Generation on a Tightrope: A Portrait of Today's College Student

Why did the occupy fail? Why has the prospect of never achieving their parent’s standard of living? universities which sacrifice their student’s engagement and creativity for research grants? growing class size? a majority of the faculty being adjuncts?, debt that will burden graduates for much of their adult life? and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not generating mass students and countercultures comparable to the ones their parents and maybe grandparents joined during the War in Vietnam? This book examines the attitudes of today’s students, their hopes and expectations. Often, they feel they will do well personally but despair over the prospects for the country and the world they are likely to inherent. They realize they are growing up in a time of possibly irreversible economic and environmental decline, but are more like to respond individually rather than in a mass movement. The authors believe today’s students live during the emergence of a new world as different from the industrial age as it was from the agricultural one, out of which it evolved. Because no one knows exactly how the new era will look, today’s youth are not sure of how to appropriately react. The book is written more from the point of view of college administrators, teachers and parents than students, but since the students are the ones who are going to live in this world and they are the ones who must adapt, perhaps it should have more directed more towards them. Otherwise, a very good book.

Fast read and very informative of this new generation. I purchased this book for a class and it was delivered as described via Amazon Prime.

One of the most influential books I've read in my l-o-n-g career as a university administrator is Levine's "When Dreams And Heroes Died." It was a perfect profile of an entire generation of college students: what they liked, what they thought, how they acted. This book, "Generation On A Tightrope," is just as good. Levine has talked with thousands of today's college students, individually and in groups, and categorized their answers in a way that allows us to see a real picture of these students. An amazingly complete book. If you work with today's college students, this must be on your personal reading list!

This book affords readers great insights on the demographics, attitudes, values, and perceptions of the current generation of college-age students. One may perceive two faults in the text: (1) the language regarding the students is rather negative, and even harsh at times; (2) the text offers little in implications for professionals. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I will surely purchase the proceeding edition, if there is one.

I met the author of the book at a conference and he is really an engaging gentleman. I like the thoughts shared in the book and it has many quality points. As an educator and practitioner, I think it is a great book to have in your collection.