So, this week, we had an interesting incident at school when the iPad cameras were mistakenly turned off for about ten minutes. What ensued after that was something I found pretty eye opening. Read this article about education. Sum up what the author's argument is and then speak to what you feel the attitudes of the majority of students at ECCHS. Additionally, list what you consider your number one strength as a student and one thing on which you could improve.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-elmore/from-entitled-to-empowere_1_b_4855109.html
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ReplyDeleteTim Elmore reveals all—today’s youth feel a great sense of entitlement because of the all-too-familiar culture of leisure and reward for “participating, not producing.” In his Huffington Post article, Tim Elmore explores new age entitlement in academia and various means of combating against it. He begins his work by addressing the clear and rather surface level issues with the current generation and its mindset. Elmore takes a bit of an analytical approach to the human condition to begin with by discussing matters of interest such as family, psychology, and instinct. It does not take long, however, for him to move on from the ‘human interest’ portion of his article to an area of far greater importance. Elmore breaks from his previous area of discussion to explore the real sources of entitlement in the classroom or lecture hall. He addresses this behavior by quoting the works of Tracey E. Zinn and Joanne Jacobs, both of whom were rather concerned with the root cause of such behavior as well. It is worth acknowledging that, startling as it is, each point raised here is observable in nearly every learning environment from grade school to grad school. What is even more disappointing, however, are the statistics on grade inflation presented in the article. Despite the dismal truth of each and every observation, Elmore is not discouraged. Instead, he goes on to describe signs of entitlement and ways to combat it as an educator. Of course none of these points raised throughout the article are written exclusively for educators. Instead, this article prompts introspection. Each point Elmore raises for educators can easily be applied to students seeking self-betterment of character and disposition. This, however, is not always so obvious. And while “checking yourself” is every bit important, it is also worth discussing how the perpetuation of this current culture makes it easy to fall into a place of complicity. In a reflection of this past week, it is quite simple to identify a rather embarrassing instance of school-wide entitlement in our own building. When tragedy struck in the form of a missing camera app, panic set in across the student body. Whole class periods were halted, lectures replaced by outraged student protests, simply because a measly app had vanished from the home screen, an act that must have been responsible for offsetting the digital balance so many students worked tirelessly to maintain. And despite how ridiculous it may sound, it was easy to get swept into the hysteria. Many students caved out of stress and concern for how their academic careers would persist because of the accidental deletion of an app. It clear by this instance alone that we, a Catholic school community meant to be built on principles of selflessness, humility, and service, were acting in an embarrassingly entitled and selfish manner unfit to our Catholic identity. Our students lost focus of the privileges granted to them. We let ourselves fall into the trap of our generation. We failed to defy the culture of leisure and reward.
ReplyDeleteI feel that my number one strength as a student is my inclination to seek knowledge beyond the classroom. Independent study is important to me as someone with varying interests that generally exist outside of our curriculum. I believe learning has to be self-motivated, and that means learning independent of an institution.
I do believe that something I could work to improve upon as a student would be moderation. I lack basic discipline necessary to be an excellent student, so I have a tendency to either overwhelm or underperform. I suppose it is sort of a strange thing to be exceedingly bothered by, but it is something I definitely feel I need to exercise in order to be a better student.
Anna, I agree with you on your number one strength as a student. Just by being a classmate I can see that you are interested in getting smarter all the time.
DeleteI agree with Nolan Anna. You are always trying to expand your knowledge
DeleteI love a curios student! And if a student is curious, they are always in pursuit of knowledge. I think time management is a difficult skill to perfect. Spending too much time on one thing and not enough on another can frustrate curiosity. Knowing when enough is enough or how do measure intensity of effort is something that will come as you continue working on it. You seem very self disciplined to me, which is why any shortcomings bother you. But doing what you enjoy is good, so pursuit of things that interest you is positive as well! It all goes into the same pot eventually!
DeleteThe writers argument that is developed is that present day children and teenagers are not taught the correct prospectives of hard work and entitlement. He says that many kids today are spoiled by their parents and teachers. I do not disagree with that but who’s fault is that? It is the generation before ours that spoiled the kids of today. I also think that many kids today are spoiled because they receive a lot more attention from their parents than kids from the past generation because there are just less kids now a days. In the last generation there were many families with nine or ten kids compared to families now of one or two kids on average. The writer also says that kids want to have what everyone else has, but the world has always been like that. If you look at the yearbooks from the 1900s everyone has the same haircut, like this concept isn’t something new. However, I completely agree with the writers view of kids expecting more, demanding it, and receiving it without putting the work in. Then the writer gives eight steps on how we can better fix these problems of young people today. He says we must earn the right to be heard, be clear and consistent, communicate belief, lessen rules and more equations, expand perspectives, be a mentor, remove fear of failure, and lastly challenge them. These all sound like efficient steps that can be taken to fix these current issues. I think the majority of the students of ECC share the same thoughts. Most of the kids are willing to work hard but only hard enough to get by. Everyone is willing to put in the effort to pass a class, but very few are willing to put in the time and effort to ace the class. I fall into the category of “getting by” but why not be great? My number one strength as a student is that I cannot let myself turn in something late. One thing in which I could improve as a student is not procrastinating. If I have a paper due tomorrow that usually means do tomorrow for me.
