Very fascinating article as I, a 51 year old female obtaining her masters degrees online (I currently have my Masters in Nursing), also have 2 college age kids - okay 1, my son is graduating this weekend.
I found the article fascinating, but something hit me when it began to discuss the conservative school in Texas.
While kids that age are definitely bored attending some of the general ed requirements, I feel the mental health issue goes much further than Covid. These students are the first students who have witnessed a myriad of school/mass shootings on TV, things that become discussed at their high schools and grade schools. They see their parents worried for them and their safety. They have witnessed a presidential administration where a lot of them questioned our country due to the actions/words/hate coming from someone they were told their entire life to admire. They saw the video of George Floyd dying, the video of white men in a pick up truck chasing down and shooting a black man, they have seen, first-hand, racism, hatred, hypocrisy but leaders, adults who they have looked up to, friends, etc...
Maybe they are tired because we have forced them to grow up too quickly. And no, not everyone is doing the forcing but many are. There was a point when my daughter thought I was disappointed in her for not going to a 4 year university right out of high school, I had to remind her she was present at my college graduation. But she needed time, she was not clear on her future goals (the opposite of my son who knew what he wanted to do from grade school).
Maybe we need to give these kids a little more time. A little more understanding. Of course they are tired, and I do not blame them one bit! I encouraged my son to get his degree in 5 years as his major required almost 140 credit hours to graduate, and hard credit hours at that (Chemical Engineering).
And maybe, at a conservative college in Texas, those kids don't feel that pressure because, and I hate to say this, but most of the shouts of "if he just complied he wouldn't have died," rang out from conservatives. The previous president (conservative?) stated that there were good people on both sides during the Charleston marches/riots/whatever you want to call them. And as some of those good people were throwing around racial slurs, maybe???
And I am not trying to say the liberal side has been any better. Both sides need to learn how to be able to interact with each other. But I am saying our children are seeing this, and either thinking this is the norm, or are disappointed that, right now, this is the norm.
The pandemic is just icing on the cake. A very sad cake.
I did not have to worry about these things as I grew up. The NRA was all about education and gun safety then, politicians worked across the aisle and did not hold up nominations or bills because of vendettas across the aisle, and racism, okay that still existed... But there was no pandemic. And because I never had to worry about climate change as I was growing up, we are putting that on the backs of our children too.
Give these kids a break. They need one. They need to have fun without worry. We need to let them take their time and not push them into adulthood. Because being an adult kind of sucks.
