The Dailey Edge Podcast
Join hosts Trent, TJ, and Todd Dailey as they explore the intersections of technology, culture, fitness, and personal growth. Through engaging discussions and personal anecdotes, the trio dives into topics ranging from childhood gaming nostalgia and cutting-edge fitness tech to the pursuit of happiness and lifestyle choices. Whether reminiscing about epic gaming marathons, sharing tips for staying on the forefront of fitness trends, or unraveling the complexities of modern life, The Dailey Edge delivers thoughtful insights, lively debates, and relatable stories for listeners of all walks of life.
The Dailey Edge Podcast
Episode 55: Gen Z Career Reality Check
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The career map a lot of us grew up with is getting redrawn in real time, and teenagers feel it first. We’re joined by Roman, our 17-year-old high school senior, for a candid look at what “planning for the future” actually feels like when job security is shaky, entry-level roles demand experience, and a college degree doesn’t automatically open doors.
We talk through the growing list of paths Gen Z is considering: entrepreneurship, family businesses, online school, and especially career-technical education and the skilled trades. Roman explains why hands-on programs can feel more connected to real life than rigid classroom routines, and he shares what students learn when they run the numbers on taxes, rent, transportation, food, and education. The affordability conversation gets real fast, and it reshapes how young people think about lifestyle, independence, and even multigenerational living.
We also dig into screens and technology with less panic and more nuance. Roman breaks down how he actually uses AI in school for research and sources, why he doesn’t think AI replaces deep thinking or meaningful conversation, and why banning phones at school misses the root problem when laptops and other devices still exist. If you care about Gen Z career paths, college versus trades, financial literacy, AI in education, and screen time, this one will challenge a few assumptions.
Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with a parent or student, and leave a review with your take: what’s the smartest “next step” for a 17-year-old right now?
Welcome And Why Paths Changed
SPEAKER_01Welcome back to the Daily Edge. I'm sitting here with my brothers, TJ and Todd, and we have another special guest. We have my oldest son, Roman. We've had all the um kids on over a couple of episodes, and he actually is getting the to be the star of the show as he doesn't have to share any screen time with anyone else. So we thought it would be interesting to just cover all things. Um Roman is in high school at 17 years old, and there's a lot going on, and um we're gonna get some perspective. So uh I'm gonna kick this over to TJ to get her started.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think you know it's it's interesting if you look at society in general over the years, it seems like the path forward is less and less certain than it used to be. You know, you look back to the start of the country or a hundred years ago, you were gonna be a farmer or something like that. And then you get to a couple generations before ours, and you were going to go into some form of business, you were gonna go work in a factory, and maybe you were gonna go to college. And then there was, um, and this is of course from the perspective of us and where we grew up and who we were surrounded by. So there were obviously different pockets and parts of the country where people did different things, but by and large, as it relates to the people we were around, there was a pretty straightforward path. When we were growing up, um, it was college, like that was the next step. You know, there were some instances where some people did some entrepreneurial things or um other things. And I think it'd be very interesting, you know, as we get, I guess Roman, specifically your generation, because you were, and I'm excited to talk through this, you were that first generation that um was exposed to technology without the reins. Like you guys, you know, as you've gotten older, people have been more and more tight with screen time and things like that, but you guys are also part of this generation where there are way more paths forward than just uh than just college. So I'd I'd love to hear from you. We were talking a little earlier about your friends and some of the different paths they're taking and and what those are and and and what yours are, and just kind of talk through that a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, I know that um one thing that I've specifically I've known that I've seen a lot of is that um I've seen a lot of um insecur, not insecurity, but um instability in a lot of uh job markets, knowing having job security, and a lot of those things are um not always assured in a lot of um spaces. It's a thing that a lot of people have come to realize, as well as um a lot more access to a lot of the things surrounding uh like college. Like a lot of college degrees won't um guarantee you jobs. A lot of jobs are asking for um a lot of times over asking for uh starting positions and a lot of that stuff. It's where I've even seen some people like they have a college degree, they can't go into that field because there's there's so much competition, as well as they can't go into other fields um because they don't either have the right degree or they're don't have the enough work experience. Um that's why I feel like a lot of people like are see that's feel like that is why we're seeing um more you know broadness and uh choices and all that all of that stuff due to like more exploration of it. Um like I know my friend Um he he started his own business with a friend of his. He he started his own business, he's been working all the time, and like he sometimes even goes out of school to make sure that he has enough time to do all these things, and he enjoys it. He's uh talked to him about it, he's always he he enjoys it. He uh does say it does take a strain on his time, but um it's what he likes to do. While others they stay in family businesses, like another friend of mine. Um they they work in the construction space where um it's a family business. His grandpa is kind of getting low lower, so he's started to fill those steps, and he's just gonna be working, he's just gonna be in school online next year. He's not even gonna come in physically. Um and that's one of those another options that previous generations didn't have. They couldn't they couldn't go online. Um, and now he gets to
