In today’s PK3-12 reality, virtually all parents are of the Millennial Generation, born between 1986 and 2005.\u00a0 Some demographers change those dates to make the periods shorter or longer based on significant events (such as ending at 2000 rather than the year 2005), but archeologists have a standard that a generation lasts about 20 years.\u00a0 That’s still an argument that holds water, because even though there are couples waiting until their 30’s to have children, there are still a number of teen pregnancies that balance the statistic out.<\/p>\n
Before taking a look at the Millennials and what they’re looking for for their children, let’s take a closer look at Generation X, the ME Generation.\u00a0 It’s important to provide context.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because school leaders treated this generation of parents like they treated the generation before it – the Baby Boomers – and then wondered why enrollments in faith-based schools started its historical nosedive.<\/p>\n
Sure, changing demographics and rising costs had an impact, but it wasn’t “just” these two things.\u00a0 Demographics started to change in the 1970’s as jobs started to disappear from United States factories and shift to countries around the world.\u00a0 Transportation became more and more annoying, if not difficult, in the Northeast, with its mountains, winding roads, and snowfalls that historically created “snow days” for school.\u00a0 Of course, rather than changing the school year to be from Spring through the Fall when transportation would be easier and winter could be a time to celebrate the holidays and maintain family time, we still had schools that played football in the fall into the winter and basketball that picked up just in time for January blizzards.\u00a0 Of course, Catholic Schools Week was celebrated at the most opportune time of the year – the dead of winter – where most of the meticulously-planned events to honor parents and grandparents were cancelled do to the boiler in the school malfunctioning, or below-zero windchills for weeks on end.<\/p>\n
It’s the way we’ve always done it, and that’s what makes it successful, right?<\/p>\n
If so, then why do school still announce their closure just a few week after Catholic Schools Week?\u00a0 Tell me that doesn’t mess with a parental mindset.<\/p>\n
In fact, school leaders in the recent past were so steeped in “the way we’ve always done it” that they missed needed to change how they dealt with a new generation of parents – Generation X.<\/p>\n
Generation X is a curious generation.\u00a0 The need for instant gratification is a trait that many of these individuals share. They are apt to buy a product on credit, then pay for it over time – without the guarantee that they’ll be able to pay for it. This is a different characteristic from delayed gratification, a trait of the Baby Boomer generation.\u00a0 Boomers were more apt to save for a particular purchase.\u00a0 If they utilize credit, what they have saved is used for a down payment, so to speak, so that payments are manageable or are for a limited time.\u00a0 The Great and Silent Generation members were sacrificial, forgoing what they wanted in order to build a better life for their children, their family, their neighbors or members of their parish.<\/p>\n
Generation X, “The ME Generation,” could be cited as the originators of the phrase, “What’s in it for me?”<\/p>\n
While that could be viewed as a question which pervades today’s society in general, it’s quite easy for the rest of society to pick up on trait that is germane to a particular grouping of individuals.\u00a0 Since the PK3-16 educational community spans 19 years, and a “generation” spans a period of about 20 years, there are always two generations affected by the traits of a third generation.\u00a0 In this case, Baby Boomers were affected by Generation X when GenX started enrolling their children in schools settings, and the Millennials have been affected by Generation X as they continued to progress through the grade levels.<\/p>\n
The majority of Generation X parents are now looking forward to becoming grandparents, or those who have children in school are in college.\u00a0 In fact, you’ll recall that there was an item in the new a number of years ago that came to light called “The Student Loan Crisis.”\u00a0 When did that start?\u00a0 When the first children of Generation X graduated, that then they discovered they were on the hook to pay for the loans they co-signed for when their children couldn’t find a job – even though they had degrees and honor cords from prestigious universities.<\/p>\n
Several individuals who attended a presentation I gave several years ago questioned me about their school’s current parents and guardians.\u00a0 While they realized that most of them were members of Generation X, want instant gratification and action taken in response to situations, and see their children as reflections of themselves, they were a little distressed at the comments I made regarding parents as customers.\u00a0 Not so much that they were customers (since they’re paying the tuition for their children), but they questioned me about the parents desire to know “What’s in it for them?”\u00a0 This explains the phenomenon known as “Helicopter Parents.”<\/p>\n
As for Millennial parents, they’re not Helicopters; they’re Snowplows – pushing all the obstacles out of the way so that their children succeed, since, like Generation X, their children are reflections of themselves.\u00a0 If a child is chided or makes a mistake, parents see that as a failure of parenting, rather than a part of the child’s process of learning.<\/p>\n
Teachers and administrators wonder why some of today’s parents and guardians are so involved at the school, and why others aren’t and don’t seem to care.\u00a0 I contend that the latter group would be involved if they could be.\u00a0 They’re either working, involved in their own activities, transporting children to rehearsals or practices on the nights of PTA meetings, taking care of elderly family members, or, in some cases, are unable to be involved for legal reasons.<\/p>\n
Similarly, school staff members are sometimes overwhelmed by the constant presence of some parents and guardians who feel they have a right to be involved precisely because they’re paying tuition, even though teachers sometimes wish these parents and guardians wouldn’t be so involved.\u00a0 Actually, they don’t have a right to be involved because they pay tuition; they have a right to be involved because they are the parent<\/em>, and parents are the primary educator of the child.\u00a0 Parents and guardians are a very important part of the school community, and should be treated as such.<\/p>\n There are some schools that have examined this phenomenon, and have developed some strategies which encourage parents to be a vital part of the school community, but also allow teachers the space they need to provide the necessary classroom experience for children to achieve to their potential.\u00a0 One school had a computer literacy program for parents several years back, offering courses in Microsoft Office programs on certain weekday evenings and on Saturday mornings.\u00a0 Other schools have created a parent library, full of text resources on parenting and child health and development.\u00a0 A comfortable and quiet atmosphere is provided for the parent or guardian who would like to stay and read for a while after bringing their child to school in the morning.<\/p>\n Another way to have your parents feel involved as well as to invite other parents to your school to let them experience it is to hold a “Parent Day” on a Saturday.\u00a0 Start at 9 and end at 3, with four seminars during the day that parents can rotate to, or perhaps take some time to meet with a teacher or tour the school.\u00a0 Sessions on finances, parenting, time management and productivity, and social media awareness could be scheduled, with lunch provided from 11:30 until 1. Parents could attend just the morning session, just the afternoon, or for the whole day.\u00a0 Such an event makes your school more than just a school, positioning it as an asset to your local community.\u00a0 As you plan for the 26-27 school year, try scheduling this at some point as an experiment.\u00a0 If it takes off, it can be a signature activity of your school, contributing to your school’s “remarkability,” differentiating it from other educational offerings in the community.\u00a0 It might even be able to be sponsored, generating some development dollars!<\/p>\n But do it before any other school does.\u00a0 This way, you’ll be an innovator.\u00a0 If someone else does it first, and only then do you decide to jump on the bandwagon, you’ll be viewed as an imitator.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2011-2026 (Original Publication Date: 20110221)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In today’s PK3-12 reality, virtually all parents are of the Millennial Generation, born between 1986 and 2005.\u00a0 Some demographers change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MM-Purple.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ggCS-M5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2981"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8095,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions\/8095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}