It’s All About U - (Ken Coates & Bill Morrison) - National Post - 11-04-11
In another book : Campus Confidential, 2 authors give us a painful truth about student life and university campuses - a truth which I discussed in Beyond Discouragement - Creativity, including a quote by an Ottawa college professor. Things are not well in academe.
It seems we have raised a few generations of entitled and spoiled young people. Like China, through its one child policy, we have raised generations of little emperors. (We just made our lives more miserable by not limiting how many 2 to 18 year olds would be telling us what to do. . . Ha!)
But it is in elementary, high school, college and universities where we see the most tangible results of our abdication of societal and parental responsibility. Universities are filled with a ragtag bunch where, today, a predominant group exists. If not the most numerous it is the most vocal collection of domineering characters.
The most generic term used for them is "The entitled".
Pros: They are “more assertive than in the past. They are very confident, able and willing to express their opinions and they are not intimidated by adults and professors.They are, in essence, very sure of themselves.
Cons: They are inconsistent in their class attendance, but expect good marks. They lack respect for professors and have poor classroom behaviour. They are litigious, and reluctant to complete assignments. They have high expectations, despite their low performance. They are unreasonable in their demands and expectations of others. They have more money than they can handle. Society allows them to do and say what they want, They come from child-centered schools and homes which had no control over any of their behaviours. But mostly, they have a deep sense of entitlement. They expect to be well off and if they are not it is the fault of someone or something else. They expect school to be easy and exams to give them passing grades whether they have earned them or not. Mean spirited retorts and litigious action is not far off if they don’t get what they want or their parents are unable to coerce the system to bow to their demands. They expect deadlines to be changed, their explanations for lax performance taken in without question and demand that courses fit their requirements.
The result (since universities are now businesses) is that the academic milieu bends to their demands - even if the ultimate outcomes are devastating to the universities, the future work force and the country as a whole.
So, once again. . . The times they are a wasting.
In another book : Campus Confidential, 2 authors give us a painful truth about student life and university campuses - a truth which I discussed in Beyond Discouragement - Creativity, including a quote by an Ottawa college professor. Things are not well in academe.
It seems we have raised a few generations of entitled and spoiled young people. Like China, through its one child policy, we have raised generations of little emperors. (We just made our lives more miserable by not limiting how many 2 to 18 year olds would be telling us what to do. . . Ha!)
But it is in elementary, high school, college and universities where we see the most tangible results of our abdication of societal and parental responsibility. Universities are filled with a ragtag bunch where, today, a predominant group exists. If not the most numerous it is the most vocal collection of domineering characters.
The most generic term used for them is "The entitled".
Pros: They are “more assertive than in the past. They are very confident, able and willing to express their opinions and they are not intimidated by adults and professors.They are, in essence, very sure of themselves.
Cons: They are inconsistent in their class attendance, but expect good marks. They lack respect for professors and have poor classroom behaviour. They are litigious, and reluctant to complete assignments. They have high expectations, despite their low performance. They are unreasonable in their demands and expectations of others. They have more money than they can handle. Society allows them to do and say what they want, They come from child-centered schools and homes which had no control over any of their behaviours. But mostly, they have a deep sense of entitlement. They expect to be well off and if they are not it is the fault of someone or something else. They expect school to be easy and exams to give them passing grades whether they have earned them or not. Mean spirited retorts and litigious action is not far off if they don’t get what they want or their parents are unable to coerce the system to bow to their demands. They expect deadlines to be changed, their explanations for lax performance taken in without question and demand that courses fit their requirements.
The result (since universities are now businesses) is that the academic milieu bends to their demands - even if the ultimate outcomes are devastating to the universities, the future work force and the country as a whole.
So, once again. . . The times they are a wasting.
No comments:
Post a Comment