It's Not Just Me, Is It?

I've been reading some blogs by academics who comment on their problem students without providing any identification for said students. I'm surprised at the similarity of their experiences.

More than one has reported on a student who fails a course, or receives a very low grade, who then blames the professor for the grade. Often the problem student has simply stopped coming to class and fails to complete assignments. In almost all cases the student who goes to the department head with their complaint loses that battle, too, once the department head reviews the grade sheet and syllabus. In other words, the department head backs the professor once the professor demonstrates the student truly deserved the low or failing grade, based on the syllabus and completed (or lack of) work.

I'm quite aware, however, that such is not always the outcome. In this age of "customer service" mentality exhibited by some colleges concerned with retaining students and their tuition dollars, the student has a greater chance of whining his or her way to a better grade, even if it isn't deserved. Some department chairs do not back their faculty even when the evidence clearly establishes the student has failed the course.

And in small schools, word can get around pretty quickly which department heads give the breaks to the students.

More than one academic blogger has commented on the sense of entitlement to good grades many students exhibit today. I'm guessing it is a relatively small percentage of the total college student population. And a certain percentage have likely always had a sense of entitlement to good grades. But I also think the percentage has grown over the past 30 years. There's far too much discussion in the academy about grade inflation for me to believe otherwise.

One wonders what these students will do in the real world when their employer doesn't share their sense of entitlement, especially with the continuing tight job market. One also wonders what our society has done to create this sense of entitlement. I'm all in favor of wanting something better for your children, and am certainly the beneficiary of a generation believing its children should and would do better. But I also don't believe I had any thing just handed to me.

While my parents certainly tried to make my life as comfortable as possible, they expected me to contribute to that comfort level, and to earn what they worked hard to provide. That meant working around the house (what used to be called chores), holding a job that provided my spending money, some of which had to be saved for college, and trying my best at what ever I undertook. They didn't expect me to be perfect. They didn't even expect me to always be successful. But I at least had to try, or accept the consequences of my (in)action.

Have we lost that ideal? Am I looking at the past with rose-colored glasses?