Job Security And College Doubts
SPEAKER_02make money, help out his family, as as well as um make sure he still continues his education to make sure he has a high school education, make sure he can uh support his future in that way as well. Um and I've thought a lot about college and making sure that uh I have a lot of opportunities in the future, um with things like making sure that the job that I want to get in the future still exists by the time I get to that job. Um where there's certain things like well, there's certain things that I like to do, right? I like I like learning about things. I like like I can enjoy teaching things. Like I played a lot of video games where oh, I I enjoy learning about those video games, I enjoy learning about those things, then I like teaching others about that stuff. I like sharing what I've learned about it, but uh that's an uncertain space because, well, is AI gonna take it over? Is uh is it just gonna go strictly online? Um is another thing that I've thought about and will uh in the space that I've like what I've decided to do in college, um would I would like to do something with uh things like law and public policy, uh learning about interpreting the law, all that stuff, uh, and ultimately become a lawyer uh in the end, where I feel even if the lawyer's job specifically is replaced, I will still have a fallback plan to interpret law, interpret policy, and all of that all of that stuff as a government position.
Trades And The Career Center Option
SPEAKER_01You mentioned the trade or you mentioned construction earlier on there. Um, and there's kind of been, I would say, an explosion in the trades the last several years. Do you have a lot of friends that are going into the trades, becoming electricians, plumbers, that sort of thing?
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, you see it a lot at Marion, specifically as um we have this thing called the GRCC, the Grant Regional Career Center. And if you had I um I would look into it a little bit yourself, but um, where you can get a certified CNA. You can become a nurse straight out of high school, you can get a licensed in construction to where over the year you built you work on building a house under uh guidelines, and you can get hired straight into place there. There's welding, there's all of these different job opportunities there to where you can learn to work with your hands, and there's so many opportunities through that to where everyone in Grant County, you like I see buses coming in from Mississippi, Oak Hill, Madison Grant all coming in to this GRCC um to have like have these opportunities to learn. Um, and I a lot of people I know uh do really enjoy taking those classes um and see themselves doing that in the future.
SPEAKER_00Do
Money Reality And Lifestyle Math
SPEAKER_00you think that this is something, and it might be the generation right before you, but maybe your tail end of it. There's there was talk or has been talk about the misalignment on expectations. People graduating high school or graduating college, and like if they don't have a job waiting for them for 150k a year, you know, I'm just gonna stay home and not do anything. Uh and I and you know, and that may not be Mary and that may again be the generation prior to you or other areas geographically, but do you feel like your peers yourself have a pretty are pretty grounded as it relates to what's coming for you and kind of the progression in the in the in the professional marketplace and what what you have to do to get there? Because you did mention a little bit about experience plus plus in the competitive job market. Do you do you feel like you guys are kind of grounded there?
SPEAKER_02Um I feel like we we are much more grounded, but um it's more of there's the grounding, but there's also the understanding that uh we uh a lot of times have a as we're getting into this junior senior year, we've taken classes that um you know help you underst like that are try to help you understand, oh going into life, like how are you gonna um like oh how are you gonna pay for things? Are you gonna do this, that? And seeing as all this stuff happens, like, oh, how am I gonna pay for how am I gonna pay for this? Oh, how am I gonna pay for that? And how am I gonna make sure that I'm doing like living how I want to live. And there's been certain like places where um the wage has fallen behind what you would call like, oh, if I wanted to buy a house in life, I wanted to buy this, that, where you really want that thing, those things, but you know that you know, to do that I need to have a wage that is much higher than a minimum minimum wage. Where um I don't I don't have exact numbers on this, but I heard that minimum wage is you have to times it by almost like three times to be able to afford what like you could in something along the lines of sixties where if you're working minimum wage and still get those things. Purchasing power has gone down a lot. Um, yeah, as well as things with uh housing understanding that the housing market's gotten very rough with private equity buying things out, um, certain things in that area alongside other places, uh understanding um all that stuff. I mean, even in just the other day, um I have a general education class um that I'm retaking. I failed at uh honors version of it the uh last year where I'm it I'm interacting with people that I usually wouldn't, and I'm uh and the teacher, he's a great teacher, I love him. He's he really cares for a lot of these kids, and he makes sure to have an assignment um that I finished on Thursday going over a lot of this stuff. Where making sure like, hey, this job, this is what they make a month, right? And then going over all the different costs where oh, starting with housing, how are you gonna oh or well sorry starts with taxes and it moves to housing, transportation, furnishing, all those things, and understanding how uh eating, all those things and oh, is that gonna fit into what it is? Are you gonna need a second job? How much does education cost? Um, and I heard a lot of people like being surprised, like, oh crap, I need to like this isn't gonna work, right? I need to do I'm gonna either need to pick up a second job or I'm gonna need to rethink like the lifestyle I want to live.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's really uh I'd love to build on that comment around the
