Getting our stories straight....

(NOTE: I had written this for a possible publication, but I honestly forgot about it until I saw it tonight. So, this is the official publication. Comments always welcome.)

We need to get our story straight.

At the New Hampshire primary debate, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards asserted that approximately 20-30 million jobs would be lost in the next two decades. Those greatly affected will be college graduates. There wasn’t any rejection of that argument, instead an eerie acknowledgment loomed on the debate stage. Articles speak to the looming student loan crisis, while other research recommends that potential college-bound students consider blue-collar work. In short, the future isn’t so bright for the educated and more so, the over-educated.

That’s not what I was taught in junior high school. On the cusp of adolescence, teachers and parents told this tale: Do well in high school, take Advanced Placement classes and work really hard to be admitted into a good college. Go to college, work really hard, pick a good major and graduate. Upon graduation, there will be great jobs to select. If you want even more success, go for the graduate degree.

The moral of the tale told to most American students is simple, education breeds success. No doubt, this is a true statement. However, it’s lacking the hidden emphasis that drives the point home, education breeds economic success. The more educated one is, the better off economically one will be.

Because of this, record numbers go to college and record numbers are now in graduate schools. Record numbers have taken on six-figure student loan debt and record numbers are striving for professional jobs in the economy.

Yet, observers are pointing to a downward slide, due to globalization and the changing times. A different narrative is being told; a story of opportunities going overseas, of instability and corporate needs over worker needs. It’s business. It’s the future.

Which story is right? With all due respect to Senator Clinton, words do matter. It is narrative that is the mechanism to find meaning and the American narrative is one of opportunity and fulfillment. The narrative told today to young adults beginning careers and struggling to find fulfilling work is the antithesis of the narrative told yesterday to students overextended in homework, school and service clubs and athletics in order to gain entry into the right college. When those question the accuracy of the story, they are given the afterword: Go get more education, take out more loans, and go further into debt and confusion. To be sure, many post-graduate students take on additional education for the right reasons, yet much of the predominate story uses graduate education as a delay into the changing work force.

What we have are dueling narratives. One story promises security if all the instructions are followed correctly, while another story promises uncertainty in a transitioning economy and world turning on variability. In both cases, twentysomethings and thirtysomethings are left with questions complex and simple: What is the story that I want to follow? What is the narrative to which I need to listen?

If the American Dream is a dream of opportunity and the American narrative is a story of fulfillment, then we must make sure the stories line up to reality.