Greatest. Commencement. Speech. Ever.
I’ve written a few times over the years about my loathing for commencement speeches. Like fruitcakes, there’s really only one of them, passed around from person to person with only minor variations. Most of all, they’re an exercise in blowing sunshine up the asses of graduates. But a teacher in Massachusetts finally gave a realistic commencement speech:
“You are not special. You are not exceptional,” David McCullough Jr. told graduating seniors from the affluent Massachusetts town last weekend.
The teacher’s controversial advice caught the nation’s eye, in an age where many believe today’s youth suffer from a sense of self-importance.
“Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped,” McCullough said in his speech. “Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. … But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not.”
Driving the point home, he added, “Think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you.”
I would have gone even further. A truly realistic commencement speech, rather than telling them how incredibly special they are and how they’re going to change the world with their overwhelming talents and drive to succeed, would say something like this:
Most of you will live your lives with very little joy. You’ll marry someone you’re vaguely fond of at the time and then grow detached from them as you feel trapped in a boring, loveless marriage where you spend all of your time taking care of the kids you overvalue even more than your parents overvalued you. And you’re likely to work at a job you tolerate at best and hate at worst. The vast majority of you will live and die without ever having an original thought and the most important decisions will probably revolve around who to vote for on American Idol.
Yes, I’m that cynical. And yes, there are obviously exceptions. But I’m still right about most of them.
Physicalist:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:13 am
Has anyone ever told you that you’re cynical? Oh yes, someone has.
Eric R:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:19 am
I received a birthday card years ago, one that so encapsulated my inner grump, it read…..
You know you’re getting older when you look around and wonder…..”Where did all these stupid young people come from?”
So yeah, I can go for Ed’s additional paragraph
keithb:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:22 am
How did that song go a while back?
“Birth. School. Work. Death.”
Zeno:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:23 am
I give my own students a mild dose of something like this every semester. It’s the your-problems-are-not-unique speech. The conclusion is no-I-am-not-cutting-you-special-slack. If certain students get huffy and drop the class, so much the better. Oh, you have to pass? Then work like it. Your supposed need imposes no additional obligation on me. I’m already working like crazy to correct and return all your papers overnight, so pay attention to the results and make your own necessary course corrections.
Sounds mean, I know. But no coddling.
umlud:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:25 am
I saw the “6.8 bn people” figure and thought, “didn’t we pass 7bn in Oct 2011?”
It makes me wonder whether this is a recycled speech, or if the figure is meant to be world population (~7bn) minus US population (~300mn)… which doesn’t quite work, either.
Maybe it’s just McCullough using the Google search result for “World Population”, which cites the World Bank’s 2010 estimate of 6.8bn…
steve oberski:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:25 am
“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.”- James Branch Cabel
The nice thing about Ed’s view on life is that things can only get better.
umlud:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Wow, you’re an optimistic cynic if you believe that American Idol will last that long. ;-)
Raging Bee:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:28 am
“Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped,” McCullough said in his speech. “Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie…”
Is that really at all true? Or is this just another bitter grouchy asshole spouting the same old “kids today are nothing but pampered spoiled brats” spiel that is commonly used to belittle kids who inconvenience their elders with their energy, idealism and rebellion? Seriously, I consider my own upbringing to be pretty spoiled and sheltered, but I was never as pampered as this wanker is calling a roomful of students. If I was a student working my own way through that school (and/or facing a mountain of debt after I graduate), I’d be pretty insulted at this nonsense; and so would any parents who had made real sacrifices to pay their kids’ tuition.
This may be more realistic by commencement-speech standards, but that doesn’t make it any more true.
slc1:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:40 am
It should be pointed out that David McCullough Jr. is the son of historian David McCullough, author of, among other things, biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams.
ohioobserver:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:40 am
I teach science in a district where there ARE a lot of pampered, spoiled brats. A lot of my students DO expect me and others to hold their hands and wipe their asses.
BUT…
I have many students who are self-reliant, curious, and clever. And many students who can become that way with the right attention and instruction. It’s my job to see that as many as possible avoid the deathlike fate that Ed sees for them.
I’ve been doing this for quite a while. And I’ve been successful many, many times.
It really isn’t as hopeless as that, Ed. Only most of the time.