Purpose Culture And Online Authenticity
SPEAKER_01lifestyle. And I think this is just my perception. That's why I'm interested in your um perspective on this because I feel like in our generation it was a lot about the American dream. It was like really about how much can you make? Can you buy a house? Can you have a family? Can you have that thing? And it feels like the last few generations, um I shouldn't say few generations, the last few kind of waves, uh, maybe the last decade or so, maybe give or take five years, has been maybe a little more purpose-driven. You see a little more socially conscious activity and people that aren't necessarily chasing uh the best job for the highest compensation, uh, you know, might be willing to live at home or more open to that sort of thing. I don't, you know, and I so again, this is just perception. So I'm interested in in your kind of circles, are there more is there a lot of discussion around kind of trying to to chase the compensation, or is it more, you know, having a really purposeful, meaningful uh career?
SPEAKER_02Um, there is a lot of I feel like more conversations are built on on purpose more than um finances in that sense. Um where finances are always a part of it, are always a part of the talk. Can you live off of it? But it's more of am I gonna enjoy this? Is this gonna be something I want to do for the rest of my life? Um and there is a couple things. Um, could you remind me what you said about uh buying a house and all that stuff?
SPEAKER_01Uh real quick. Just like the you know, I think there was this during our kind of upbringing, this concept of the American dream where it's like you wanted to buy a, you know, that you you bought a house and a suburb and had kids and family and that sort of thing. And I think people um, you know, some of it is just affordability, that that may not be a reality for as many people these days with some of the private equity activity. But um, yeah, it just plays back to the compensation question or people chasing this specific lifestyle that everyone's telling them that they should be living or you know, more open to other kind of building off of that.
SPEAKER_02I know that something that um some people have talked about is um bringing back the family home. Um going back to generations all live in the same house to where in the past you couldn't buy like every generation consequently couldn't buy a house. Everyone lived in that same house generation for generation for 400 years, right? Um, where as these prices have gotten more and more expensive, where we don't know if it's either a market spike or anything else, but I've talked like I know some people who do still live with their parents. Like I talked to that same teacher um who I who did that assignment for like helping people understand their finances. Uh he specifically, like, yeah, he lets his kids like, hey, you can live with us, but you have to have a dream. Yeah, like you're still gonna pay us, like, yeah, you can pay us rent, but that's like paying off utilities, all those things. Um, but as long as you have like a dream, you have a purpose that you're working towards, um, that's how he put it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's really important. I feel like that's uh that's kind of the challenge in a lot of this is like how do you um the human species, one of our strengths is we're very resilient. I feel like when our backs are against the wall or when we're put in a position to have to do something, uh, we find a way to do it. I think one of the downsides is contentment. I think there is an there is something built into us that's almost like an energy prep preservation mechanism from from days long ago that in those scenarios when you don't need the money, it's tough to maybe stay motivated and pursue that dream. Um, just an interesting psychological challenge.
SPEAKER_00Do you think that, you know, again, being the first generation that was uh unfetteredly exposed to screens with no restrictions? I would imagine that you guys and and are much better than most societally at uh determining or delineating between reality and fiction. And I mean that you can take that at face value, like yes, we can tell what's AI versus not, but also um you guys can see through the Instagramification of things, where you know, in our age it was it was more about making it, making it than how you made it, right? It was house, car, 100k a year was the magic number when we were growing up. It was about just getting there. Who cares how you got there? You got there. Um and I think that uh a lot of our generation, especially early on, didn't see through Instagramification, so they kept chasing, chasing, chasing, chasing. This person has this, this person has this, this person has this. Um do you think, and I guess it kind of builds off Todd's point, do you think that because of that, and because every Twitch streamer is showing you their new Lambo and their new mansion and whatever, whatever, that you guys have kind of become numb to that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would say personally, I feel like a lot of people more value intentionality and meaning behind things. That's um I you could probably see some of that in some of the some of the modern art stuff to where it's a lot of that's abstract, but I've seen personally some pieces that I really enjoy where um some of it has a lot of meaning to it. And online, personally, if I'm watching someone, I want to see someone who's intentional, right? Um about what they're doing, what all that stuff, and they're not trying to be bigger than they are, right? That's a lot of my friends. I that's why I enjoy hanging out with them because they're not trying to be someone who they're not, they're trying not trying to do those things. And that's why that's something that I feel like a lot of my generation does. Um it's more, it's being blunt, it's that Gen Z stare where you what like what the heck did you just say to me? Like customer service, like like being just getting insulted at a customer service job, like and just being blank, not being super like not putting on that mask, being super kind and overly performative.
