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Slowly but surely, Generation Xers have been taking over from Baby Boomers as the majority of parents in elementary and secondary education. Gen-X parents and Boomer parents belong to two neighboring generations, each possessing its own location in history and its own peer personality. They are similar in some respects, but clearly different in others. Throughout the 1990s, educators grew accustomed to "helicopter parents," Boomer parents of Millennials who sometimes are helpful, sometimes annoying, yet always hovering over their children and making noise. Most Gen-X parents expect schools to be run like customer-oriented businesses. As with other purchases and investments, Gen Xers believe their children's education should be fair and open transaction with complete and accurate information and unconstrained consumer choice. This article offers strategies that will help schools adjust to this broad shift in generational attitudes and priorities.

Slowly but surely, Generation Xers have been taking over from Baby Boomers as the majority of parents in elementary and secondary education. In the early 1990s, Gen Xers began joining parent-teacher associations in the nation's elementary schools. Around 2005, they became the majority of middle school parents. By the fall of 2008, they took over as the predominant parents of high school seniors. Today, behold the era of the Gen-X "stealth-fighter parent." Gen Xers are bringing with them a high level of customer-service expectations, strong self-interest and a willingness to apply stealth-fighter tactics. The author, an authority on generational differences, shares his strategies for how schools can adjust to this broad shift in generational attitudes and priorities.

To hear many educators tell it, their biggest problem these days is America's high expectations of school performance. The media keep repeating how the global economy soon will require nearly all young Americans to be fully prepared for post-secondary education. Legislators keep ratcheting up state-imposed and No Child Left Behind thresholds and dictating whole new teaching methods and subject areas. Most of all, parents are pushier than ever, demanding special attention, more options and, of course, instant results. According to a recent MetLife poll, K-12 teachers contend parents have become their No. 1 professional headache. Yet there is another problem that is less discussed but probably more serious: America's low expectations of what the rising youth generation is capable of achieving. It is often assumed that today's new batch of kids is fated by history to continue along the path blazed first by young baby boomers and then trampled by young Gen-Xers. Toward more selfishness in dress and manners. Toward more splintering in life goals. Toward more profanity in the culture. Toward more risks with sex, drugs and crime. Toward more apathy about politics. And toward less interest in academic excellence and credentialed achievement. Educators need to focus on the big picture. Educators should pursue these goals not in the negative context of damage control, but as a means of harnessing the great potential of a new and different generation. Millennials have it within them to become America's next "greatest generation"--in technology, teamwork and community building. It is up to educators to help make that future happen.

The article identifies social categories inhabited by age groups to calculate how consumer and employee opinions and behavior will change, and how this will impact economic development and corporate growth.

Global economic optimism was boundless a year ago, with soaring stock markets and expanding real GDPs, but hopes for globalization are retreating due to the economic crises in South-east Asia and Russia. Some believe it is merely a salutary market correction. However it represents a more a profound shift in political, economic and social direction. The driving force is a cyclical generational dynamic, as nations experience generational transition in their leaders, with public mood matching the transition.