WOW! An article by the New York Times highlights the incredible sense of entitlement student have about college grades! And this does NOT bode well for their future in the job market!!
A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for simply completing the required reading.
This attitude is says the problem is so common that colleges are holding classes about how college grading works! James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University said: “Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’ “
Per the article,Dean Hogge says this is about “the locus of control.” The goal is to put the academic burden on the student.“Instead of getting an A, they [need to] make an A,” he said,"... if they make a lesser grade, it is not the teacher’s fault. Attributing the outcome of a failure to someone else is a common problem.”
Grade inflation and self-esteem programs have apparently created a generation of students who do not recognize that doing what is simply required makes you an "average" or a "C" student. Instead, students see an "A" the starting point. They do not understand that "trying hard" is not the same as "getting results"
This article shines a light on the problems a lot of my newly graduated students are experiencing in their jobs. They do not seem to understand the difference between adequate (C) and outstanding (A) behavior and the difference between trying (C) and achieving results (A). Several have lost jobs in this melt-down and they couldn't understand why they were let go when they "tried" so hard. They couldn't understand why the employer would be "grading" them on concrete results.
Anyone in education see this problem in your schools? What do you employers want to say?
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