SPEAKER_00Do you think this is completely sideways from our conversation? Yeah. Do you think that's why Queso is super successful? Because he's just so chill and like doesn't try to be somebody he's not?
SPEAKER_02That's why I feel like quite a few of these big guys are successful. He is very intentional about who he is, as well as there's a couple of others um that are in that same space. I know there's this guy, Joe Bartalozzi. He's very in he's uh there's some times where you think like he's very loud, but he's a he's an energetic guy, and but he's also he also has a degree in philosophy, right? Um, but he's a massive streamer, millions of subscribers over platforms. Um, but he gets very intentional. There's sometimes where he gets deep philosophical debates, other days he's playing a fun video game. Um, and there's a couple of other examples I could go to. Um, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's refreshing. I mean, knowing that like there was I was I was just watching a video just so you guys have context as to what we're talking about. Um, we're talking about essentially just Twitch streamers. Um and it was talking about how he's one of the the guys who didn't follow the algorithm where you know you see some of these guys, you're Kai Sonets of the world, you're ISO speeds of the world, they're on everybody else's podcast, they're collabing with everybody else, they're buying Lambos, you know.
SPEAKER_02One thing I will say about Speed, um, Speed is less on hopping trends. He's he's also very intentional about who he is. Um, to where have you if you have you seen stuff about his world tour? No, oh, this is great. His world tour, um, he did a tour of all these like Africa, he did a tour of all these countries in Asia, to where he lets the not he lets the locals lead him around, he lets them show them their culture and do all those things. Um, to where there's hundreds of videos online to where he's wearing their classic ceremonial garbs. Dope. Or he's wearing like he's but he's also very respectful of all these cultures, making sure, like listening and learning. But you can also see all the clips of him being super crazy playing video games.
SPEAKER_00Brian Trahan kind of feels like that way. I mean, he he feels very intentional with the what what he does too. I know he's just started some recent stuff about touring all the the is that the uh guy that made the new Joyride. Joyride? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's him. Yeah, and right now he's doing the he did the 50 states in 50 days or whatever. Now he's doing the top ten uh attractions in the United States and even done Disney World and DC and Niagara Falls. So that that for me that feels very reassuring knowing that you guys are kind of gravitating more towards purpose and less towards this frivolous.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I will say that's kind of why I feel like Mr. Beast um has started to fall off because he's that he's turned it into a business where uh uh initially he was he was a guy who would you know go out and give a couple thousand dollars, he'd give ten thousand dollars, but it felt a lot more personally, felt a lot more close. But now you can tell he's wearing a mask, he's not, it is not him who's on that screen.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, I I it's again reassuring you guys see through that because I've started to feel the same way, like it's just a formula, it's not getting we'll go back to Twitch, it's not getting on Twitch of finding somebody with zero, you know, zero live viewers, five grand, like personally doing that. That's how you used to do it, or some of that other stuff. It does feel much more. I saw something with him yesterday where he was ranting about how when they put Starlink on planes, like he won't take a plane unless it has Starlink, so he can be connected and uploading and doing that at all times, and it just seems disingenuous. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and
School Engagement And Standardized Testing
SPEAKER_02I feel this is kind of going back to more of the school side of things. Um, but we like having that meaning and purpose behind things goes into that standardized testing to where you can like I've I follow some teachers online, um, can't remember exactly what her name is, but she talks about uh she's Gen X herself, she talks about her experience with Gen Z Gen Z students, um and how she has seen um a lot of like we prioritize a lot of different. Things where in specifically like standardized testing, our scores look way lower, they look way worse. Um, but that's because most of us just don't care about them because certain places have turned away from them. Some people know they're bad test takers, so they know they just they would rather save themselves a bunch of stress and like a lot of uh toil because they know, hey, I'm not a good test taker, I get very anxious on those days, and I'm gonna get a worse score than what I know I am. Um, and some places have just stopped taking it due to those reasons. Um but as well as they're very disconnected. Like, I don't feel like I enjoy what I'm reading, right? If I enjoy something that I'm reading, I'm on this, I'm writing it. Like, in that's what I love about um this writing, this AP language class, right? Um, to where on the test, I got something that I I got multiple things that I enjoyed, um, which is massive when in one of those writing classes to where if you enjoy something, you can write like crazy on it. But if you don't enjoy it and you don't feel any connection to it, you just uh I don't care, right? That's like on two of the three essays. I felt like I was doing great. I like I felt like I had stuff that I could write on, stuff that I can like bounce off of. But then on the third essay, I just didn't feel connected to it. I didn't feel um very much like I had any connection to it, and I just kind of pushed it off because I knew I wouldn't do well and it wasn't something like I got I knew what two points I could get, and then I just kind of finished it from there.
