Kenny,
this is a good point. I believe that some of our best lessons & future successes can be learned from our failures. If we protect kids from this, they may not be learning what they need to.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Nick - I love that response. I teach pastry, so that would be a good retort to the entitlement mind set so many of my Gen Y students have. Another observation -- they expect perfection (or perfect functionality) of everything. When I have to instruct people to make a chocolate sculpture, they are often soooo disappointed with their first efforts that did not turn out perfect that many give up and it takes a lot of coaxing to get them to complete the project.
As a gerneration X'er and teacher, I find it very frustrating to deal with the high level of entitlement the generation Y's have. As you stated, because they were all given awards for everything big, small, and insignificant, they have no work ethic or sense of accomplishment. So the day to day challenge is to keep them focused and hold them accountable.
Jeaneen,
I agree that this can be very frustrating. And while this generation has more of a "social conscience" there still seems to be a lot of "what's in it for me?" mentality.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Having students from 18-65, I run across them all.Learning to teach to the many different styles can be a challenge at times. I tend to rely on body language in order to alter as we go and get input from my fellow instructors as well as students for that.
I second this excellent point. By depriving students of walking through their failures, we deprive them of significant learning opportunities. Constructive criticism can also be a good tool, yet recent generations seem to struggle with equating "your work could be improved" with their self-worth and hear "you as a person could improve". Understanding this helps the learning tool of constructive criticism to be delivered with appropriate sensitivity to this tendency of misinterpretation.
Amy,
yes, excellent point! And when we have effective communication, we can help them separate the critique of product from critique of self.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I agree! Many in that generation are not being told they did not make "the team" or the "cheerleading squad" and that is not preparing them for life. In the workplace not everyone will get the promotion or pay increase just because they work there. Many of them will quit a job because they cannot handle the rejection.
I am a Gen X clinical instructor. I work with both Gen Y and Gen X students. I was a partial latch-key kid but definitely grew up with more self-reliance. I do get frustrated with the attitude of the Gen Y students. I refer to it as the "entitled" generations. Working with these students while they work on patients is interesting. The Gen Y seem to be more focused on getting the "testing" completed during clinic as opposed to the Gen X more focused on patient care. I've had students not complete certain aspects of patient care only because they weren't being tested on it. I think if I can understand the Gen Y characteristics more, I will be able to guide them better in the clinical setting.
My observation of GenY students is they want to be taught to pass a test. They want the chapter test immediately following a lecture. Deductive reasoning and critical thinking are skills they were not taught in public school.
DeShaun,
this is definitely an area where we need to help them improve & to really push their skills as they are lacking in this area.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
