off the tracks so relentlessly... it was a vision of progressive education, Romantics (with a capital R) all, just wanting to make the world better.

The good news is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (the NCTM) whose 1989 Standards were the roadmap Daro was following is now hemorrhaging memberships and cutting their budget. The NCTM way is at the heart of the CCSS-M "Standards for Mathematical Practice" that the math teacher at Ghidotti High School thought was so wonderful that they chose the "CPM Geometry" that followed it so diligently.
http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Practice/

It is also my understanding that the math teacher at Ghidotti who chose CPM (the wretchedly misnamed College Preparatory Mathematics from Davis, CA) also doesn't have a Bachelors or better in Math, or in any math based subject.

[Paul Emery]

At the fire meeting

[Gregory]

" Are we not a nation based on Christian Judaeo values?"
PE 610

"Christian Judaeo" values?

Were you trying for the term "Judeo-Christian", Paul? Nice try at using words you usually don't use. Stretch that vocabulary!

[Paul Emery]

Apparently Gregory you are incapable of respond to the question at hand so your only response is to question my grammar. Pretty pathetic.

[Bill Tozer]

Dr Rebane @ 4:39 in response to Paul Eeeeeee!, penned:

“Laggard cultures always pay a great price for their deficiencies when encountering more advanced and vibrant cultures. Would you desire that Homo Sapiens had deported themselves in any other way over the millennia?”

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1180031818797520/?type=3&theater

Get over it Paul. I did not hear nary a peep from you about the “genocide against weaker peoples and taking their land and destroying their homes and belongings” as you were shamelessly promoting the White Man’s Celtic Festival and encouraging people to attend. The Celtic Festival....you know, that gathering of the White Privileged celebrating the culture of White Europeans of the Judaea-Christian tradition that participated in the genocide of the local Native American tribes. Guess I missed you standing on the soapbox decrying the role the Celtics played getting blood on their own hands against the natives. I must have been outside or something, but I had the radio on all weekend dialed in to the Festival....listening for just one voice from any POC talking on stage about the atrocity committed upon my people. Guess I missed than one too.

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1180030452130990/?type=3&theater

Our fine educational system. Blame the students for repeating what their teachers taught them about history. Socialism is good, a quasi-Communism Lite with not as many
citizens murdered by their government.

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1180530305414338/?type=3&theater

But, what do I know?

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1180765208724181/?type=3&theater.

[Paul Emery]

The concept of Manifest Destiny being taught in our schools is just one example of the evils of government controlled education.

[Todd Juvinall]

OOOOOO evil! My my, dracula is loose again.

[Todd Juvinall]

You now what Paul Emery is on to something. I am really upset about the battle of Cannae won by Hannibal over the Romans. They went on to destroy Carthage and kept the Arabs out for five hundred years. Damn! What to do?

[Paul Emery]

Bill

If you knew anything about Celtic History you would they were victims of hundreds of years of oppression by the imperialistic occupation of the British who stripped their land of anything of value and left them to starve during the Potato Famine while they lived fat in their fancy manor houses and farms. Goodness your are ignorant of history.

[Gregory]

pe 931

Paul, what was pathetic was you trying to use big words you could not spell or put into proper order.

Manifest destiny... is that a concept that the local Waldorf public school teaches?

[George Rebane]

How did this comment stream on the intellectual deficits of the Millennials wander into Manifest Destiny and the fortunes of the Celts? The problem with the Millennials is now; everything else was then.

[Bill Tozer]

A great mystery, Dr. Rebane. A very interesting discourse between you and Robert Cross suddenly was injected with a comment about genocide of aboriginal people, stealing their homes, Judeo-Christian values, and the Unibomber’s Manifest Destiny. At least if was not about George Bush’s Judeo-Christian values as it relates to picking on weaker people and taking their stuff. Always a silver lining.