SPEAKER_01What excites you most about the next couple of decades, like personally for you, kind of the environment and where you're going and uh just where the world's going. What what excites you the most?
SPEAKER_02I don't really think about the future too often. Normally, uh I don't think about the future, don't think about the past too much. Um I think more in the short term, I don't often think in long term. It's like, yeah, I'm thinking about oh, college, think about that, but I haven't thought too much outside of it. I know I do wanna at one point maybe start a firm of my own. Um, if I do end up going finishing law. Um some other things that seem a little interesting. I nothing off the top of my head though.
SPEAKER_00You know, I we've touched on this a couple times in this conversation already from a technology standpoint. You know,
AI For Schoolwork Without The Hype
SPEAKER_00we were lucky to go from nothing, at least internet-wise, to where we are today, but you've gone from you've grown up in kind of this hyper-growth, you know, from from gosh, what are you 17? So I don't know, 2009? Which would have been post-iPhone. Um, so what has it been like this last couple of years? You know, I mean, your dad loves to talk about it, so let's talk about AI and and um your in school and how it's impacted you guys. I mean, I I see my kids who are considerably younger, you know, your cousins are 12 and 10, and they'll use things here and there, but like, is it do you see it's been a positive? Uh you and I were talking about it upstairs earlier, and and you've uh you've heard a lot of negative perspective around it too. Um, I guess maybe as as it applies to school in specific, um what have you seen? How do you feel it's being used, not used?
SPEAKER_02Um I know that specifically, um a lot of places I like to use, I I use it as a um a place to build off of. Um uh specifically for like my bigger essays in that uh AP language class, I used it to help me find sources, right? I would I would start writing, start writing however I liked, and hey, could you find me sources that um would help me show this or that? Like I know in this there was a homelessness essay that I was writing last end of last semester. Um, going over, oh, how could you help homelessness or this most recent one? I was over the restaurant business, and oh, how has cons like um community changed business or how has community support uh helped keep a business in like business running, a small local business running? Um I you like those are examples of how I've used it um in this, as well as in as well as other places you learn like hey, I'm this is not important to me, and the teacher doesn't mind it either. Like he knows it's happening, but he doesn't he doesn't really care to where you use it in that class, right? Um you just learn when and where to use it, but most of the time like you can put something you can put something together better yourself than it can. Um as well as there's certain points of it that um I've I've exper I've um in certain fields where I like to uh in like video games and stuff, I've tried to have a dialogue with it, right? Um but it just it it can't have a high-level conversation around certain things.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_02Um to where it can have a very baseline conversation about a lot of things. It just can't get very deep. Um to where if you want to start going deep dives, certain stats, certain things, um it can analyze it, but it's it's ultimately it's based off of patterns. It cannot um ultimately make something new, it can see what other people have done, it can see what's been put in, but it that's some of the stuff like um that's why I'd prefer to go talk to someone else about one of these things, like because they can give uh other feedback that that wouldn't be able to because I always feel like it's just spitting stuff, the same things I gave it back out at me. Um to where, oh yeah, I'll use it for math, I'll use it for English. But if I'm using it to do certain other things, it's it's just completely incompatible, and I I can't get to use it the way I want it to.
