Leadership's Future: Entitled To Good Grades
by Miki Saxon
Can you imagine telling your boss that you deserve a raise because you come to work on time every day?
Or that she shouldn’t fire you for poor performance because you tried really, really hard?
Last week on Leadership’s Future a young man named Andrew started a conversation. During it he gave me a link to an article in the NY Times about student expectations.
Expectations based on that sense of entitlement which makes me nuts.
It seems that today’s students expect an A if they attend class and turn in assignments.
And it’s wrong for the professors to consider the quality of work, since a lower grade will affect their job opportunities and that’s not fair.
“A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading. … Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.”
It’s not surprising, since K-12 inflates grades, passes everyone in order to keep their funding, and fires teachers who cling to the out-moded idea that school is a place to actually learn.
Here are two student quotes that seem to sum up a majority viewpoint…
“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade. What else is there really than the effort that you put in? If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point? If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.” –Jason Greenwood, senior, University of Maryland
“I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.” –Sarah Kinn, junior, University of Vermont
As hiring managers and potential colleagues I’m sure this attitude thrills you no end.
Do you find it terrifying that at some point in the future these same students may be your doctor or lawyer and that, reality forbid, these are the people who will teach the next generation? I do.
The story drew 131 comments; I didn’t read them all, but here are three that struck me.
“I think the disputes about grading also stem from students approaching education as consumers. Because they pay to attend school, they have an attitude of, “the customer is always right” and feel they should have their grades their way.” –Tiffany Mills, Detroit, MI
“Having been for a time peripherally associated with a Junior Year Abroad program in Paris, I was shocked to learn that certain parents of students whose grades were mediocre would actually telephone the program director and threaten her with various forms of retribution if the grades were not inflated. Apparently students are not the only ones with a sense of entitlement!!” — Jill Bourdais, Paris, France
I appreciated this one, since it sums up what should happen when grades are down…
“I received a D+ on my first paper for a history course in my freshman year of college. After the initial shock and indignation wore off… That course was a turning point in my education. I wasn’t just regurgitating facts, but thinking about the source materials from the perspective of those who wrote it and really analyzing the content. It showed me a new way to read into materials in other courses and helped me earn better grades. I earned a B in the class and was delighted with the grade, considering how far I come. A bad grade isn’t always a bad thing. It can be an opportunity to improve.” — Maggi S, Chicago, IL
And finally, a comment that probably reflects what many of you are currently thinking.
“Students who think that just attending class and doing the reading is enough are in for a huge shock when (or if) they enter the world of work. I’m a writer. If I spend hours on a piece, but it doesn’t do what my client wants it to do, I’ve failed. I don’t get paid. Merely “doing the work” ain’t enough; it’s the QUALITY of the work that counts.” — JoMo, Minneapolis MN
On a practical note, hiring managers might find it of more value to look at grades a bit differently as I explain here.
Your comments—priceless
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March 5th, 2009 at 5:33 am
[…] have a post today at Leadership Turn that focuses on college student’s grade expectations for “trying really hard.” It’s worth clicking over to read because these are the […]
March 5th, 2009 at 8:28 am
This is a result of parents not letting kids learn the consequences of their actions in middle or high schools, where it doesn’t matter so much. I never rescued my kids in middle school or high school, if they didn’t study, their grades suffered, I didn’t do their work or hassle their teachers like other parents did. Teachers would call me and I would just say my child is responsible for their work, if they don’t perform, don’t give them the grade.
Gee, they are in college now doing just fine. They don’t always get great grades, but they sure don’t complain when they don’t. They know when they’ve performed well and when they haven’t.
Yes, effort is important. But it has to be the right effort. I appreciate that a lot of kids do try hard, and I know how tough it is for a lot of them these days. Especially if you have to work and also take classes. But knowing that your effort alone isn’t the point, that learning the material and being able to respond intelligently to it is the point, that’s important, too.
March 5th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Hi Donna, how does it feel to be part of the minority of parents who actually do the hard stuff that prepares kids for the real world?
I’d also love to hear what your kids think of their classmates who believe that showing up deserves an A and don’t understand why their teachers think that quality has value.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Miki, re: I’d also love to hear what your kids think of their classmates who believe that showing up deserves an A and don’t understand why their teachers think that quality has value.
I think the issue of entitlement to good grades is definitely important, but I also think there’s another issue that plays off this: the rut students today are in of producing what they are supposed to produce. I feel like students today are so worried about getting the grade, that they often pass up the chance to take a risk and say something off the beaten path. Of course, there are certainly lots of students who ARE thinking outside the box a little, but there are way more who are trying desperately to figure out what the professor wants and they regurgitate it down on 8 or 10 pages of paper.
