SUBJECT: SC-VE: Teaching Values Education in the Elementary Grades

TOPIC: Understanding the Different Generations

For us to understand who the children of today are, it is important to understand the different generations.
The time periods when each generation was born are as follows:

1. BABY BOOMERS (Prophet/Idealist).

- These are individuals born between 1943 and 1960.

2. GENERATION X (Nomad/ Reactive).

- Gen Xers were born between 1961 and 1979.

3. GENERATION Y (Hero/Civic).
- These individuals were born between 1996 and 2009.

4. GENERATION Z (Artist/Adaptive)
- Zeds were born between 1996 and 2009.

5. GENERATION ALPHA
- The Alphas are the children of today, who were born from 2010 to 2025.

The Generation Alpha

These are children born when the first iPad launched and they were exposed to different technological
advancements they can touch or even talk to ( McCrindle & Wolfinger, 2009).

The Alphas are not just simple users of technology, but they live and breathe technology and were born with
a “tech thumb”. Wearables are common sight for this generation not just because they are part of the latest
fashion, but because these are essential to their daily routine as if they are part of the latest fashion, but
because these are essential to their daily routine as if they are part of their DNA. Young Alpha can navigate
an Ipad before they can even start learning to read (Culala, 2016).

They are thus far the largest generation the world has ever seen, the most globally connected, and the most
influential (Mccrindle & Wolfinger, 2009).

The generation Alpha is the Children of parents from the Generation Y and Z. The general characteristics of
Generation Alpha are as follows (Schawbel, 2014; Barkowitz, 2016; Nagy, 2013, as cited in Nagy and
Kölcsey, 2017; Holroyd, 2011, as cited in Ramadlani & Wisobono, 2017):

1. They are dependent on display screens, intelligent in technology, and reliant on social media.

2. Sharing economically is not evident among this generation.

3. They are very agile.

4. Privacy is not their priority.

5. They have entrepreneurial learnings. They may think of starting small businesses at a young age.

6. They dislike rules that are not in agreement with their own preferences and restrictions that will limit
their ability to express themselves.

7. These children have a tendency to cause distraction in religious gatherings.

8. Innovation is a key word often associated with them. They are interested in experimenting.

9. They like to repeat what they enjoy seeing or doing.

10. They seem to prefer living in the present, while neither minding the past too much or paying attention
to the future.

11. They thrive in creativity.

12. Their food preferences are fresh and natural. They prefer eating biscuits, pasta, rice and cereal, and
taking vitamins.

13. These young ones like to do online shopping and rarely to do face-to-face interactions with others.

14. They are more pampered and will be heavily influenced by their Gen X and Y parents.

15. The Alpha generation is determined to fulfill their needs, will be more and better educated, and are
better ready to face bigger challenges.

16. They mature early physically and psychologically while the adult life stage may be pushed back later
on in life due to time spent in education.

17. These children are more exposed to education at an early age due to the concept of online learning.

18. They are labeled as materialistic generation.