XplanaZine

In education circles, we’ve long known about the importance of adult learers. But a recent trend of adults moving into areas once reserved for kids reaches beyond education. A growing generation of “adultescents” signifies new opportunities in advertising, entertainment, and employment as well.

First, let me say that much of what I know about adultescents or “rejuvenlies” comes from hanging out with my brother. He’s in his late forties and only recently migrated from his job as a youth pastor to the more grown-up position of singles minister. Every television in his home is attached to a different kind of game station, the main phone is an Incredibles handset, and they have Looney Toons dishware and accessories in their kitchen. He and his wife are the first people to ride the new attractions at Six Flags and neither of them ever met a roller coaster they didn’t want to conquer. Their lives are relatively normal and yet every spare moment is focused on play — generally play associated with teenagers or young adults.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong or untoward about this. Heck, that’s why I take my kids to my brother’s house every Christmas. There’s simply more to entertain them there. More important still, my brother is part of an exploding group of adults in America. These adultescents or rejuveniles are changing the way we think about growing up and aging.

In general, this trend is about the blurring of societal lines. It’s about literature and TV that appeal to a wide range of ages (think Harry Potter and SpongeBob SquarePants). It’s about putting off adulthood and things like marriage and children until later in life. It’s also about having more money making up for things we (adults) didn’t have when we were children.

Christopher Noxon is the author of the upcoming book, Rejuvnlie: How a New Breed of Reluctant Adults is Redefining Maturity. He says, “It’s easy to treat this as a trend. But it’s not Boomer-variety nostalgia. It’s how people are changing their ways of thinking. The problem is the classification. Just because it appeals to kids, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t appeal to adults.” Mr. Noxon, by the way, met his wife playing kickball (as an adult).

Obviously, this trend has big implications for products and marketing. From theme parks to cars, manufacturers and advertisers realize the importance (read “dollar value”) of fun. Increasingly, the people with the most purchasing power are “loosening up.” What I find more interesting are the necessary implications this growing mentality of adultescence may have on education. As the number of adult learners continues to grow, what kind of market pressure might we see to make education a bit more entertaining as well?

I’ve been teaching adult learners for more than ten years now, often mixed in with traditional students in night or online classes. I’ve always been able to count on the adults to be more serious, to be more dedicated when it came to learning. After all, they were experienced in the realities of life and seemed to have more at stake. In recent semesters, however, I have noticed that my adult learners are becoming more playful. I can no longer distinguish my students’ ages by the tenor of their emails or by their choices of composition themes.

As the lines between adults and kids continue to blur, I believe we will see increasing pressure on our staid and uninspiring curriculum. Adult learners are already looking for programs that provide them with practical educations, learning that is useful in the immediate future. Now, they will start demanding that these programs be entertaining as well.

This push toward an education that is practical and engaging — an education with immediate and rewarding results — will be a challenge to many traditional institutions. For generations, universities have been places where learners discover who they are. Now adult learners, many already aware of who they are, have infiltrated the space. Adultescent learners bring additional pressure by mixing the wisdom of age with the fun of youth. Teachers will have to adapt if they want their classes to remain appealing to this new audience. Business as usual won’t cut it with these kidults.

On the other hand, maybe the changes these rejuveniles bring to education will finally allow us all to answer “yes” when asked if we had fun at school today.