Thing is, I’m sure professors hate this. I’m sure it makes their job rather boring and they’d love it if someone would take a risk and say something bold. But, you circle back to the issue of what students see as the ticket. Is it creativity and thinking of new ways to look at a problem, or is it taking the easy way, getting the grade, the GPA and the job?
That’s a whole separate issue, but I think it’s important.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Andrew, I don’t have kids and the nieces I helped raise are Gen Xers with small kids of their own, but your question reminded me of something the eldest said when she was in high school.
“The hardest thing I’ve done is learn how to learn from a bad teacher.”
As in any other line of work teachers and professors range from brilliant to terrible, but, as my niece figured out, good or bad it was her responsibility to learn.
It’s the same in the workforce. Managers have the same skill range as teachers, so it’s up to individuals to perform, whether ‘because of’ or ‘in spite of’.
However, expecting that from either students or workers is unrealistic. I characterize it this way, 10% will succeed in spite of every barrier, 3% are what I call destroyers because they enjoy it and 87% will work to the level of their teacher/manager/leader/inspiration—whatever you want to call it.
I also believe that we make our own ruts. Every society has various definitions of success and people jump through whatever hoops necessary to achieve the version that they choose.
As to boxes, I don’t believe that anybody ever goes outside their box—even Steve Jobs—but they can enlarge them constantly.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I am one of those college students right now. I just thought it was appropriate that I respond to this with some of my own feedback and ideas about college. For the past two semesters I have studied subjects I have not really studied in depth before. I must admit I am very disappointed in myself when I do not make a good grade. The past two semesters I have failed a class, twice (calculus). It is true that in k-12 schooling I would always make at least a B in math courses with the exception of an Algebra class that I retook and made an A in my second time around. College is not like this at all. It is overwhelming how much information I am expected to know and yes I do get upset with a professor’s tests or grading style when I put in the effort yet make a poor grade. I think this article is onto something when it says students expect grades as a direct result of the amount of time spent studying the material in a course/completion of assignments. But is this really all our faults for feeling this way? Throughout k-12 schooling, grades HAD a direct relation to how much time I spent doing assignments and studied. We learned very young this fact and were told “do your best” thinking the result of “doing our best” would mean success. I feel like maybe I was not fully prepared for college in this sense. I knew it would be more difficult than k-12 to earn a good grade but only because I thought I would have to study more and try harder than ever before. It comes as a great disappointment that this is not fully the case. Students are also very nervous of failure because we feel that if we fail courses we will never get the future that we want to have, or even worse, survive the way our parents did in the world. There is a great amount of pressure to earn good grades and gain a GREAT career, as if somehow that is the only way to gain success in our lives. I felt this pressure as an 8th grader even, fearing “What do I want to do with my life, what career should I get?” Constantly feeling pressured to make up my mind and do whatever I could to declare and reach that future goal. Grades mattered for this reason, learning came second. It’s probably no surprise to the writer’s of this article why I am so upset, as are other college students, with a poor grade. We were practically trained to focus our minds on grades because with good grades students could get to their future goal. The present often does not matter, including learning the subject. Students live under this constant pressure to make good grades, with that fear of failure programmed into the back of our minds.
I realize that this type of thinking is actually blocking me from success, but if you would have told me that a few semesters ago that my best effort would still lead me to poor grades, I would have just taken that as a challenge to prove you wrong. While I do care about learning the information in a course, I still cannot shake the fear of a poor grade, even if I have learned a lot.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Hi Jan, my apologies for not responding sooner.
I understand what you’re saying and I agree that much of the fault lies with those who ‘programmed’ you.
But think about this scenario with regards to the value of learning.
You receive good grades in your area of study, but don’t really learn much.
You find a great job and are hired by the company based on your grades and the material you studied.
You are unable to perform because you didn’t really learn the material.
Whether large or small, companies don’t employ people who don’t produce, no matter how hard they try, so you are fired for non-performance.
The pressures you face are real and many companies and managers are hung up on grades, so students scramble for good grades ignoring the long term consequences.
I just wish there was a fast fix for this mess, but it was decades forming and isn’t going to go away in a day.
One thing you can do is raise your kids differently. Fight for tougher teachers and better learning. Take yours and your classmates experience and use it as a springboard to change the system so your daughter or son won’t be writing something similar a couple of decades from now.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 am
[…] joins us with an article about students and their sense of entitlement toward good grades. Now that you’re in college… NOTHING will be given to you, so take […]
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 am
[…] to correct the employee with marginal output, but who puts in the hours. This is especially valuable with Millennials who often feel that showing up is half the […]