SPEAKER_00I like that. It's like actually doing exactly what most people thought it wouldn't, which is it's pushing you back towards social engagement because it's just not good at it and it's not gonna replace that. And it's like, oh, I see through this, this is missing this the soul or the consciousness or whatever it is. I need to find somebody out there or or a community out there to engage with because I'm never gonna get it from this thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, and there's other parts of it that I uh think about sometimes where you've you can see people get uh completely outraged at AI. You can I'm pretty neutral on it. I don't mind it, I don't hate it. Um but I'm not, you know, like my dad who's who uses who he loves using it. You've you've ranted about how how it can um do certain things in business, how how it can be extremely innovative, but I just still don't feel like it's um with the models that are released to the public, either if it's print the premium version or not, um that it's changed drastically, right? It can make certain parts of jobs easier, it can make um it can replace some very small things that are just like, oh, put in small like put in numbers, right? It can't change research. You it can't like oh it can observe stuff, it can do that things, but it can't create.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it's your point's well taken. I think there are some limitations. Uh certainly it's it's an efficiency play, you know. Oh, and it's you're talking about you could do simple things quicker, it can be a brainstorming partner, but if you're talking about the frontier of quality, it's very tough to push that because that takes a lot of innovation and very creative thought and pushing the boundaries of patterns that don't exist yet, and so it doesn't.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and even I've seen this um a while ago. Some companies have started rehiring people because it's cheaper to hire someone now than it is to go to AI in some cases. That's actually it's one of the headlines that I saw. I've seen it a couple of times. That's just real that that kind of just threw me for a spin. It's now sometimes cheaper to actually get a person than it is, like to hire a person than it is to go to AI for like the tickets or the um coins, depending on what um model you decide to use.
SPEAKER_01Very interesting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, that that's crazy. It just it it's you know, it's it's crazy that we we get there different ways, but I had the same conversation. I was in a meeting last week at a at the headquarters of a really big retail partner of ours, and I had the same conversation with them. I've built I built out a platform that recommends products, and my commentary, my commentary there was it's a starting point, like you said with your essays, like this is this is we build from here. I'm not gonna take AI's word as gospel because it just isn't, and you can tell at the surface by just looking at it, it's not quite right, and it's it's taking liberties and whatever, whatever. So I like that you know it's it's cool to see us align, um, 30 years and age difference, we get to the same point. So it sounds like everything is uh progressing the way you want it to, and I think you know, we can be excited about the future of humanity.
SPEAKER_02Yeah,
Phone Bans And Fixing Education
SPEAKER_02there is one thing that I would like to talk on, and that's it's something that's kind of frustrated me myself. Um, and that's how certain legislators are taking to um uh technology in the s in schools, like how Indiana has just completely banned phones from entering schools. Um if it's like it has to be turned in and some of those things, um, to where it is not the solution. It's not completely not. If they want to do, if they don't want to pay attention, they are not going to pay attention. It doesn't matter if they're on their phones, you've given them a device. You've got like next year we're getting laptops, they're gonna be watching YouTube on the laptops, they're gonna be doing those things on the laptops. Taking away one thing is not gonna make them go focus on the other.
SPEAKER_00Okay, sorry. No, I was gonna say I I just saw we were actually talking about that like two days ago. Is is the law, do you guys have to because it's bell to bell, right? No devices at all, no phones. Do they have to stay in your locker or can they not even enter the school?
SPEAKER_02I don't know that all the specifics of that uh specifically. I'm put I'm leaving it in my car. I'm not bringing it into the school. I don't want it confiscated. Um, because I don't want to have to go through the process of, oh, what if they lose the phone? What if they do all those things to where what does that look like on the school for when those things happen? If they do take it.
SPEAKER_01Um what do you think? I think it's a fascinating point. What do you think if you were to attribute the challenge? You kind of said they're not really attacking the root cause, they're attracting a symptom and kind of taking something. What do you think is the root cause of the lack of focus?
SPEAKER_02There's a di um to where I would put it towards a lot of the stuff where if you look at the GRCC, right? Everyone loves being in the GRCC, the Grant Regional Career Center that I was talking about earlier, where they get hands-on, they do all those things. A lot of people are not built for school, they're not built like for that type of engagement, and they it just doesn't work for them. Um, to where in the basic school, it's not right for them. They go over to GRCC, they excel, right? Uh, and in other places it's not oh, like personally, I enjoy some parts of regular schooling. Um, I like problem solving, I like solving those challenges, and that's why um personally like, oh, I don't mind like, yeah, I don't have my phone in like I don't use my phone in like half my classes, but in other classes that are oh short, you get the assignment done, but there's sometimes oh short little challenging pieces, and then you're done for the day. And then you get on your phone, you hang out with friends. Like, I know a lot of my friends, um, like we hop on class and we all play a game together. Uh it's been different games over the course of like the past couple years, but like we played Clash Royale, Among Us, all like all these big games, just we all play them all together in class um after we're done with our assignments, and that's something that uh yeah, it's kind of get what I was getting towards as well as the interaction, right? The content itself feels um, depending on the class, feels disconnected, right?
SPEAKER_01That's I was gonna ask. It sounds like, and I was gonna ask if this is a personality thing, who on who enjoys the GRCC versus more the classroom, but it sounds like part of what you're saying here is in the GRCC, there's more of an application of your knowledge, right? You're doing things with it, whether that's building things or working on things versus in the classroom, it's more of this theoretical, you're just learning this knowledge that you may not. I mean, there's a lot of complaints about math, right? You know, you're never gonna use this in the real world. And and so it's a lack of, do you feel like it's a lack of application that people struggle with?
