Ch011 Paid Year of National Service (2029)

Serializing Experiential Insight Colleges, how Women In Congress redeemed liberal arts college curriculum and teaching methods

After Women’s Summer Conference 2028, “the lights started to go back on. “Well, what do ya know?” Quality of Life could be easily and cheaply impacted by simple-face-to face exercise sequences in Best Practice people skills?

- The “heads-down generations,” those born after 1985, was not caused by cell phones per se. It was caused by a lack of interpersonal competency skills in younger generations,

- Women’s Summer Conference 2028 demonstrated these skills were teachable, not unknown, not mysterious,

- Parents were unable to teach such skills to their children, as they themselves were ignorant. People skills could no longer be taken for granted,

- Best Practices in “people skills” were best taught in low-tech, classroom settings with movable chairs,

- Training content was practicing effective relationship skills to negotiate needs, requests and conflicts,

- Not telling, not talking about people skills; but, practicing new skills was the key,

- People skills were most efficiently practiced and conveyed in low-tech, face-to face classroom settings; and

- With a heartfelt look and feel, such trainings were FUN.

Many attendees understood Conference 2028 demonstrated powerful tools for building local community and local group coherence.

Follow-up research interviews were full of stories of attendees taking these new skills home, sharing them with others, building on them. Just as Women had imagined, this was an idea whose time had come. Best Practice People Skills carried into the body politic and mainstream public, became more widely known, spread more and more widely.

Hundreds of people from the “influencer class” attended Conference 2028. Influencers came away with a vision of how — perhaps everyone — could benefit from improved people skills. Influencers were eager to share what they had learned. In the next six months many interviews, podcasts and tele-summits followed. A wave of hope went out from Conference 2028, rippling thru the United States and the world, wherever people — predominantly women — were receptive.

Various think tanks were also quick to respond. Three DC think tanks immediately began work on setting up group facilitator training program so their values would be taught to future generations.

The lights go back on in academia

Researchers did follow-up interviews and studies on Conference 2028 attendees. Copy-cat pilot programs were staged at several universities and research studies written up. As research papers accumulated on the effectiveness of explicit training in and practice of Best Practices in Interpersonal Competency, it was harder and harder for school and college districts to say, “Kids will learn how to be civil to each other automatically.”

Gradually, over the next 15 years, Best Practice People Skills became classroom curriculum in more and more colleges and high schools. These same schools often then appeared in the top ten schools ranked in the US for students to attend; and, as places to teach.

The trick? The key? The process had to start with top administrators; then, work down to each faculty department. This inevitably required outside consultants. Women In Congress set up a Consultancy business to accommodate these demands. The initial clients most often requesting support were colleges, high schools and hospitals facing low morale. They were referred to training orgs known for effective results and trainings with a heartfelt look and feel.

An unexpected benefit: Many alumni, concerned about new directions their school was taking, became interested, then engaged, in learning and practicing Best Practices in getting along with others. Over the next 25 years, for colleges with large endowments, this had a lightening impact on where funds were invested.

Summer Conference 2029?

In fall-winter 2028, at first, Conference 2029, was conceived as “more of the same,” more and different face-to-face interactive exercises. More live, face-to-face methods of creating safety and trust between people, so:

- problems could be raised,

- needs-requests voiced; and

- negotiation of needs and conflicts handled with more grace, ease and fun.

But things did not go as planned.

Escaping from life

Due in part to Conference 2028, how to repair damaged social-cultural norms became a national topic among women. In the Fall of 2028, public commentators began talking about how youth, ages 12–25, were “majoring in escapism.” 18–25 year olds were plagued by shrinking numbers of good jobs, declining work opportunities, declining college opportunities. How were they responding?:

- “Escaping from life, by going to College” (college as ivory tower escapism),

- Escaping into material greed, money-making and consumerism,

- Escaping into “Good Ol Boy,” white-male-macho Southern Confederacy nostalgia,

- Escaping into video games, sex, drugs, rock n roll.

Older adults with maturity, understood each of the above was an addictive trap. Younger generations lacked this wisdom. The “culture of escapism” became a national topic, fueled by the spiraling suicide rate across all ages, demographics, male and female.

This resulted in a landslide of interest focussed on the Aspen Inst. Service Year Alliance.