All sides of the government run public education-teacher’s union industrial complex agree that the decline started on or by 1970. Mr. Cross seems to say that parents have played a big role by getting a bad case of school daze. Hey, by 1970, the kids were smoking pot in high school. Now, their kids are the owners of our millennials’ mini-minds. Apple don’t fall far from the tree.
1970 was also when the first effects of the breakup of the family unit, largely due to welfare for unwed mothers....(as long as they did not live with a man) first began to become apparent. No more sending her off to the Home for Unwed Mothers somewhere in Texas or sending her off to Aunt Stella’s in Kansas. Changed everything. Drugs, Sex, and Rock-n-Roll changed everything.

I once ran into a my high school biology/cross county/driver’s ed teacher about 5 years after I left. He said I would not believe what is going on in school nowadays. He said a lot of kids are stoned on grass. They try to hide it and are quiet, but their eyes are all red and they cannot get what he is teach. Zoned out, man. Bored of Education. Hmm. I got what he taught quite well. Nematodes and all that. It wasn't that hard...today’s College 10 or maybe 20 Biology, Ecology.
Five years after I left! That’s how quick it changed.
I know, I know. Blame capitalism, not the ones who are teaching our kids the previously undisclosed motive for the Vegas killings is because the shooter was white. That’s also the motive for poor test scores and repulsive education results.

Said it once, said it a hundred times. The libs have had a virtual monopoly of public education; lock, stock, and barrel since....around 1970.

[Bill Tozer]

Mr. Cross did mention that students do not want to take a test. What, it makes them feel bad or something? Guess taking tests interferes with feelings. Does not one feel valued and welcomed, I reckon.

“Our well-beings are being put on the line because of our emotional, mental, and physical stress that [Berkeley] is compounding with what is already going on in our every day lives," according to one of the students in the video.

Another refusing to take the test stated,

“We are talking about communities of color. You have people in our homelands who are experiencing devastation ... students that are undocumented ... how can you [inaudible] to prepare for this exam with all this going on?”

http://www.dailywire.com/news/22073/berkeley-students-protest-exam-demand-take-home-frank-camp

Like the tee shirt that read “Caution, educated student of color”. Wonder how she found the time to become educated with all the other stuff going on causing her emotional, mental, and physical stress. Physical stress?? What, the chairs are too hard or something? Yes, shoveling comfort food in the pie hole can be stressful.

[Todd Juvinall]

The millennials seem to be happy consumers lately. Highest index in 13 years.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-13/consumer-sentiment-in-u-s-unexpectedly-surges-to-13-year-high

[Account Deleted]

May as well post this here. Best essay I have read in years that neatly explains most all of what is going on with American culture. And a lot of the rest of the world as well. Not pretty, but does explain a lot.
http://takimag.com/article/strife_and_wrangling_in_las_vegas_christopher_degroot/print#axzz4vJ6KiwnV

[Account Deleted]

"The concept of Manifest Destiny being taught in our schools is just one example of the evils of government controlled education."
Paul - I learned about this concept in the public schools when I was in the 8th grade.
It was taught as a concept that was antiquated and obsolete. Shall I embarrass myself to let on how many decades ago that was? These days most teachers in this country couldn't begin to tell you what 'Manifest Destiny' is.
This whole idea of being outraged by bad governmental and social behavior that is always conveniently traced back to Euro-white guys is ignorant and bigoted. Especially when most of said behavior can be easily found long before there were Euro white guys.
Stop crying about the Brits trashing the Celts. Maybe start thinking about who the Celts exterminated before the Brits even arrived. And maybe how brutally those folks treated their own kind. Been going on for eons, Paul. The word 'slave' came from the capturing of the slavic people from whom I'm partially descended. Where's my reparations? Educate yourself, moron.

[Don Bessee]

Good luck with that last sentence Scott. ;-)

[Account Deleted]

Or the second to last?
Not holding my breath.