SPEAKER_02I would say less of application. I would say that it's the content itself, uh, any class, any of it. Um, understanding that, like, oh, I know that certain things are not gonna be used, why should I care about it? Right? If this is like I'm not doing I'm not going to college anyways, why should I care about this? Right? I'm just I'm just gonna graduate, I'm getting out of here. Yeah. Um interesting.
SPEAKER_01What do you think the solution is though? I mean, if I mean, because granted, when when we grew up, there were kids that weren't gonna go to college that there were subjects that we would say were we had we were forced to learn that maybe weren't going to be as applicable as we got older, and we suffered through them like everybody else. But how would you like what do you think the solution for modern day schooling is with knowing? I know Marion High School just re-like there's like three or four paths now, and it's not all college-based stuff. How would you like organize schooling in general to so it provides value for the most kids possible?
SPEAKER_02I would change the way that it's um set up, right? I personally I like certain aspects of the traditional schooling. I like the periods changing things. Like I wouldn't want to work on one thing all day, right? I don't want to work on three things all day. I like having seven distinct classes where I go from one class to another, get like, oh, I have a break period, I have this period, I and and then there's certain classes that I enjoy taking, right? Like I have my band. It's I had a concert last night. Um it's very rewarding in that. Um, but the way these classes are set up, a lot of times, like busy work. I hate busy work. Uh it's not a way that I learn. Um, and I a lot of times don't get it done. I don't perform extremely well in classes where there's high volumes of work. Um, and it's different for every student. And and there's some of those things where understanding how you learn, how all those things happen, um, and the personalization of it. But then in like the content itself, standardized content should not be a thing, right? There should be standards that you have to learn. But like I know like my AP chemistry teacher, like you have to learn all these specific things, but he does not teach anywhere close to the way that everyone else teaches. They have a specific order that they want, like, hey, they write we recommend you teach it in this order. He teaches it completely way different, off-the-walls order, and he's had incredible results. His his class is really enjoyable. Um, and like uh on the AP test, it's a one through five scale. He hasn't had a kid fail in like five years. Like the average last year didn't every student get a four or five. Every student got a four or five. I never passed one of those tests. Yeah, and they're like he literally like he has incredible results in that.
SPEAKER_01That's great.
SPEAKER_02But that's just because he's understood like changing the way his class runs, changing those things to where the kids enjoy being in there and enjoy the content that's in there. Uh to where I don't want to read a 300-year-old book about something that I'm like, I don't care about that, right? I don't care about a rhetorical analysis, learning about oh, a writer did this for this reason. They used word choice, like, sure, if you want to go into like that, should be a higher up English thing. Sure, understanding why a reader did uh why a writer did one thing or another, sure, right? But going off those bases is something that I don't think any student in there enjoyed doing rhetorical analysis. Um, there might be one or two people who are the um minority in that, but I talked to most people and it's like, yeah, I did not enjoy that. I did not feel like that was something rewarding. And that's the one I kind of pushed, that's the essay that I pushed off during the test. Because I have a hard I personally have a hard time understanding it, uh understanding it bits and pieces of it, as well as the way they want you to set it up, having those little underlying rules and expectations for like personally, if I'm writing like I want to break down uh the way a writer writes, I want to do it linearly. I want to go through the text. Oh, in the first paragraph, they use this, they use that, and then going through the like going through it that way, but the way they want you to do it, and the only way you're gonna get a good score, is going through, oh, you pick out three things that you saw they did, and then you talk about those three things separately. Um and and just how rigid schooling is um to where instead of it being extremely rigid, being more liquid, having more malleable like learning paths, like some schools are starting to do. Uh and that's why some people have started enjoying um homeschooling more, uh being able to go out, do other things, do those other type of stuff. Sorry if I've been ranting on for a little long.
