In my work, I’ve helped corporations and small businesses explain why they move jobs to distant locations and how to make interviews regarding relocations meaningful for employees. But never until now have I witnessed a deep dive into the character of college students being interviewed for a job.
Companies are asking new college graduates about their involvement with campus protests to evaluate their character. This makes sense, considering that many students admire ineffectual leadership. Will they adapt to authority figures in your organization? Will they ridicule your “old-fashioned values” considering the discord that they may have come to consider normal behavior? Will they resist relocating to a distant community they consider too traditional or conservative?
I’m reminded of the highly relevant writing of psychologist Thomas Likona, author of Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility, who cited this anonymous poem, which some have called Your Daily Thought Diet: “Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your deeds. Be careful of your deeds, for your deeds become your habits. Be careful of your habits for your habits become your character. Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.”
As I think about the character of today’s students – and sometimes their ignorance – I came across an insightful column written this week by Samuel J. Adams, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Here is his thought-provoking column about today’s graduates of our higher education institutions.
“The summer recess is approaching and I would like to suggest an extra-curricular activity for college students: go somewhere different, away from campus, somewhere unlike home, and talk to new people who have had appreciably different life experiences. And once there, listen, learn, and attempt to empathize with what you are hearing and seeing.
“I hope that these students quickly realize that their worldviews have been severely distorted by being on campus and see that, in reality, so many Americans remain quite reasonable and measured.
“The sad reality is that recent and current college students have not had a real taste of American society whatsoever. Many have been isolated and lived a significant portion of their adolescent lives through the bubbles and extremes of social media and via digital connections thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Coming back to campus after the pandemic lockdowns, the same students have had to confront deep polarization and extremism cultivated by activist administrators and faculty in their classes, dorms, and student social spaces. These administrators and employees have sought to balkanize collegiate communities under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Their efforts have created unending conflicts between “oppressors” and “the oppressed,” making every facet of college life now contentious and political.
“On top of this, students are managing the impact of the Israel-Hamas War . . . .” Read the rest here: A Summer Assignment.
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