ReplyDeleteI like the point you brought up about how families getting smaller affects how children get treated in families. I think that’s very true.
DeleteYou made a great point about the size of families being smaller today then they were in the past generation, this may be one of the causes for kids acting this way they are getting more attention.
DeleteBeing on time is a good life skill, that includes showing up and also turning things in. You will be well liked at your job if you continue that habit. A way to avoid procrastinating is to turn things in early. Get your assignments done at least one day ahead, and get in the habit of spending that last day improving upon them. Doing things well is a essential as getting them done on time, and procrastinating runs the risk of turning in crappy assignments. So, you have a new plan. It would pay off in spades if you perfected it.
DeleteWith the technology, attitudes, and laziness of today’s teens, many feel entitled to so many things one would need to work for. This is exactly what many students, including those at ECC see their education as, something that should be handed to them. We hear things like this all the time. For example, “If I pay for this education don’t I deserve one better than this?” So if it’s true that we, as students, need a better education, who’s fault is that? There’s two possible choices, either the students or the teachers. And I wish it was easy to blame it all on one or the other, but I’m not so sure the answer is that simple. First off, I feel that many of the students at the school feel they deserve an education that will give them good grades. They figure since we pay to go to school every day we should get good grades, full access to everything on our iPads, TVs, and even things we don’t have like air conditioning. The first thing many of us will say when a majority of students fail a test is, “Well, maybe if they taught it I would be able to pass it?” Is it that they didn’t teach? Or is it rather that our students don’t like to learn. On the other hand, you could very easily say, not all, but some of the teachers want to give an easy class and expect students to test at a harder level. The students then can’t do this because it was never taught right, and give up on the class because they feel defeated or like the class is impossible. Some teachers also hinder students by not always doing their part in helping. Someone I know has said they could be in a higher level math, but never learned the basics correctly. In that year they asked their teacher for help, who’s response was, “Well, figure it out and learn it.” This is exactly what they were trying to do, ask for help so they could learn it. All in all, I feel more effort could be put in on both sides, but more so more students need to push themselves to do better for themselves and their future. As a student, I think a strong point I have is that I take my work seriously. If I’m going to do something I want to do it right, it isn’t worth going half. On the other hand, I think I could work on participating more often. Sometimes I have questions about things or know answers that I never voice because I’m scared of sounding stupid. If I work hard at this and keep up my other good qualities, it will benefit me in the long haul.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me think of points I couldn’t earlier. Kids at our school do say a lot that if we pay for this education we shouldn’t be wasting our time on pointless things.
DeleteIt is a good quality to take work seriously, and spending time and effort never goes unnoticed plus it benefits your growth intellectually, one assignment at a time. Sharing your thoughts and contributing to the classroom is another way to do that, so I encourage you to work on sharing your thoughts, even if someone in the room thinks they are stupid. You never know when an idea you have is going to spark one in someone else. Also, being vulnerable takes a lot of courage, but it is important in life.
DeleteThe main argument that the writer brought to attention is that many children in this generation feel like they are entitled to anything they want. I think that this is very true, but I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault really. “it’s partly instinctual - back in the Stone Age, ‘giving to your child’ might have meant providing food, shelter and protection. Those urges are still there. Unfortunately, if you give in to every little want and need your child expresses, you are really feeding and nurturing a sense of false entitlement - which I believe can lead to problems later on.” (Elmore, Huffington Post) Considering that these urges that people get are instinctual I don’t think that this problem of entitlement will ever really become fixed. There could be no reason at all to go along with your instinct, but you will do it anyway, it’s in our nature. We will most likely continue rewarding those for “participating and not producing”, because we like to give our children everything they want instead of everything they need. This is what Elmore says we think the key is to family success. He bring this argument to in the classroom, where now because the children have that sense of self entitlement, they use it in school too. Students think that they deserve good grades because they are participating in the class, but they aren’t doing any actual work. I feel that this is true, but I’m not sure how we will ever fix this problem. During elementary, middle and high school students feel this self entitlement, and then once they get into “the real world” they struggle and have what Elmore called a “quarter life crisis”. Once these students start looking for a job, they expect it to be as easy as everything else was, but a job won’t be handed to you like everything else was during your childhood. One strength that I have would probably be outside of the classroom, I am actually interested in learning new things. One thing that I could improve as a student is procrastinating, I wait until the last minute to do things.