But it’s the few people who aren’t hopeless that make the world function.
Bronze Dog:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:41 am
I grew up with a lot of the self-esteem trend in school. Sometimes it’s fun to read a deconstruction.
I’m fine with being fairly average and I’ve got no problems with having a “regular” job. I don’t feel entitled to be some super scientist, a genius CEO, Olympic athlete, or whatever. I don’t need artificial assurances that I’m the best or somehow inherently special to enjoy my life.
As for the possibility of “big” accomplishments in my life, I find it’s easier to assume I’m going to be nothing special. That way, I can be pleasantly surprised if I get a positive reception instead of disappointed if no one recognizes that greatness all those teachers said I had.
Doug Little:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:42 am
Not if we haven’t hit rock bottom yet. I fear that if climate change is neglected to the point of no return there is a still a long way to fall.
scienceavenger:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:48 am
Raging Bee said: I consider my own upbringing to be pretty spoiled and sheltered, but I was never as pampered as this wanker is calling a roomful of students.
That’s because you were (probably) never as spoiled and pampered as this generation has been. Go hang around some teenagers for a while, watch and listen, you’ll be amazed. Just one of many possible examples, I’ve had teenagers used to using a GPS to navigate around town look at me like I was crazed to suggest they ought to be able to get around a few square miles around their house without it. To them that was the equivalent of asking them to navigate by the stars. Or try getting them to not interact with any electronics for a mere hour. You’d think the machines kept them alive.
Now to be fair, the top tier of todays students have, and will, surpass anything that those of us who graduated 20+ years ago could have. They have the greatest tools available, and they’ll use them to soar to new heights. But the middle and bottom? As lazy, clueless, and self-important as any generation in my lifetime has been.
Abby Normal:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Which school hired Tyler Durden?
macallan:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
I wouldn’t call that optimistic. It’s the other way around, crap like this will be with us forever. Unless, of course, they come up with something worse.
Raging Bee:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
That’s because you were (probably) never as spoiled and pampered as this generation has been…
That might sound plausible, if it hadn’t already been said about EVERY GENERATION I’VE LIVED THROUGH SO FAR, including my own and my father’s.
I know every generation has its share of spoiled brats (not all of them from rich families, BTW); but I also know that kids who question the conventional wisdom they got from their elders are routinely called “spoiled pampered brats,” and worse. I also know there’s a lot of people who absolutely LOVE hearing other people called pampered brats — and many who love being the target of such abuse themselves, for various reasons. So I’ve learned to take such faux-cantankerous tirades with a grain of salt, especially at big public events like a commencement.
W. Kevin Vicklund:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Great rant by Raging Bee @8 – severely blunted by the fact this speech was given to high school grads that received a full education at taxpayer expense.
Reginald Selkirk:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
I love it when members of the self-proclaimed greatest generation complain about the youth and their sense of self-importance.
Michael Heath:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Ed’s blog post:
On. a. normative. scale. I’d. fail. this. speech. as. well.
I agree it’s helpful to point out it’s a cold, cruel world while also listing a whole bunch of truisms we’re taught that some of us eventually learn are bullshit, e.g., buy as much house as your monthly budget will allow, pick a specialized major prior to selecting your college or at least by the middle of your sophomore year, don’t have premarital sex.
But I also think we can have a great life where the speaker should emphasize how critical it is to make prudent calculated decisions rather than blithely floating along with misplaced faith the forces of nature will magically make everything come out fine in the end by merely coasting. And that delaying major decisions like picking a major, starting one’s career, or pursuing a spouse, is often the smartest thing we can do in our young adult life.
Throw a little science in there by noting some parts of the brain where judgment and compulsiveness are governed don’t even fully develop until they’re around 25; that it’s often wise to not even start consideration of life-altering decisions beyond an optimal general university education until you reach that age. (I got nothing to offer those not capable of passing university, with the exception they too should put off any life-altering commitments until after 25 as well.)
Raging Bee:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Actually, Kevin, the fact that this speech was made to high-schoolers makes it LESS justifiable. Don’t we WANT parents to support and encourage their kids to do well in school? Haven’t we been going on for many years about how student performance is mostly determined by parental support of their kids and the schools’ mission? Don’t we tend to condemn parents who don’t do enough for their minor children? Now this guy is acting like parents doing what they can for kids is a BAD thing?