A Year of paid national service

FROM: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/service-year-alliance/

Quote

Gen. McChrystal’s 2015 call for improved national service, inspired the mission of the Aspen Institute Franklin Project. In 2016, the Franklin Project — a program of the Aspen Institute — at Be The Change and the Service Year Exchange, incubated by the National Conference on Citizenship — merged with ServiceNation, to form the Service Year Alliance.

Service Year Alliance is working to make a year of paid, full-time service — a service year — a common opportunity — if not an expectation — for all young Americans. A service year before, during, or after college — or as a way to get back on track — gives young people the chance to develop their skills, make an impact on the lives of others, and become the active citizens and leaders our nation needs.

Service year contributions have the power to revitalize cities, uplift and educate children at risk, and empower communities struggling with poverty. Shared service can unite the most diverse nation in history, binding people of different backgrounds through common cause.

Service Year Alliance is asking nonprofits, higher education institutions, cities and states, companies and foundations, policymakers of both parties, and people of all ages to join the movement.

To Learn More — https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/service-year-alliance/

end Q

In the Fall of 2028, the recording of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show offering ways for more Americans to get involved in national service, received four million additional views.

After Sum Conf 2028, attendees were inspired to engage and support orgs offering solutions to youth malaise. Hope was ignited by encouraging young people to be of service both to themselves; and, to others, many youth could and would pull themselves out of despondency. “A Service year allows youth to do something which leaves a mark, not just on the nation and their fellow Americans, but on themselves.”

Mothers agitate to make a National Service Year mandatory

Mother’s Against Suicide proposed a Year of National Service as an obvious antidote, “Putting your own time, attention and labor into making the world better, one shovelful at a time, if need be.”

The Mothers group was the first serious proponent for a law requiring a Year of Paid National Service primarily for those 18 years old; and, graduating from high school. For most, this year would fall between the end of high school and the beginning of college. Germany had offered something similar for 50 years, the “gap year.” For a young adult, a life without purpose wasn’t much of a life. Service to self, and to others, is the easy way for young adults to feel meaning and purpose in their lives.

Green Stewardship jobs

The idea of a Paid Year of National Service had been kicking around the US since the 1980s. Usually adults conceived of this as social service work in, teaching, nursing homes, and daycare facilities. On an individual basis, for teens who preferred caring for children and people, paid jobs were available in schools caring for children. For some, Teach for America was an option. All positions spent some time enrolling 18 year olds to register to vote.

However, in 2029 polls taken on what work youth aged 18–25 were most interested in, Green Stewardship jobs topped the list. A great need existed for environmental repair work, maintenance and upgrading of SpaceShip Earth.

Repair jobs on roads, bridges and the like, were already underway due to the Joe Biden infrastructure bills. The Paid Year of Service was more focussed on creating and offering paid work in the Green Stewardship sector. Many already knew of the California Conservation Corps. https://ccc.ca.gov This organizational format was replicated and developed to create tens-of-thousands of additional livable-wage work in industries you in 2022 are likely not familiar with yet:

- Restorative Agriculture, building healthy soils on farms large and small,

- Restorative Forestry, restoring forest microbiomes,

- Restorative Aquaculture,

- Topsoil Creation Management,

- Restorative Rainforest Management and Enforcement.

Virtually an infinite number of “shovel-ready” Green Stewardship jobs existed in many states.

Bi-partisan support was present from the start. Legislation passed easily. The Year of Paid National Service bill was universally popular. Funding came easily. It was quickly signed into law. In 2022 dollars, the wage was $15/hour.

In the second year, 9,000 teens were gainfully employed in local economies, service jobs and green industries. In the third years 20,000 teens were employed. Discussion began about how to enable the option of a second paid year of public service and what restrictions should be put on entry to a second year. This gave hope to many males, most of whom were on the autism spectrum scale. For them college was of no interest, remote or impossible. For those to whom the Armed Services did not appeal, this was a godsend.

National Service after high school, as an alternative to college, was successful at reducing:

- teen and young adult suicide,

- youth on welfare; and,

unwed mothers.

In the first year of paid service alone, the suicide rate for persons under age 25 dropped 45%. After the third year it dropped 62% from the pre-program level.

Detractors of the Paid Service year tried to explain this decrease in suicides on other factors, but nothing would stick. The national decrease really did seem to be tied directly to happier, more hopeful teens and young persons in, or looking forward to, a year of paid National Service and brighter job prospects afterwards. It gave teens lacking direction after high school a break from schooling to work out their feelings and choose a positive life direction. One or two years of National Service, sometime out of state, sometimes in-state, did more to end self-destructive male cultures of drug addiction, alcohol, and video gaming, than anything else.

