I'm seeing a lot of this myself and it has changed the way I see this cohort of students.
On Nov 20, 2007, at 5:08 PM, Robert Wildblood wrote: > Placing blame is an interesting sport. Has anyone thought about the > idea that we are dealing with the millennium generation with the > helicopter parents who have never let their children do anything that > they didn't sanction and who have told their children all of their > lives that they are the best child in the world and that they deserve > to be praised, rewarded, given a medal just because they participated > in some activity? They also interfere in their children's education > by telling their child's teacher that "Bobby is special and you just > have to learn how to stimulate him." -- or worse. I don't blame the > students, I blame the parents who have interfered with the learning > process by telling Bobby that he is the best and most important person > in the world and that he doesn't have to try to do anything, people > should just recognize his "specialness." > > > On 20 Nov 2007, at 11:21, Marc Carter wrote: > >> >> Oh, my. Apparently I was wrong; some of us *are* blaming the >> students. >> >> Well, I'm not. Social pressures are powerful. They just are. It's a >> rare individual indeed who can consistently resist it, and I believe >> that the reason that students *can* resist it -- when they can -- >> because of people like us who encourage it. >> >> Blaming students for something over which they have little or no >> control >> doesn't change things. Working to change the situation can change >> things. >> >> But then, I'm a determinist. :) I'm much more rarely angry at >> students >> as a result. >> >> m > > > > Dr. Bob Wildblood > Lecturer in Psychology > Indiana University Kokomo > 2300 S Washington St > PO Box 9003 > Kokomo, IN 46904-9003 > 765-455-9483 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, > signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not > fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." > Dwight D. Eisenhower > > "The time is always right to do what is right." > Martin Luther King, Jr. > > "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little > temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." > Benjamin Franklin, 1775 > > "We are what we pretend to be, so we better be careful what we pretend > to be." > Kurt Vonnegut > > --- > > ======================================================== Steven M. Specht, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Utica College Utica, NY 13502 (315) 792-3171 "Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it is quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran up the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958) ---