SPEAKER_00That's really good. And and maybe it solves itself, meaning that like I don't think that you know administration has enough purview to solve the problems, but based on your commentary around you know, people starting to look for things purposefully, I feel like this is my perspective on it, is that I think a large portion of academia is influenced by the level of effort being put forth by teachers. And again, our generation, the generation before us, a teacher, a teacher, you know, they've been underpaid, but it was still a way to get there. Like you could you could take that career path and buy a house and do all the things. Um, and I think, you know, I mean we've all had teachers, and maybe it's at certain points in their career, maybe it's waned over time that just don't care. So it's like, all right, I'm gonna take whatever the fixed curriculum is nationally or statewide, and I'm just gonna apply it. You guys go do it. This is the order, this is how it's done, versus AP chemistry teacher talking about some of the ones I'm sure we all had that actually really cared, took the time to um adapt the lesson plan to you know the the people that they were teaching and uh make it work um in the confines of the uh the box they were given, if you will. So I think that's where I'm actually reading a book right now called Inside the Box, and that's the premise of the entire book is creativity is born out of restriction. Right. And so if you take a teacher like your AP chemistry teacher, who okay, here's this rigid box, like you like you said, you have to hit these standards, you have to learn these things, he can be creative within there and come up with these really unique ways uh to deliver that message. So again, like you said, hopefully with more people pursuing um these avenues, teaching being one of them with passion, there'll be more care and that things will shake out better in the end.
Screen Time And Self Regulation
SPEAKER_01I am curious though, you guys have both brought up like screens and technology, and that was your point of well, taking away the cell phones is dumb, it's stupid. What do you feel like? I mean, there's obviously extremes, but what do you feel like kids your age with social media? Are they all in it, social media all the time, or is your group just kind of like, yeah, they don't really deal with social media, or just screens in general? Like, how have those impacted attention spans and you know motivation? Like, do you guys see those as problems? We've talked about numerous times that we think screens are somewhat problematic, and you know from living in the house what we've been doing, but do you guys see those as problems or you just think that we're all crazy?
SPEAKER_02Um, from what I've seen, everyone um has their own form of self-regulation, right? Um, to where you don't in certain classes you don't see phones at all. Other classes you see phones. Um, and it's really just based off of how um engaging the class is, right? Um uh I know it's gonna be a little bit different for my classes due to I'm I'm in um honors classes, I'm in AP classes, where it's gonna be a little bit different because a lot of us care about um going to college, making sure we make it into uh X, Y, or Z, um, and all of our accolades up to that point. But even in some of these other classes, I I try to be observant and like, well, I know that they I know that I've seen these behaviors, I hear these behaviors, but why are they going on? And there's some there's underlying issues a lot of times there, but you always you can always see self-regulation, right? Um, with this unfiltered, uh unregulated access to screens, you'll see a lot of people self-regulating. Um to where a lot of people do it differently. I know that some kids do have social media, some people don't. I don't like having most social media. I only use social media as a place to go take my mind off of stuff, relax. I don't like having political stuff. I don't have it, I don't like having very serious stuff on my pages to where it's inevitable that it's gonna show up once or like every once in a while if a big event happens or something.
SPEAKER_01Um as well as we we put a pretty strict one hour limit on like TikTok and such. Do you think that's a good thing, or do you think that's dumb?
unknownHonestly.
SPEAKER_02I don't it's it's like one of those things, the box. The box is the way that creates creativity to where it's the same thing that the school is. Taking away the phones is not gonna fix the problem because you can always go, oh, at school I can just hop on my school iPad, hop on TikTok shorts. It's worse content, but it's still something to where it's not like taking away is not fixing the problem. It's just putting a box that is gonna innovate creativity.
SPEAKER_01So do you feel like kids your age spend 10 plus hours a day on their phone? Do you feel like is is that a common place for most kids? And is that is that okay?
SPEAKER_02I mean I don't I don't feel like it's depending on the class you go into, it's not a common occurrence.
SPEAKER_01Um what about outside the classroom? Like let's we're talking just more broadly in life in general. Is there what is kind of the the thought process there? As Trent mentioned, I think the older generations, we have a tendency to do this. We kind of flock to how we lived, right? Without a lot of this. Um do people have any outside of the class concerns or hesitations?
SPEAKER_02I don't feel like I I don't see a lot of it. I know that once again it goes back to that self-regulating point. Um I know a lot of my friends, they're either they're working or they're in sports, they're doing all these things to where they're keeping themselves busy, and then when they have their time, they they have their time. Right. Um, and that's really the important part uh is that they do things to keep themselves busy and then whenever they want to hop on, they hop on. So they hop on their phone, they do whatever one thing or the next.
SPEAKER_01Anything else?
SPEAKER_02I don't have anything else.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
Final Takeaways And Goodbye
SPEAKER_01Well, that is uh that's Roman. You did most of the talking there. Thanks for the insight. Um we all have our perspectives, which you guys all know very well, but that was really interesting. Even living with the kid, I I didn't know how he viewed on some of that, some of those things. So that was really interesting for me as well. Um, so hope you enjoyed it. Hope you learned a little bit about what's going on uh in the world of teenagers and current schooling. We'll see you next time.