As you would expect, most elected legislators held annual or semi-annual live Town Hall discussions in their districts to “take the temperature” of their voters on current issues. The public response to the Year of National Service was universally enthusiastic. Support was strong across all party lines. Many voters agreed, this was clearing up despair and confusion among young people.

School shootings, kids killing kids, also declined. After the third year of the Program, school shootings dropped to zero for a 12 month period for the first time in ten years. The Parkland Teens and other school-shooting survivors protesting school killings and climate change, changed course. They unified behind support for, and working in, the Paid Year program.

Some inspired youngsters came forward with new, crazy ideas of how to improve SpaceShip Earth. Many of these new ideas first circulated as independently produced four and 16 page comic books. Surprisingly, a few years later, a large fraction of these “crazy dreams,” became practical ideas for businesses, useful inventions, policy innovations and so on.

Over the next ten years, the Program smoothed out career paths for hundreds of thousands of teens. Each of them got to experiment: “What am I most suited for and passionate about on SpaceShip Earth? Where are my talents most workable?”

Many Service grads go into local organizing

Another unexpected benefit, after five years of Paid Service Year, it was noticed a fraction of Service year grads went directly into local organizing; and then, into local city politics; or, into a college degree program and then into state and national politics. 60% of Year of Service grads who chose this path were female.

In its fifth year, polling of Service Year grads revealed:

- For many it was an alternative to college, an alternative to running up a big college tuition debt,

- For many, a year or two off after high school supported them making better decisions about going to college and selecting a major when they got there,

- Representatives from worker unions came to meet with the committee within Women In Congress tasked with managing the Service Year program. Union representatives from the electricians, the welders, the plumbers, and the construction worker asked for 18 year olds be given opportunity to work as trade apprentices for a year. There assumption was a large fraction would find this a meaningful and rewarding career track to follow.

- The Consortium of Worker-owned and Operated Businesses met with the Committee and suggested how many 18 year olds they could handle and benefit from as trainees in various co-ops. What drew worker-owned businesses to Service Year applicants was in their intake testing, they consistently had a much higher Emotional Intelligence (EQ) score around cooperation and teamwork than the average high school or even college grad. The Committee was delighted to make this additional opportunity available to young participants.

Each year thereafter, both trades and worker-owned co-ops attracted growing numbers of 18 year olds into the Paid Year program. Ten years into the Program, almost as many youngsters went this route into a career as followed the route of corporate employment with and without college.

Was Paid Public Service socialism?

Desperate Regressives on the Right used anything and everything injure the program. They called the program a “Red diaper” program to raise more communists (critics knew they could only win if they started a fight). Women simply ignored them, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Women wanted to learn what was possible, how quality of life could be raised and self-responsibility instilled, in every disturbed population demographic.

Since the 1980s, zombie apocalypse imagery was the biggest metaphor for the young, depicting their hopelessness about their own future. Unexpectedly, after the first three years of inductions, zombie apocalypse imagery, in all media, began to decline. New zombie books, TV and movies were no longer guaranteed commercial hits. This was an unexpected and welcome surprise to the majority of women.

Zombie imagery was replaced, with more grounded, practical, hopeful stories of futures, workable for people in their teens and 20s. A Year of Paid National Service stimulated many young artists, writers and creators to express more hopeful visions; and in this way, antidote sick pop culture imagery.

Green New Deal and the Military

Did I mention how new enlistments in US military branches were affected? Green Stewardship Paid Year of Service offered much healthier work environments (no one firing bullets at you) focussed on preserving and nurturing life. Since the program began, military enlistment declined 5% per year. By 2032 total military personnel was shrinking by 5% to 10% yearly. Studies showed job satisfaction was much higher in green jobs than in every branch of the military except the Marines. Guess what? This was a goal of Women In Congress. It aligned with their long-term goal to de-militarize the world.

If you were young, and you imagined your world as a dog-eat-dog zombie apocalypse, the military life looked like a a much safer place to work. However, when the world’s future looked more hopeful, it felt safer to act on your own visions, dreams and goals.

Even greater synergy emerged between the Paid year program and Regenerative Agriculture colleges, our next Chapter.