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All Millennials Are Not Cry-Babies

It’s important to know that all millennials are not like the cry-babies we’re seeing on the campuses of our prestigious Ivy League universities.  These are the students that are crying, whining and otherwise sniffling about the outcome of the presidential election.  The same students that require “safe zones” to protect them from any opposing viewpoints are the ones now that are refusing to accept the results of the election. 

The fact that certain of these higher education institutions would be enabling such a fixed mindset is appalling.  The act of setting up cry-rooms, therapy animals and Play-Doh, let alone the canceling of classes and rescheduling of exams, sends a message that any time in life when someone disagrees with your or things go wrong, you can just retreat to your cry-room and feel sorry for yourself.  I guess these universities and faculty will be encouraging each graduate to set up a cry-room in their home (or demand that Mom and Dad designate a cry-room when they move back in) so they will be able to retreat to a safe place when things in life don’t go well. 

What’s not clear is how problems in the personal lives of these students will be solved as they retreat to the cry-rooms.  If the car breaks down or the toilet backs up, who will fix these problems?  How will these students contribute to the problem-solving our world needs if they go into a room and cry instead of working with others to find solutions? 

Many, many of the millennials we see around here are not like that.  They want to be good problem-solvers not only in their personal lives, but they want to make a positive contribution solving the world’s problems.  Some even want to change the world.  Most don’t articulate this because they haven’t been challenged in terms of changing the world, only to get a good education so someone can give them a job; the job they deserve. 

We hosted thirty-seven sixth graders at Fab Lab ICC the other day.  We gave them a tour, divided them into teams and had each team take the marshmallow challenge.  In the challenge, teams have 18 minutes, 20 pieces of uncooked spaghetti, 3 feet of tape and 3 feet of string to build the tallest free-standing tower that will support a standard size marshmallow.  After that, we had a discussion.  I asked them if they had been told to get a good education so they could get a job.  Thirty-seven hands went up.  Then I asked them where the companies were going to come from that would provide all of these jobs.  Silence.  I then told them that nearly every company that hires people today was started small by one or a few people.  They were people that found a problem to solve and started a business to solve it.  The companies grew and eventually had to hire employees to help solve the problems.  I said “Some of you can be the ones that start new companies.” 

We need to change the narrative to these kids and we need to change it now.  We need to tell them that they each can change the world in some way by solving problems and that some should start their own companies to solve these problems so others will have a place to work.  The longer we wait, the more of them that will end up at our public universities demanding cry-rooms and Play-Doh when things don’t go their way. 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu. Archive columns and podcasts at www.fablabicc.org. 



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