The Millennials: The Dumbest Generation or the Next Great Generation?

In an election season marked by the prominent involvement of young voters and the unprecedented use of new technologies for campaign advertisements and fundraising, the significance of the “millennial generation” has acquired new salience. Some have deemed the generation born between 1982 and 2000 smart and engaged, pointing to record competitiveness for admission to top colleges and surging political participation. Others cite the average two hours that youths spend each day watching television--and the average eight minutes they spend reading--and lament that their access to video games, the Internet, and other digital technologies has eroded essential knowledge and skills. What do data tell us about the impact of new technologies on learning and attainment? What does this mean for youth and schooling in America? How are today’s youth affecting technological development, our way of life, and our institutions?

Two influential thinkers on these questions--Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, and Neil Howe, author of Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation--will debate these and other issues. Frederick M. Hess, AEI’s director of education policy studies, will moderate.

About the Author

 

Frederick M.
Hess



  • An educator, political scientist and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. He is the author of influential books on education including “The Same Thing Over and Over,” “Education Unbound,” “ Common Sense School Reform,” “ Revolution at the Margins” and “Spinning Wheels,” and he pens the Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, National Affairs, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on education philanthropy, stretching the school dollar, the impact of education research and No Child Left Behind.  He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the review boards for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the Broad Prize for Public School Charters as well as on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.


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  • Email: rhess@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Lauren Aronson
    Phone: 202-862-5904
    Email: lauren.aronson@aei.org
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