[Bill Tozer]

Well, there are many evils of public education. Graduating mini-educated mini-minded milllenials with 8th reading comprehension and with 7th grade math skills is one hecka of an injustice to the student, parents, tax payers, and the nation is one humenous evil. A vile evil.

Not .
knowing most outdoor plants need the sun to grow?? The only thing the mini-minded probably know about the big wide world s that Monsanto is an evil company.

I had the spelling and meaning of the word ‘heliotropism’ down pat in 4th or 5th grade. It was both a spelling and definition question. Had to learn a new big word once a week all year long. And that was from a public school system that hired out of state non-union teachers to make ends meet.
Yes, some plants grow towards the sun. It’s called heliotropism. What today’s evil government run public education’s product is called is closer is to the word ‘abortion’ or ‘sabatoge’, or MOAB.

[Bill Tozer]

A good portion of our beloved millennials may have mini-minds, but an equally large portion of them have rather robust appetites. Maybe Milo was right. Fat shaming saves lives, purely medically speaking, of course.

http://gazette.com/too-fat-to-fight-colorado-nonprofit-says-military-threatened-by-childhood-obesity/article/1613250

[Todd Juvinall]

Fat Shaming? That is too funny. But the PC crowd wants you to call them weight challenged. LOL! I have two sons in the millennial range and they are doing quite well. They get up every day and work and now are homeowners. Both unmarried. They are not too involved in politics but I see the wheels turning as they have to pay the fees and crap the government demands.

[Russ]

How many millennials are enrolled in these degrees with the highest unemployment:

1. Composition and Rhetoric — 17.54%

2. Environmental Science — 11.79%

3. Anthropology and Archaeology — 11.76%

4. Drama And Theater Arts — 11.42%

5. Film, Video, and Photographic Arts — 11.24%

6. Mass Media — 10.92%

7. Fine Arts — 10.90%

8. Area Ethnic and Civilization Studies — 10.84%

9. Intercultural and International Studies — 9.93%

10. Communication Technologies — 9.40%

More than there should be.

[Don Bessee]

Well that explains the dark lord of liberal lament land, #1 with a bullet @ 807. ;-)

[Todd Juvinall]

Don't forget that millennials make up most of the military members now.

Another Climate Change letter in the Union. What a lot of hooey as usual. Russ go straighten that guy out.

[Russ]

Most College Students Clueless About the First Amendment

Last week at Columbia University, conservative pundit Tommy Robinson attempted to give a speech on mass immigration in Europe. Instead, the event devolved into chaos. Students consistently shouted down Robinson, effectively preventing him from speaking as he Skyped into the campus auditorium from the United Kingdom. He gave up on trying to speak and instead fielded questions from protesters.

“This is our free speech, this is our First Amendment right,” repeated some of the protesters as they shouted over Robinson.

It was clear that many students had a warped understanding of the First Amendment.

Did you ever wonder, where did these millennials learn about the Constitution and First Amendment? Oh, in progressive run schools.

[Gregory]

This might be worth another education thread, but Bill Gates, funder of the "Common Core State Standards" and early college high schools including Ghidotti, is announcing past mistakes and will be funding new education initiatives going forwards.

Not so much a "sorry about that", considering the millions of kids whose education was hijacked and trillion$ misspent nationally.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/21/common-core-backer-bill-gates-announces-plan-invest-1-7-billion-public-education/

For those of you who don't read anything from Breitbart, tough. I know one of the folks quoted and they got it right.

[Gregory]

For those who won't click on Breitbart links

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/10/19/bill-gates-has-another-plan-for-k-12-public-education-the-others-didnt-go-so-well/?utm_term=.0f176bf7f66a#comments

[BunBun]

Please share,,,this is important!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGvrmltfMrA

[Gregory]

Despite Gates' dismay at the failures of his education ventures, he's still spending millions to support Common Core:

https://dianeravitch.net/2017/11/06/laura-chapman-gates-still-pouring-millions-into-common-core/