The NY Times has an article on the parents of students who are moving into dorms right now. While "helicoptor parents" hover over their students, "velcro parents" seem to be unable to unattach themselves from their children and a number of colleges now have put into place activities and programs for parents who never can say goodbye. For the article, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/education/23college.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Quoting from the article: |Moving their students in usually takes a few hours. Moving on? |Most deans can tell stories of parents who lingered around campus |for days. At Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., a mother and |father once went to their daughter’s classes on the first day of the |semester and trouped to the registrar’s office to change her schedule, |recalled Beverly Low, the dean of first-year students. Have any Tipsters had parents sit in on their class on the first day (or first few days)? I think that I had that happen once long ago. And: |Some undergraduate officials see in parents’ separation anxieties |evidence of the excesses of modern child-rearing. “A good deal |of it has to do with the evolution of overinvolvement in our students’ |lives,” said Mr. Dougharty of Grinnell. “These are the baby-on-board |parents, highly invested in their students’ success. They do a lot of |living vicariously, and this is one manifestation of that.” Does anyone's school run workshops on "Parents' Seperation Anxiety"? Finally, this phenomenon, it seems to me, to be peculiar to certain social classes in the U.S. I doubt that one sees much of this kind of behavior at commuter colleges (though I admit to having seen something comparable at one school). I haven't had this happen in any of the classes that I have taught for "adults" (i.e., people who have went into the workforce after high school and have returned to college, often after many years). Has anyone seen this for students in graduate programs? -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4364 or send a blank email to leave-4364-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