Also, if this is a public high school, it’s a pretty safe bet that many of the students are NOT spoiled brats.
(Yes, I was wrong on several details that I could have verified before commenting. My bad. But this speech was a generic rant, with little visible regard to facts on the ground, so I don’t feel all that bad about giving a generic response.)
Abby Normal:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
jerthebarbarian:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
scienceavenger @13
That’s because you were (probably) never as spoiled and pampered as this generation has been
Fuck you.
Sorry – that’s the viceral reaction I got when I read something that had me flashing back to my youth in the 1980s when grumpy Baby Boomers told me and my generation that we were the most spoiled and pampered generation ever.
Pissed me off then – until I realized that the grumpy Baby Boomers had gotten the same thing from their parents’ generation, and likely THEIR parents said the same things about them. Ad infinitum – there are quote from ancient philosophers complaining about “the kids these days” from a few thousand years ago.
So congratulations on getting old and bitter about the “kids these days” conforming to every single stereotype that young people have about old people and generally contributing to making the world the shitty crabs-in-a-bucket place it is today! Nice job!
(Are there spoiled brats in the world – hell yes! I teach many every year. Are there more than there were when I was a kid? I dunno – I doubt it. There were a lot of brats back then too. The brats tend to grow up to be assholes and from what I’ve seen the percentage of assholes of the population in the US seems to be consistent, though since the Census folks have not yet responded to my many requests to include “How many members of your household are assholes” as a survey question, we don’t have hard numbers to go by…)
illdoittomorrow:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
If I had a nickel for every time someone of a previous generation ranted about younger people for being younger (and that goes double for The Greatest Generation to Ever Grace Humanity With Its Awesome Awesomeness), I could buy this guy and Ed a clue. With enough left over to buy a controlling share in, say, Google or Microsoft.
Aren’t speeches like this supposed to finish up with, “Get off my lawn”?
illdoittomorrow:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
“I’ve written a few times over the years about my loathing for commencement speeches. Like fruitcakes, there’s really only one of them, passed around from person to person with only minor variations.” Ed Brayton, OP
Given the dates on the quotes Abby Normal provided at #21, I’d say the “kids these days” speech is a much older piece of fruitcake.
Gregory in Seattle:
June 12th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
A curmudgeon after my own heart.
texasjim88:
June 12th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Tangentially related, but I recently attended a graduation at a private college attended in large part by the well to do. They had set up tents down the hill for lunch after the ceremony and during the opening speech the emcee jokingly assured the wealthier attendees that the tents were not an occupy encampment. He then went on to state that the antique naval cannons on the grounds had been loaded should that situation arise. Now I didn’t find this all that funny but the crowd got a laugh and I can think of a few other 1% ers, say Bashar al-Assad and the late Muammar Gaddafi, who would have found it hilarious.
Raging Bee:
June 12th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
I’d also like to note that when today’s high-school and college grads start to face, and question, the ignorance of their elders that caused so much of the misery and injustice they inherit, they’re sure to be met with the same “you young people are such pampered spoiled brats” speech Ed is celebrating here. I’m sure it will be — or already is — part and parcel of the Republicans’ efforts to erase all memory of how much better things were before they came to power.
And what the hell is so wonderful about cynicism anyway? What good have cynics ever done?
Pierce R. Butler:
June 12th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
On the other hand(s), we have Chelsea Stanton, and Jessica Ahlquist, and Damon Fowler, and Sandra Fluke, and Zack Kopplin, and Krystal Myers, and …
(Lots of) the kids are all right!
Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle:
June 12th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Bingo. This is just another verse of the same damn song old people have been singing since the first old people got old.
But, it’s particularlly galling to hear members of the Fuck You, I’ve Got Mine generation talking about kids now being the epitome of self-importance. They climbed the ladder to a comfortable middle class and pulled the ladder up behind them. how dare they complain about selfish pampered kids now.
throwaway:
June 12th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Raging Bee – Ed didn’t actually sum it up with his own take on it, he only injected his own bitterness into it.
