Times have changed. The old ‘maps’ we used to navigate culture have quickly become irrelevant as Gen Z arrives in our institutes of higher education. Tim Elmore wrote Marching Off the Map to orient teachers to this new reality.

Of particular importance is the way Elmore defines Gen Z in contrast to Millennials. While these two generations tend to be lumped together as ‘youth’ by Boomers and Gen X, they are radically different in their orientation to life. For example, while Millennials communicate with text, Gen Z communicates with images. Millennials share things while Gen Z create things. Perhaps the greatest difference between these generations is in general outlook. Millennials are optimists, while Gen Z are realists.

Marching Off the Map isn’t all good—it was repetitive with amorphous chapters that overlapped one another. Bullet-point lists and inane acronyms abound. Most frustrating were the sales pitches. The cynical side of me wonders whether this book was created to sell Elmore’s Habitudes®, pitched not just in the endnotes but throughout the text.

In the end, this book is excellent in defining the massive shift between Millennials and Gen Z students, but weak in terms of style and content. There’s plenty of content on Elmore’s website to orient you to the main themes of his work.

Elmore, Tim. Marching Off the Map: Inspire Students to Navigate a Brand New World. Poet Gardener, 2017.