“Demography is destiny.” (August Comte, 1798). Alphas, those born between 2010 and 2025 and are of school age now, need our consideration because they are unlike those who came before.  Alphas add qualitative dimensions to the quantitative game of demographics – they are our destiny.

Using current demographic data to predict the future is in vogue today as decision makers determine which demographic groups and changes in demography to consider in crafting future policy and practice. However, the demos are changing. Millennials replaced Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation in 2020. Non-whites soon will be a majority of the population. The number of workers/contributors to the economy is declining as the number of non-working/retired increases. The ultra rich are richer and the number of impoverished and needy increases. America is decreasingly the world’s Land of Opportunity. Our past and present are a world the Silent, Boomer, X, Z and Millennial generations created. The future lies with the Alphas.

America historically was characterized by the belief life that each successive generation will have a better quality of life than their predecessors. The American Dream inspired people to engage and achieve. If Alphas abandon the Dream, what will happen to America? We need to consider the possibility, probability, and consequences of no American Dream. Hence, we cannot apply past generational assumptions about children to the Alphas and the world they will occupy. Woe be to those who ignore the Alphas.

The American Dream that was.

Boomers were born and raised in the American Dream. Their Dream provided prosperity and lifestyle greater than their grandparents and parents. Post-WW2 economics accelerated Boomers’ employment, civil rights legislation made the Dream more inclusive, and America’s global dominance kept the “good times rolling.” The Dream of stable employment and increasing income, purchasing a home and car, marriage and children were achieved by most Boomers, depending on race. Significantly, Boomers were born to be achievers through perseverance, and they prospered in the pre-technology age.

Gen X sits right on the edge of a changing American Dream. They are half-like Boomers and half-like Millennials and Gen Z. Financially, they are less well off than Boomers and less debt-burdened than Millennials. They are more independent thinking and adaptable than Boomers and more comfortable with technology. While Boomers are work grinders, Gen Xers prefer work-life balance and are less confrontative. The Dream still lives for them.

Millennials and Gen Z, generally, still believe in the American Dream but their reality is not Dream-like. The cost of education, housing, health and childcare have eroded their potential for achieving greater prosperity than the Boomers and Xers. Today only 53% of Americans still believe the Dream is possible. Critically, that optimism fades within age groups. Only 39% of the 18- to 29-year-olds believe the Drean can be theirs and 43% of the 39- to 49-year-olds see themselves in the Dream. The conditions for achieving the Dream are changing and fading for younger Americans in the prime years of the working lives.

Millennials and Gen Z also are caught in the reality that the retirements of Boomers and Gen Xers are depleting Social Security and Medicare. Millennials and Gex Zers will need to work more and longer if they are to achieve their anticipated “golden years.”  All of this becomes increasingly unlikely.

The above comparisons and contrasts of older generations set the stage for why Alphas are significant.

What we should know about Alphas.

For Alpha children born in and after 2010, the world is rapidly and always changing. Comparing Alphas to the Boomers is like comparing Boomers to their grandparents, people born between 1885 and 1900. That comparison sounds outlandish but is truer than not. Recent historic effects will be as important to Alphas as the Great Depression and World War 2 were to the Silent Generation (born between 1924 and 1945).

Consider –

• The first Alphas were born the same year as the IPad and technologies have shaped their every development. They have no memory of life prior to touch screens and instant and constant access to the Net.
• Alphas are screen time. They are constantly connected through what they see and hear on their devices. They don’t wait for the news – the news is theirs instantly.
• The pandemic was more than a disease for Alphas. The death of more than a million Americans was a numbing and then cold statistic. Adult arguments and hostilities over vaccination, masking, school closure, childcare, isolation, and attacks on medical science appeared more important than their childhood. Disease, death, and divisiveness shape their thinking and feelings.
• As politically hot as diversity is as a topic, the majority of Americans in Alpha world will be non-white, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and no longer “white America.” Alphas are part of diversity.
• Violence is just a news story. Gun violence happens and Alphas see adults who do nothing to prevent it, they only respond. Alphas know children will be shot in schools. There is nothing they can do about it.
• They hear facts, alternative facts, and lies with equal frequency. Alphas have abandoned traditional news outlets and rely on media that is quick, digestible, and somewhat entertaining/controversial instead. An ability to remain objective to understand information has never been greater in greater need.
• If they do not worry about their mental health, they are told they should. Their adults give mixed messages claiming mental health is a root of many school-age problems but do not supply significant resources to address mental health issues. Mental health issues are real but mental health also is just a labeling and blaming for what happens in the world without real address. It is symptomatic of the hypocrisy Alphas see in the adult world.
• Most Alphas are raised in childcare centers, attend education in schools of their parents’ choice, and enter adulthood being constantly socialized. Alphas’ ability to think and work independent of group think and influencers will shape their generation.
• Chaos is becoming the Alphas norm. American politics of 2024-2025 is the story they will talk about in the future not the traditions of democratic stability and community commonwealth. The rule of law will survive only if Alphas have a will to uphold the rules.

And so?

Alphas will make a different world. Hence, educators need to make schooling a different experience for them, especially as Alphas age. Alphas will learn much like children in earlier generations learned in early childhood through the upper elementary grades. They will profit from play-based education, socialization with each other and with school, learning to read, early literacy and numeracy that are the mainstays of primary education. However, as they age Alphas will grow into the above characteristics of their generation. That is when child/student-centered teaching and learning is essential.

1. Alphas require maximal active engagement, because trust of adults and adult/institutional thinking will not be a given for Alphas. In the pre-pandemic eras 70 to 80% of a student’s day was dominated by teacher talk or demonstration. This pattern changed dramatically as children returned to many but not enough post-pandemic schools. Pandemic use of Google Classrooms, virtual meetings, flipped models of teaching/learning responsibilities, and a reluctance of children to return to pre-pandemic rules and forced teachers and schools to change instructional delivery and student relationships. We need to sustain and extend the flip so that 75% of a student’s day is active engagement and 25% is watching and listening.
2. Alphas require real world technologies in school. Alphas need to productively use the technologies they use outside of school inside the school. Our past habits of forbidding students access to non-school tech alienates all students, especially Alphas, and have failed to create a student-centered learning environment. Perhaps Alphas will follow the Boomer/X pathway into post-secondary education. Internships, apprenticeships, tech schooling, and “gap yearing” will become their new patterns. Hence, our heavy college tracked curriculum must change. We need new course sequences that prepare Alphas for their future not our out-of-date past.
3. Alphas are diversity. Current machinations to negate diversity programming does not match their realities. Non-whites are becoming and will be the majority of our population. Alpha education must prepare them for living diversely.
4. The Alpha world view will be global not national only. Their technologies do not know national boundaries neither will their interests.
5. Alphas will be multi-lingual. Schools that are dropping for language instruction due to costs need to reprioritize their programming. Alphas need to be fluent in their languages of choice.
6. Education cannot be debt-creating. It must be universal and free.

The Big Duh!

Soon, Alphas will assume adult roles and responsibilities in our communities and world. If we continue to educate them for a Boomer and X world, they will flounder and founder. Our current educational programming is not prepared for their demographics. We need to make changes today that our progeny will thank us for in the future.