The real subject wasn’t a rant about “today’s youth” or “tomorrow’s embittered old fart.” It wasn’t about telling them that they’re not special and should strive for nothing, or that they should do things a certain way. It was a call for them to do things their way and enjoy the pursuit of a life and dream that will not be automatically granted to them. I don’t see these as things that apply only to this generation just because it was given to this generation. The same things have been said and will continue to be said not because each successive generation is worse than the previous, but because each successive generation is just as bad as the previous was.
Here it is in context.
Tualha:
June 12th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
And some of the younger bloggers right here on this site.
Pierce R. Butler:
June 12th, 2012 at 1:55 pm
And Matt LaClair!
Emptyell:
June 12th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
It’s funny how we work hard to make a better life for our kids and then complain about them being spoiled brats.
From what I see (admittedly a small and unrepresentative sample) kids today are smarter, more critical and more aware of the challenges facing them than any previous generation. At least those with Internet access.
bobaho:
June 12th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Couple of things:
When I first read this, It did not include an attribution to the author, so as I read it, Stephen Colbert’s voice came into my head.
That said, I thought (and still believe) it was more tongue in cheek than is being bandied about hereabouts. It’s a commencement speech to high school kids. Consider the audience, how many of you attended that willingly event? This speech was more entertainment than smackdown or advice. If anything it was an admonishment to the parents not the graduates.
(FWIW – I have not attended any of my commencements, High School, BA or MA. If I go on to PhD, or more likely MPH, I doubt I will attend that either. I dislike “Pomp and Circumstance that much.)
What was that old Peanuts strip? As I recall it was something like this, Linus asks Lucy to read him a story, she picks up the book and says, “A man was born, he lived, then he died. The end”. Linus is left sitting in the last panel with his blanket and says, “Gee it almost makes you wish you knew him.”
We’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven:
June 12th, 2012 at 2:37 pm
But it’s so much EASIER to pretend young people are saying “I’M SPECIAL AND THE RULES DON’T APPLY TO ME!” If you acknowledge that they’re actually saying “This is bullshit, EVERYONE deserves better than this!” you might have to do something and it’ll be much harder to feel smug. D:
democommie:
June 12th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
“I got nothing to offer those not capable of passing university, with the exception they too should put off any life-altering commitments until after 25 as well”
I need a t-shirt that says:
“62 years–0 commitments”
Modusoperandi:
June 12th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Pah! The kids these days have it too easy! Back in my day, we had to work hard to get put down in commencement speeches!
josephmccauley:
June 12th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
This speech was given in my state, in a town famous for being affluent and snotty. It caused a good laugh around here.
It was not analyzed too much, because it was true.
scienceavenger:
June 12th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Bee raged: That might sound plausible, if it hadn’t already been said about EVERY GENERATION I’VE LIVED THROUGH SO FAR, including my own and my father’s.
It’s said about every generation because it’s true. Things keep getting better, and people are able to get more for less, and by any generations standards the next, at least again the bottom, is lazy and self-entitled by comparison. Technological advancements alone make this irrefutable IMO.
Jerthebarbarian said: Fuck you. Sorry – that’s the viceral reaction I got when I read something that had me flashing back to my youth in the 1980s when grumpy Baby Boomers told me and my generation that we were the most spoiled and pampered generation ever.
You had that visceral reaction because deep down you knew it was TRUE! You (we actually, we’re about the same age) were, and this generation is, and so will the next one. In a sense its a good comment on society, each generation building a better world than the last one had. I’m not grumpy about it at all, I tell my kids all the time that they live in the most exciting time to be alive ever, and they should be as excited about it as I am.
Teenagers just lack a proper appreciation for what those who came before them did, and how much they depend on it, (thus the appeal of Atlas Shrugged, where they get to pretend they did it all themselves) and I don’t see what’s so unreasonable about finding that a little annoying now and then. It’s like the old line about W being born on third and thinking he hit a triple. It applies to unappreciative youth as well.
'Tis Himself:
June 12th, 2012 at 3:57 pm
I’m a 64 year old Baby Boomer. My parents were solidly middle class. I managed to avoid the Vietnam War.* I went to college on the GI Bill and grad school on a scholarship. I got a decent paying government job and later got a better paying corporate job. I’m even a member of a yacht club. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve had it pretty easy.