ReplyDeleteI agree that having wants and needs is instinctual, but I would say the entitlement teens feel today is the fault of their parents. When they give into their needs it causes them to feel they deserve everything, so it is in fact their fault.
DeleteThere is no better joy for a teacher that a student who is curious. That is what separates, for me, good students from "meh" students. And stop procrastinating. That is holding many students back, including you. It's actually not a procrastination problem, its a self discipline problem and a time management problem.
DeleteI can honestly say I can’t relate to this article in the least. My parents are extremely far from the people the author was describing in this article. Not all parents and their children are like the people the author tries to stereotype in his writing. Yes I have personally met some pretty over privileged and over entitled children, in fact I hear first hand from a certain individual what they expect their parents to do for them and how much money they demand to get for their shopping addiction. This isn’t how our society should act so I agree with the author in this aspect although I can’t recall ever getting a pity grade or a grade just handed to me for showing up. I can’t say this is a problem in our school with grades because I feel we are all expected and made to try but when it comes to the iPads we may face some issues. iPads are great tools but they aren’t free we do pay for them. I think we should be allowed to have apps that we want on them but we need to be smart and use certain things when it is appropriate. We as students need to try at school and at home on our academics but we are also allowed to use the iPads at our leisure. Some people do think that just because people give us iPads that we can do whatever we want I understand this isn’t the case but by taking things away from the entire student body due to a mistake by an individual or a group of individuals is a little much. The recent camera mishap was a mistake and wasn’t a real punishment but it makes you think, if someone does something bad again will I be punished for their mistake? The author mainly speaks about grades just being given away and parents not parenting their children correctly and raising them to expect things to be handed to them. If this problem was fixed at home then we wouldn’t need to follow the steps given my the author for teachers. I think the author should focus on the family at home and fix the issues there so teachers wouldn’t have to parent other people’s children when they are at school. Teachers are there to put knowledge in your heads not to baby you. They shouldn’t have to make themselves think they have to give you a certain grade just because you are there, we as students need to try.
ReplyDeleteI personally am really bad at procrastination. I want to live my life and spend time with my family on the weekends. I don’t want to be stuck in my room doing homework and writing papers when I could be with my family. I wait until Sunday to do my homework because my family doesn’t do anything that day so I can spend all day doing homework and I need to fix that.
As a strength as a student I don’t think I have one I think I’m just average and along for the ride with everyone else just getting my education. I don’t think I stand out for a certain trait.
I disagree with your last statement. I think that one of your strengths is that you are social. Say in a group project, if your with kids that do not communicate with each other you make the communication happen.
DeleteUsually, your strength as a student is the strength you have in other areas of your life. And procrastinators often make excuses as to why they procrastinate. The best time to do your work is Friday, right after school when your parents are still working. Getting work done first is the best way to spend time with your family because you don't have to be distracted by the dread of completing assignments all day Sunday, which is the best day, actually, to spend with your family. One of your strengths is your ability to be honest, not just with others, but with yourself. And you are very bright, but when you procrastinate, you are not giving yourself enough time to do assignments to your full potential.
DeleteTim Elmore argues that in recent years, education has taken on less meaning. Children have developed a false sense of entitlement, encouraged by educators and parents alike. This simply does not prepare students for life outside of school. In my experience, students across the country can be characterized with this apathetic view, the view that grades are all the sole purpose of education; not only is this contrary to the meaning of education, but - on top of that - there is a belief that grades are given and not earned. When the camera app was removed, students immediately became outraged, classes halted and frustration grew because, supposedly, we are entitled to a camera. Students immediately sought justification, suggesting that without a camera, some school assignments simply could not be completed, or that they would petition and protest against this tyrannical deprivation of their God-given “rights.” This is a microcosm of the culture prevalent and promulgated across the United States today. Students are entitled to free primary education in the United States, which does not entitle them to “good grades.” Earning - working - for a grade, not only for a grade, but for the sake of knowledge is something that ought to be promoted, but is absent in this complicit culture of the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteMy strength as a student: I am very capable. Take this how you will, I think I am quite capable.
My weakness as a student: I tend to procrastinate on school assignments that aren’t necessarily pertinent to the state of my life; this blog, for instance.
That statement at the end is an indicator that you have a sense of entitlement in regards to your education. So, I am glad you did the blog this weekend. And someday, you will realize that the pursuit of knowledge and the process of analyzing common problems and the analysis of those problems builds critical thinking skills that you can use for a lifetime. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!
DeleteAnd yes, you are capable. I would categorize that as an understatement.
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