The Observation Deck

A corporate recruiter was speaking to a group of recent college graduates. During the question and answer period one of the students asked the recruiter to describe the students generation using one word. The recruiter responded: Entitled.

If anyone is wondering why record amounts in spending for education achieve so little here is a hint:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/educa ... llege.html

Money quote: ...grades should take a back seat, and holistic and intrinsically motivated learning should take place."

I'd say the Entitled Generation is the previous generation that received massive amounts of government money in the form of GI Bill education benefits, low VA mortgage rates, Social Security payouts far beyond what was put in, utility charges that were never priced high enough to save for future needed improvements, and so on....

Oh my, that honor belongs to the over 60 crowd! Isn't that YOUR generation, Bill?

I don't have any first-hand information to share here, but as a number of my friends now have children in college, from what I here, even with outstanding grades and credentials, the "full-boat" scholarship has eluded them. They are still having to pay much out-of-pocket, unlike in the days of yore.

I would be real careful too about using the word "entitlement", as well.

There are reasons that people became "entitled"...

...and a great many, if not all of those reasons,

were, and are MORE THAN valid.

GI Bill? VA loan? ....trade 4+ years of your life...or maybe ALL of it, to get these modest considerations in return...maybe, depending on the whims of Congress, that is.
Disability? Where you potentially endure years of hateful condesension and ostracism in trade for a few bucks? Seems hardly fair, doesn't it?
Socio-economic disadvantage? Would you rather pay for training future taxpayers, or for the incarceration of potential criminals?
Hint...job training and education is cheaper. By far.

There are reasons that people became "entitled"...

good ones.

Don't be bitter Bill

Jim DeVito wrote:Don't be bitter Bill

I'm just making an observation about a students expectations. If you work really hard and get a C do you deserve an A? If you don't work very hard at all and get an A do you deserve a C?

Years ago I took a real estate class at Tri-C. One student was complaining about her grade. She got a D. The instructor asked, "What grade did you want?" She replied, " I want's a B." He took the test from her hands, changed the grade and said, "OK, you got a B". I thought it was a bit unusual at the time and maybe it was. It seems now that that attitude is the norm.

Would you rather be operated on by a doctor who aced all of his classes and excelled as an intern or a doctor who tried really hard but just didn't get it?

Grace: I'm not that old. But I am old enough to know that the younger generation just never measures up!

I got ya Bill. Grades giving or not giving I find people respect hard word and dedication better. But what do I know.

Bill Call wrote:

The instructor asked, "What grade did you want?" She replied, " I want's a B."

Playing the race card again?

No one quite measures up to you, do they Bill? Women, union members, teachers, teenagers, blacks; they all somehow manage to work the system and get an unfair advantage over you.

Poor, poor, white male. I don't feel sorry for you but you sure do feel sorry for yourself.

I agree with Grace the entitlement generation has been around for a loooooong time. Bill just out of curiosity when it comes time for you to be old enough to receive social security and medicare are you going to say "no thanks"? And what is god forbid something happened to you and you needed disability would you also thumb your nose at that?

Grace O'Malley wrote:Bill Call wrote:

The instructor asked, "What grade did you want?" She replied, " I want's a B."

Playing the race card again?

No one quite measures up to you, do they Bill? Women, union members, teachers, teenagers, blacks; they all somehow manage to work the system and get an unfair advantage over you.

Poor, poor, white male. I don't feel sorry for you but you sure do feel sorry for yourself.

Actually, the women was white.

College instructors are taking seriously the idea that it is not what is learned that is important but how hard someone tries. Is that the new measure of excellence, how hard you try? What affect will that have on government, business and universities? Are you even a little curious?

Well Grace, I'm not quite 60 either, but I'm closer there than I am to the crowd that Bill is discussing - I'm assuming my children's generation.

I think you are right Grace, our generation did have it in many ways much easier than our children.

1) When I went to school, there was no pay to play. Everyone regardless of their income could participate in sports, choirs etc. There was little pressure on kids who did participate in sportsto choose 1 at an early age and do only that. There were lots of kids that played multiple sports especially boys. (now I do think with Title 9, girls do have more opportunities to play sports today.)

2) When I went to college it was much more affordable and there was financial aid which met need when a child's family couldn't afford it. Now, the price is significantly higher and students have to go into debt and so do their families if their child wants to go to college. Heaven help them if they want to go on to graduate or professional school.