*No, I wasn’t in college. I was in the Navy as a nuclear trained mechanic in a submarine. My military service was in the Atlantic, playing tag with Soviet submarines.
sebloom:
June 12th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Responding to Ed’s cynical last para…
Ed, I’m a baby-boomer…64 years old in September. I’m still married to the same woman I fell in love with 42 years ago…and we have a good, solid, happy, and definitely not joyless marriage. I spent 35 years teaching young children in Indiana’s public schools and while some years were better than others, I enjoyed my work. It was fun, fulfilling and I hope I made a positive impact on the children with whom I spent those years. Finally, I get a great deal of joy from spending time with my children and grandchildren and from volunteering in elementary schools. I don’t know if I’ve ever had an original thought as you seem to define that. I’m not an artist or a writer, or painter, or professional philosopher…but i have had what i consider some “good ideas” now and then. When I was teaching, I made what I considered important decisions daily. No, I made no life and death decisions..none that caused worldwide joy or sorrow, but I made decisions which had an impact on the children I worked with…hopefully for the better.
I understand your cynicism…I have the same cynicism about our political leaders, reality tv and corporate addictions. On the whole however, I feel happy with what I have experienced in my life, and I hope that, should I die tomorrow people will acknowledge that I’ve made my local sphere of influence a little better for friends and relatives.
Just out of curiosity, though, do you have any data to back up your claim that “most” of us live joyless lives in unhappy marriages and over indulge our children?
Doug Little:
June 12th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
I happen to like fruitcake!
democommie:
June 12th, 2012 at 5:39 pm
“In a sense its a good comment on society, each generation building a better world than the last one had.”
Not sure that’s gonna be the case going forward.
Modusoperandi:
June 12th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven:
June 12th, 2012 at 7:48 pm
What are you, 12?
kagerato:
June 12th, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Citation desperately needed. The reality is U.S. wages have been stagnant for the last thirty years, and average hours worked increased. Household debt exploded in the last bubble to a completely unsustainable level.
Your idea of hard work seems to exclude everything short of plowing the fields as a slave, to be honest.
iknklast:
June 12th, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Raging Bee, I can tell you this: I’ve been teaching college freshmen for over a decade, and I think this speech doesn’t go far enough. The past two or three years have seen a sudden, dramatic decline in anything resembling ability to do things on their own, to recognize that there are other people that matter, and the demand that the teacher do exactly what they want RIGHT NOW, because nothing else can possibly be as important as the problem they have figuring out a simple (and I DO MEAN simple) mathematical problem they should have learned how to do in fourth grade.
These are not, by the way, students in a pampered private, school, but students in a rural community college where the students are not at the top of the food chain. These are kids who are working for a living…but how, I can’t figure out, since they are unable to comprehend the simplest of instructions. And listening to the employers in our community, I suspect they aren’t doing any better at work. They consider themselves entitled to everything. And this isn’t a cranky old grouch talking (and no, I don’t call myself the greatest generation…I’m much younger than that, so I’m not being arrogant). I have been seeing a steady decline over the past few years, and the students are now so poorly able to negotiate the town they’ve lived in for their entire life that a student’s parents called last fall and complained to the school because when the road our school is on was opened back up, the detour signs pointing the way were taken down, and the student could no longer find his way to school. It’s getting that bad.
This speech doesn’t go far enough. Yes, I know it’s said about every generation coming up. Yes, I’ve heard all about how this is always being said. Maybe this is the boy who cried wolf – there came a time when he was right.
stace:
June 13th, 2012 at 8:13 am
And the kids are thinking, “Wow, thanks a lot, Commander Buzzkill, why not just lay down the full Waiting for Godot:
Your mothers give birth “astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”
Raging Bee:
June 13th, 2012 at 9:01 am
…I thought (and still believe) it was more tongue in cheek than is being bandied about hereabouts.
Okay, it was a joke. A very tired, old joke. Someone needs some new material.
The past two or three years have seen a sudden, dramatic decline in anything resembling ability to do things on their own, to recognize that there are other people that matter, and the demand that the teacher do exactly what they want RIGHT NOW, because nothing else can possibly be as important as the problem they have figuring out a simple (and I DO MEAN simple) mathematical problem they should have learned how to do in fourth grade.
Citation SERIOUSLY needed.
And listening to the employers in our community, I suspect they aren’t doing any better at work. They consider themselves entitled to everything.
