Grade Entitlement?

[elkethegreyt]

I got this link from a friend at work after a recent discussion on entitlement pertaining to newer hires at works. It was being sent around in her group of college friends and causing some heated discussions.

So what do you guys think? Are the younger folks feeling more entitled?

Comments

[electrichobbit]

And by the time we get them in university, they've had this drilled into them for 12 years...and it's impossible to teach them that the whole point of a class is to learn.

Another problem that this article doesn't address is the conception of universities as teaching businesses. If you ask most students why they're at college, they'll tell you that they want to learn the skills to get a better job (and more money, if they're being honest). This is a mission of the university system, but hardly the only one. Most universities also aim to produce an intelligensia (after all, we need to replenish our ranks) and to create a better world. Most students, being undergrads and thus slightly clueless, miss this point completely. They focus on "If I don't get an A in this class I'll never get the internship with Goldman Sachs and then I won't be a day trader by the time I'm 30 and I'll have to rent a house in the Hamptons rather than buy and all my friends will make fun of me." They forget that what they're supposed to be gaining from the university is an education. An education is a tool for many wonderful things, but making money is only one of those things.

Not that I'm irritated by this issue or anything :-)

[rebelowl42]

I agree completely.

[tashar]

Sure, but are K-12 teaching methods the only factor thatat's causing people that are just a few years younger than us to collectively feel more entitled? We grew up in the same style of learning system.

[o2bfree]

We didn't grow up in a time when the pressure was really there to pass the tests to get to graduate, etc. We had a curriculum consultant come at the first of the year to look at our program and one of the things she emphasized is that the students don't "get" grades, they "earn their grade." We have to be consistent in our terms with them.

[electrichobbit]

It's true - I haven't had to deal with much of this, actually (too much, but that's just because any is too much) and part of that is because Mathematics is seen as very cut and dry by the students. It's very easy for them to make the connection between their performance (that is, not their effort) and their grade. It helps them understand that this is the grade that they've earned.

[rebelowl42]

In short, I think it plays a large factor.

The complete and near total lack of parental involvement in their child's education is another issue. The issue of "us against them" where parents defend their child to the point of absurdity against the teachers/administrators doesn't help either.

[tashar]

I have a feeling most of our parents were involved (compared to the ones you have experience with as a teacher)...and in my case, the family/cultural philosophy is you honor first "God, then your gurus (teachers, not experts, as in the American sense of the word), and then your parents."

TINFOIL HAT ALERT

[rebelowl42]

Ok...

I know that this is VERY tin foil hat of me...but I think it may just be possible.

One of my biggest problems with the majority of the things in NCLB is that they seek to flatten the bell curve. When you measure who passes a test, but not how well they do otherwise that flattens the top in one way. When you put pressure on school districts to make low performing students pass the test, but don't give anything to those that consistently exceed expectations you discourage working with the top students. When you "include" special ed and mixed ability levels in the same classroom (as we are required to do now) you flatten the curve even more, since the smart kids are sitting there bored off of their asses for most of the day.

All of this could lead to the conclusion that the goal of NCLB was to reduce the number of students truly prepared for college and thus deprive the democrats (whose children are overwhelmingly products of public schools) the next generation of intelligentsia.

I know, I know...very far fetched and ridiculous...on the other hand, Carl Rove did once go off on a rant on a talk show about how liberal college professors are destroying this country and we need to get some real conservative teachers in those institutions.

Re: TINFOIL HAT ALERT

[electrichobbit]

But as long as they keep chronically underfunding education, only idealistic liberals will be teachers. And their plan will fail. Morons.

Re: TINFOIL HAT ALERT

[wyvernmoon]

WEll, no one said they were smart conspirators. After all, if they were, they might not need to flatten the bell curve, now would they?