3) It was pretty easy to get a job in my day. Now, at least in North Ohio, my children's friends are having a very hard time finding a job. Graduates in Education with A averages in science are in pools of hundreds to apply for 1 teaching position. It is brutal.

Now there are somethings my children's generation does do better than mine and that is technology. If I had to sum up this generation using one word, I would say they are connected or technologically inclined. They grew up with technology even more than my generation. They can't imagine a world without the internet or e-mail. They expect to be able to fax. They can't imagine not being able to call via a cell phone or text message someone or im them. Many use Ipods or some such item and know how to download things from the internet. Many do their shopping there. They expect to be able to have information available at their fingertips.

If I think about the differences between my childhood and teen years and theirs, that is the biggest difference.

JMHO

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I don't see any indication that this is a generational issue so much as some people in every generation feeling entitled.

Regardless, good grades in college have done roughly nothing for me up to this point except encourage me to spend thousands of dollars in living expenses to get a Master's degree that is also proving rather unhelpful.

Playing the race card again?

No one quite measures up to you, do they Bill? Women, union members, teachers, teenagers, blacks; they all somehow manage to work the system and get an unfair advantage over you.

Poor, poor, white male. I don't feel sorry for you but you sure do feel sorry for yourself.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you.

YODA

when I was at the community college, Dr.Rakowsky used the term "gentleman's C". it may have been "gentleman's B". He used it to describe what many of the legacy students at Yale and Harvard received. It does not quite matter what they received though. They had begun the process of matriculation at boarding schools with other rich kids. They know how to speak the right cant of power politics and policy steering. at least in some circles.

Heather Ramsey wrote:I don't see any indication that this is a generational issue so much as some people in every generation feeling entitled..

That is a good point.

Entitled can been interpreted as an expectation of a better life aka the American Dream. That is a good, healthy expectation based on an optimistic view of the future.

Entitled in the sense that I mean is more an expectation that a better life, aka, the American Dream, is a right.

I think we see that played out in the so called housing crisis. If California housing prices decline by 50% they will be worth 100% more than they were worth 10 years ago. And yet there is an expectation that the federal government should spend whatever it takes to maintain those price levels.

I think grade inflation is reflection of a growing sense of entitlement of not opportunity but of result. In this case: " I tried really, really hard so I deserve and A. It doesn't matter that I still don't understand the material."

Heather Ramsey wrote:Regardless, good grades in college have done roughly nothing for me up to this point except encourage me to spend thousands of dollars in living expenses to get a Master's degree that is also proving rather unhelpful.

Higher education in the United States has become just another ponzi scheme. College costs have increased at a faster rate than any other service, including medical care.

Bill,

I think "economically-disenfranchised" is more apt a term for many of us between the ages of 30 and 45. My grandparents worked themselves through college during the Great Depression (grew up hearing about it everyday) and yet, their kids (my parents) weren't saddled with the omnipresent spectre of trillion-dollar debt and "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" quarterly market expectations most of their adult lives.

Now, I'm where they were 25-30 years ago, and there's just no comparison given the complexities and consequences involved. Between Ronald Reagan and the Baby Boomers, 2 decades of political expediency has now predetermined how my middle-class American Dream will play-out. I lived right, saved liked Grandma and Dad told me to. Stayed out of debt, put down my 20% for the house, get my 2 weeks by the Shore so I don't shoot-up the neighborhood. I've spent most of my adult life watching the generations-in-power ignore the fiscal writing on the wall concerning long-term shortfalls for Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare.

Now, those who have cashed-out of the system and have come to rely on those services tell me what's gone wrong with the system and how my generation should shoulder the burden and make do with less. Fine. My toddler daughters are in for $37K a piece, according to the GAO. The guy I just voted into office, he's so up to his eye-balls in his predecessors' poor decision-making and total disregard for sound budgetary policy, my/his issues will never see the light of day.

I can handle coming to grips paying for decades of forth-coming economic malaise based on your calls for "Get yours while the getting's good," but when a generation/generations lose the economic ability to budget and fund their political legacy, trying to make the world a slightly-better place than the one their grandparents left them, that probability is never taught in Civics class. Being an American doesn't entitle me to anything. But maybe future generations of Americans should be entitled to not being left holding the bag.