After attending two high school graduation parties and contemplating the future facing 18-year-olds today, I am more confident that they will meet it with what Arthur C. Brooks calls their “fluid intelligence.”
As older adults sat around picnic tables munching on hamburgers, fries, and cheese curds, the kids milled around in groups talking and laughing, seeming to have a good time with their school friends. Their ‘shrines’ displayed evidence of honors, achievements, and promising futures.
Of course, they will face challenges. As they look on and enjoy the celebrations, older adults understand this, hoping and praying the kids will overcome them and thrive. This wisdom comes from what Brooks calls “crystalized intelligence.”
In his book, From Strength to Strength – Finding success, happiness, and deep purpose in the second half of life, Brooks cites another book that describes two types of intelligence. Fluid intelligence is the “ability to reason, think flexibly, and solve novel problems.” Crystalized intelligence is “the ability to use a stock of knowledge learned in the past.”
The world’s problems today, which may seem overwhelming to older people, are in the minds of young people ‘just the way it is’. While the former wander in a thicket of problems both personal and societal, that is a world awaiting the young, and with their fluid intelligence they will find a way through.
Inheritance
When I graduated the Vietnam War was raging. That, along with social unrest and economic woes, may have seemed overwhelming to our parents. Each succeeding generation inherits circumstances, which they must deal with and move on. Kids today face deep political division, extreme wealth disparity, AI threats and promises, and existential threats from authoritarianism and climate change.
Throughout history young graduates have faced challenges on such a scale. One comparison could be the years following World War I. This perspective comes from a book I am currently reading, Paris 1919 – Six months that changed the world, by Margaret Macmillan. Much of the world’s geopolitical problems today – especially in the Mideast – arose from decisions mainly by the U.S., Britain, and France more than a century ago.
Among young Americans at the time, 116,516 soldiers died during World War I, more than half from disease, and more than 204,000 wounded. The counter punch of the ‘Roaring 20s’ was followed by the Great Depression, and that was followed by another world war. Those who survived all that became known as the “Greatest Generation.”
Following them the so-called Baby Boom generation could be indicted for, if not causing, at least allowing some of our current major problems and challenges to develop. But that may be too harsh when looking back and comparing with the example of Paris 1919 and the efforts of Wilson, Lloyd George, and Clemenceau. Talented, flawed, human, they did their best to do what they thought was right.
As Macmillan concludes, “they grappled with huge and difficult questions. How can the irrational passions of nationalism or religion be contained before they do more damage? How can we outlaw war? We are still asking those questions.” ‘Those questions’ will be around as long as humankind occupies the earth.
Our hope lies in succeeding generations to deal with them and make progress in the world. That may have been the underlying sentiment when my turn came to host the graduation ceremony years ago at the local community college. The commencement speaker was a former instructor named Ivy. As editor of the local newspaper then, I reflected on this later in my weekly column, a portion of which follows here, opening with an imaginary scene:
Leaving the Halls of Ivy
‘Good evening graduates, faculty, family members and friends. I am humbled and honored to address this commencement ceremony. I know you’re all sweaty and uncomfortable in those heavy robes… so I won’t drag this out too long. We all want to get this over soon so we can go out and party!
‘But for right now you’ll have to sit still one more time and listen to some old fuddy duddy ramble on about ideals and the meaning of life. Someday you’ll understand.
‘In the meantime, get all the experience you can and hope you survive. Do your best. Work hard. Play hard. Be yourself. Set goals. Care about others. Give yourself a break once in a while. Relish each moment. Travel. Pay your bills. Avoid too much debt. Start a savings account – now! Eat right and get exercise. Read. Pray. Trust in God.
‘Congratulations… now get outta here!’
The column continues, “I’ve never been asked to give a commencement address. Now I’ve just assured that I never will be. Occasionally I’ve thought about what I would say to graduates. I doubt that I’d have the guts to actually say the foregoing in an auditorium full of people on a hot, sticky June evening.
“Graduation is the end of high school or college. Commencement is the beginning of life in the real world, careers, families, thrills and trials. Later on, many graduates will return to colleges and universities in a pattern of lifelong learning. Careers, technology and interests change.
“Many graduate without a clear idea of what they want to do. Many go through life thinking they’ll never find it. It turns out the ideals were too elusive, the dreams illusions. You finally come to the realization that what you’ve been doing all along is what you were supposed to be doing. What else could it be?
“The choices you make during school years and upon commencement do have a definite bearing on your direction. They can and most likely will change as time goes on. But no matter what the choices and direction, everything you do contributes to your experience. Even more important, it should contribute to your fulfillment, your family, your work organization, and your community.”
Today, politics, philosophy, and religion haven’t changed much from the past. Technology certainly has, for better and worse. We can only hope that young people today will somehow learn from lessons of the past to help them manage the challenges of the future.
And at the parties it might have helped if there had been cake. Neither of the two that I attended had a sheet cake decorated with sugary frosting and congratulatory words squiggled from frosting tubes. Not all traditions are carried on, but as waistline management challenges grow with time, perhaps that one is better off missing.
Congratulations to all high school and college graduates!
