The kids are alright
I can’t believe that my eldest niece, Mikayla, is about to graduate high school. It seems only yesterday that I was able to cradle her with one arm as she napped on my shoulder. She has grown up to be a beautiful, intelligent and mature young lady who benefited greatly from parents that guiding her along the road to adulthood. Her mother taught her that, with hard work and tenacity, nothing is out of reach while her father kept potential suitors in line with conversations of his glory days being a bouncer and showing them his extensive gun collection. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Mikayla and one of her classmates, Trevor Payne, to get their take on a future full of college courses and career decisions.
Are they ready?
Whatever you think of your high school grad-to-be’s readiness to set foot out into the real world or onto a college campus, a recent article in US News & World Report stated that, “nearly 1.7 million high school graduates took the ACT college entrance exam in 2012, testing their knowledge of four core subjects—English, math, science, and reading. But most of those students are not prepped for success in college or the workforce…more than a quarter of 2012 graduates fell short of college readiness benchmarks that ACT sets for all four subjects, and 60 percent of students tested missed the mark in at least two of the four subjects.” While these statistics might not seem that shocking to the average parent of a typical teenager who would rather play video games or scroll through Snapchat for hours than do their math homework, for Jon Whitmore, chief executive officer at ACT, they have more significant meaning. “We need to do more to ensure that our young people improve," Whitmore said. “The advanced global economy requires American students to perform at their highest level to compete in the future job market and maintain the long-term economic security of the U.S.” No pressure there, right?
Smart times at Peaster High
To ease Whitmore’s concern, I would have him spend a few minutes talking to Fadden and Payne. They attend Peaster High School in Peaster, Texas, which is a small ranching community located just northwest of Weatherford. Their graduating class is small by comparison to most senior classes at the average Metroplex high school - it’s just 56 students. Payne is the salutatorian and Fadden is in the top 15 percent of the class. Both of them will be attending college after they graduate high school; Fadden is going to Texas A&M and Payne is going to Oklahoma State University. For both students, not going to college wasn’t an option. “My parents always told me that ‘you need a college degree,’” said Fadden. “It was the expectation for as long as I can remember.” For Payne, whose parents are both educators, he also realized from early on that there was no question about college. “I always knew that I would go to college,” Payne said. “But my parents really started talking serious to me about college and careers when I was in the eighth grade. They said that every grade in high school mattered, starting freshman year. Especially in a small class like ours. A few bad grades could bump you out of the top 10 percent, which could keep you out of the running for some colleges.”
While both students do have ideas about what they want to do – Fadden wants to be a lawyer and Payne wants to be an electrical engineer – they aren’t that concerned about getting a job out of college…yet. “I haven’t given a lot of thought about the job market yet. It might change by the time I get out of college,” said Payne. “As far as getting into electrical engineering, I was always good at math, so it seems like a good fit.” Both sets of parents also talked to each student about what majors to pursue in college that will get them good jobs in high demand. “Although I want to go to law school and become a lawyer, there are a lot of lawyers out there. The competition is fierce. My dad helped me see that getting a business degree in college will give me a broad foundation and have in-demand skills to fall back on,” Fadden said.
The future looks bright
For both Fadden and Payne, the thought of leaving the only life they’ve known and taking the next step to one day start their careers is both exciting and scary. “I’ll probably come back to DFW after college,” Payne said. “I’m pretty close with my family, but I definitely want to be on my own.” While Fadden loves her country roots, she feels that after college is the time for her to experience living in different places. “I plan on traveling and living in the southeast somewhere, maybe Florida,” said Fadden. “It all depends on where the jobs are.”
Having been told they were special all of their lives, with participation medals around their necks and “follow your dreams” as their mantra, Millennials are supposed to be entitled. So when I asked both Fadden and Payne if they should do what makes them happy and let the money take care of itself, or if they feel a certain responsibility to make enough money to support themselves and, one day, a family if need be, Payne gave me an answer I didn’t expect. “Life isn't fair. You won’t get to be happy all the time. You have to have discipline. There will be times when you have to make sacrifices,” said Payne. Fadden also had some sage advice for kids that will be starting high school in the fall. “Every grade matters,” said Fadden. “The first day of ninth grade is the start of the rest of your life. Get prepared and be ready to compete.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "The kids are alright."