The formative years of high school and college are a critical "rite of passage" for many of us. But many of today's Taiwanese youth are facing almost certain unemployment after graduation, and even if they do land a job, they are destined to face ultra-low starting salaries and the stigma of being labeled "the Strawberry Generation" (stemming from the perception that they are fashionable yet fragile).

So just what do these 15-22 year-old "overgrown kids" expect from their lives? What sort of troubles are they facing? To get to the bottom of these and other questions, CommonWealth Magazine undertook a survey, mailing out questionnaires between Oct. 2 and Nov. 4.

What Shyu Hsin-yih, director of the Center for Learning and Teaching at Tamkang University, found most jarring upon first seeing the survey results was "that our high school and college students are so shockingly lacking in role models."

Free to fill in the blank on the questionnaire, respondents most frequently stated "no one" when asked whom they considered a role model, with "father" trailing far behind, tied for second with "self" and somewhat ahead of "mother." (Table 1)

Half Don't Know What They Want to Do

A doctor of education, Shyu notes that growth routinely begins with imitation. Lacking role models, nearly half of these college students, newly emancipated from the pressure of high school academic advancement, "don't know what they want to do with their lives" (Table 2)

Chen Fei-chuan, director of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology's Counseling Center, is similarly concerned over the phenomenon of a "loss of direction." She recommends that young people take a broad read in their search for a direction in life, not limiting themselves to business or political figures, but also considering examples from the fields of religion and public service.

Despite lacking long-range life goals, the survey respondents remained very concerned about their relationships with those around them, and this was a major source of self-confidence. (Table 3)

Furthermore, half of respondents hoped that schools could offer more guidance for students on their abilities to take part in society. (Table 4)

When asked, "What sort of person do you most want to become?" over half of respondents simply declared, "an ordinary but happy person." (Table 11)

Psychiatrist Dr. Wang Hao-wei highly recommends that college students preparing themselves to step out into the world get busy and "knock around a bit, get a part-time job, hang out with different friends and take part in different social group activities."