"special snowflake" syndrome
I am currently teaching the Wedding Cake module of my school's curriculum. I've spent the past 3 weeks showing them (and them reproducing my demos) various techniques that would qualify as approved techniques for the practical. They are to sketch a wedding cake and reproduce it. I seem to get a lot of resistence from the students when I give them advice using my past experiences. When giving Gen Yers creative license they get very offended (hurt?) if I don't appreciate their vision and are even surprised when their grade doesn't represent what they feel they deserve. I have even given them the same rubric I use and they grade themselves before I do, oftentimes they point out their own mistakes, and they still don't understand that I'm grading subjectively. I am clearly frustrated by all of this. You can't teach someone who doesn't feel they need to improve even though they enrolled themselves in culinary school.
Lisa,
this is an understandable frustration. Sadly many of these students have been told for so long that "it's all good" so no matter what they do we need to applaud it. However, we do need to help them realize that there are acceptable ways or ideas & some that aren't "bad" but they may not sell. Especially in your field, the customer gets to decide & we can be as creative as we want to be, but if there isn't a market, we don't make money.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Accountability is something I struggle with alot in the classroom with my students. Trying to teach Gen Y's this trait is tough..
I agree! The "its all good" attitude ... I hadn't thought about it until now but the fact that there is rarely "trying out" for a team anymore... The new culture is to allow everyone on the team so not to hurt/offend anyone. Instead of the most recent days of 30 trying out and 20 making the team... It does make it hard in the classroom with the attitudes of entitlement.
Agreed the most frustrating part of the Y generation is the sense of entitlement.
I would agree that we seem to have seen the end of negative feedback being a useful tool. Not only do children not want to want to hear that their performance wasn't perfect, but often parents don't want to hear that either. So, everyone gets a trophy; everyone makes the team. This is not the way the world works, however. Because of this, I have no qualms with providing negative feedback if I feel that it's merited. I give this feedback in a respectful manner, but I provide the truth. They may not be appreciative of it in the present, but it's something that will be valuable looking back. Sometimes the people we end up appreciating most, we did not at the time, unfortunately.
I am a Gen X but closer to Gen Y and I am even frustrated with the since of entitlement my Gen Y students have, or just the young generation in general and I am quite young in my opinion. Critical Thinking and Taste Level is very much lacking.
I try constantly to let me know that the career field they are choosing is not going to be as forgiving as school is, because there is always going to be someone right behind them to snap up a job that they let go by not holding themselves accountable. Some seem to get it and sadly more seem not to understand.
Heather,
this is a sobering truth that we need to keep in front of our students. They must bring their "A game" to work everyday.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I also agree with this.It is a constant struggle in the class room. I just let them make up a grading sytem on how they would grade if they were in my shoes. wish me luck
Shana
Lisa,
I understand this all too well. I recently had a group of students that questioned my grading. I invited them to contact me so that we could discuss and breakdown how I came up with the grades I did. After opening up a forum with them and going through all the areas that they were being evaluated on, it became clear to them. I did get a few that were offended but I reassured them that this their grade was not based on anything other than what they gave me. I was not comparing them to myself or any other student but rather on their own performances. I kept me responses to them short and to the point. Some of the students showed great talent but fell short of the smaller things that are would eventually be what future employers tend to focus on more that over all skill, i.e. personality, communication, appearance, etc.. In the end it made sense to them and the ones that really wanted to make a life long commitment to the craft appreciated the response.
Lisa you may be frustrated but you are abosultely doing the right thing. You are helping them and preparing them for reality.
i also agree. This generation has been proven to always have sence of entitlement. Some feel they can make there own rules with no effect on others .
eric,
an important lesson to help this generation learn is the consequence of their actions & how they impact others.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Lisa - I have also taught the Wedding Cakes curriculum. It was difficult to convey to students that their artistic vision wasn't acceptable. You might as well have told them that you thought they were a bad person, rather than the quality of their work and design needed editing.
I have added a "no hot mess" section on some grading rubrics. Just because you show up and produce a product doesn't mean that it's what was required or requested or even in good quality.
Stacy,
this is a very delicate aspect the grading for this generation. We have to help them realize that there are standards by which we grade them & by which they will be evaluated by bosses & customers.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I am very careful to calculate grades as objectively as i can. When i evaluate their library assignments or case studies I look at completeness of answer, logical thought and reference sources. They are given a numerical score for everything they do-the points add up to the grade they earn.
Not everyone gets a trophy for just showing up.
I feel we have an obligation to prepare these students for their careers. School is where they are supposed to make the mistakes they need to make to learn their material. Enabling them to continue thruout their academic career as "snowflakes" will only cause them to melt down on the job. If my students don't learn what they need to know they will kill something! And a quick text certainly will not fix that! That's a pretty high price to pay because they don't "respond well to negative feedback".
this is an understandable frustration. Sadly many of these students have been told for so long that "it's all good" so no matter what they do we need to applaud it. However, we do need to help them realize that there are acceptable ways or ideas & some that aren't "bad" but they may not sell. Especially in your field, the customer gets to decide & we can be as creative as we want to be, but if there isn't a market, we don't make money.
Rejandra,
this is true, although I would take issue with one statement: I do think there are "bad" ideas. Now, we need to separate the idea from the person, in that the idea may be bad but the person is not stupid. But we do need to help these students realize that some of their ideas are bad & could be harmful.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I have also run into to this in my classes...especially in radio studio classes. However, I'm not too sure if this is a generational problem, or the nature of the beast in a performance driven program. What I will tell them is that I am only telling them what a potential employer will tell them. It does help that my experience will help them understand the feedback. With some of them, it works.