Oh yeah, and the employers NEVER exhibit any such sense of entitlement themselves, do they?
That’s another thing that makes me so sick of this youth-bashing: our business and financial elites have totally poisoned our public discourse with THEIR outrageous sense of entitlement (“We’re JOB CREATORS, we’re responsible for EVERYTHING good in your otherwise useless lives, how DARE you question us!!!”), and we’re indiscriminately calling young people “entitled spoied brats?” Isn’t it about time we got off our asses and started thinking about what we’re actually saying?
Raging Bee:
June 13th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
This is just another verse of the same damn song old people have been singing since the first old people got old.
It probably started back in Genesis, when God saw a couple of unruly naked entitled kids eating his fruit and yelled “You young punks, get off my lawn!!! You kids today, you never had to work or create anything! You don’t want to sit quietly and listen to your teacher, but now you want to learn about good and evil on your own steam? When I was young I only got ONE day off, and you undisciplined brats want two? You think you got it hard? Just look at how hard other people had to work before I created the Universe…”
Raging Bee:
June 13th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
My idea of the best possible commencement speech would be somewhat along these lines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATJaT8P6mSE
We all know most of the speakers have nothing new to offer, so why not just be honest and lift the good stuff straight from the ‘tubes?
caseloweraz:
June 13th, 2012 at 2:39 pm
I always admired The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. At the end of it, Gully Foyle quite unexpectedly becomes a hero. His gutter-speech exhortation to the mob in Piccadilly Circus still resonates with me. Here’s the milder part of it:
For the rest, go here and scroll down:
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/108433-Solilquies-or-speeches-that-make-the-air-suddenly-dusty.
iknklast:
June 14th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Raging Bee:
“Citation SERIOUSLY needed.”
You want to see my grade book? The tests I give? The students who, 10 years ago, were able to recognize names like Rachel Carson, Rosa Parks, etc, but now can’t even ID Albert Einstein? Haven’t heard of Charles Darwin or Isaac Newton?
I’m talking about actual numbers, and they check out with other teachers all over the country that I talk to. We’re seeing it, but publications? The standardized test scores don’t show it, because students are being taught to take a test, so they can get through those standardized tests. But numbers, graphs, statistics I’ve collected haven’t been published, because I wasn’t planning on doing any sort of a paper on these things; maybe I will.
As for employers, as recently as six years ago, they were singing the praises of our students as they came out of classes into the work world.
Raging Bee:
June 14th, 2012 at 9:41 am
…The students who, 10 years ago, were able to recognize names like Rachel Carson, Rosa Parks, etc, but now can’t even ID Albert Einstein? Haven’t heard of Charles Darwin or Isaac Newton?
That doesn’t sound like kids being spoiled or pampered — that sounds like kids getting shitty education, probably as a cumulative result of budget cuts and reich-wing perversion of curricula and other educational resources. If the trend is as recent as you say it is, then it certainly can’t be ascribed to the ongoing (alleged) pampering of youth we’ve been hearing about since the dawn of time.
iknklast:
June 15th, 2012 at 6:10 pm
OK, Raging Bee, how about the fact that my students fail to recognize that anyone else has any claim to my time, including me? How about the fact that I am expected to actually do their work for them, by providing study sheets so they don’t have to take notes, giving them test questions in advance so they only have to learn the actual questions, accept that they come to school when they want to and I shouldn’t count them off on that because they were at a football game, and therefore should be excused? How about the fact that they think they are entitled to full points just for turning in assignments, even if they’ve answered the questions wrong? Our local high schools have a no zero policy – if a student doesn’t turn in the assignment, they still get half credit. Why? Because parents can’t tolerate the students being unhappy. In fact, that’s the buzzword now at the college where I teach – the students need to be “happy”. What about smart? What about educated? What about ready to go out into the world and function as a fully adult human being? No, happy.
You want documentation? You want citations? The Chronicle of Higher Education has been following the trends. The NEA has been following the trends, and it’s written up frequently in their magazine. Students are being given a lot these days, and no matter how much a teacher does for them, it’s never enough. Some of us are starting to fight back – I’ve started reducing the amount I do for them, because it’s time for them to learn for themselves. I’m getting pushback from the administration – because keeping the students (and their parents) happy is to keep butts in the seats, which keeps money going to the system.