Writing is weird; sometimes ideas bubble up faster than they can be used, while at others the well is totally dry—as it has been today.

Rather than not post, I thought I’d share links to several studies about kids that I found interesting. I hope you do, too.

Anyone with a kid, let alone a teenager, knows that they avoid doing almost anything that is ‘good for them’ or that authority figures push and that they are, if not a bit lazy, often oblivious.

That said, why should it be surprising that the efforts to force improvement of their food choices often fall flat? But some schools are beating the trend merely by repositioning the food in the cafeteria.

… tripled the number of salads students bought simply by moving the salad bar away from the wall and placing it in front of the cash registers.

Not more money or lectures, just playing to a “market” with well documented attitudes and behaviors. (Might be worth talking to your own kids’ schools.)

I often wonder when parents, especially upper and middle-class parents, are going to step up and take responsibility for raising their kids, instead of expecting the schools to do it. I realize that hovering is easier and you get to feel virtuous yelling because it’s for your kid, but having kids requires shouldering the not-so-fun stuff that turns them into valued citizens, rather than parent-dependent, adult children. Many of these kids don’t have a clue how to dress or act in the business world. The silver lining to this lack of basic living skills is the increase in business for etiquette schools.

Patricia L. Bower, clinical associate professor of management communication at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “They think, ‘If everyone has access to the same information, then we’re all equal, so I know as much as you do even though I’m 20 and you’re 55.’ “

I’ve been following a lot of discussion on what long-term impact the Great Recession will have on Gen Y and the experts are all over the map. For a good overview, take a look at the different, even conflicting, opinions of this group or Wharton professors.

They are one of the biggest generations in American history, and they are certainly the best educated. But for Generation Y — a group of young people some 70 million strong between the ages of 15 and 30 — the future seems anything but bright.

Have you seen anything interesting lately?

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/3579355577/

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.

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CandidProf is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at a state university. He’ll be sharing his thoughts and experience teaching today’s students anonymously every Thursday— anonymously because that’s the only way he can write really candid posts.

Knowing your audience is important for any public speaker.  That is particularly true for someone who is teaching.  You need to know where your students are coming from.

A few days ago, one of the local high schools brought several bus loads of students to campus for a college day.  They wanted us to give presentations to the students on why they should go to college and what sort of things that they could study when they got here.  These were summer school students.  The students who take summer classes at college are often the better students, the ones who are trying to get ahead.

The summer school students in high school are normally different.  A few are working ahead, but most are in summer school because they failed classes and are having to go to summer school in order to advance a grade.  These are students who don’t want to be there, and often don’t want to go to school at all.  These are what they call “at risk” students.

They are the ones that are unlikely to go to college in the first place, but the school is trying to do the right thing.  These are high school freshmen.  They still have a chance if they buckle down and study hard for the next few years, but if they continue to not take high school seriously they won’t be ready for college when they finish.  Even if they go to college, they are unlikely to finish.

These students are bussed to the college and they are led around to different departments where somebody gives some presentation about their areas.  We are given a specified time period.  They have me following someone talking about the health sciences.  The kids arrive late.  The previous presentations have all run over.  The person in charge tells us that we’ve got about 1/3 of the time that we were allotted, since they are running late and need to catch the buses.

The person before me gives a standard sort of thing, like probably everyone else had one all day.  She has a Powerpoint presentation.  She talks about what is offered, what programs of study are available, and what jobs in those fields entail.  It is pretty standard; each slide has too much information (lists and such).  I know that these can be interesting fields, but the presentation is boring even to me.  The kids are falling asleep.  She races through her presentation, but it still takes as long as mine was planned to take.  There’s no way she could have finished in the allotted time if she’d gone at normal speed.

Then it is my time. (Cont’d Thursday, July 10th)

Is this a good approach to motivating high school students?

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CandidProf is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at a state university. He’ll be sharing his thoughts and experience teaching today’s students anonymously every Thursday— anonymously because that’s the only way he can write truly candid posts.

I teach physics and astronomy. Physics, in particular, is a very mathematical subject. That means that students are expected to be able to solve complex problems. The introductory astronomy for non-majors also has some mathematics, though it is very simplistic. Both classes require reading and studying. Unfortunately, most of my students come to college not having learned these skills at the level needed to be successful in college. While teaching any student is difficult, teaching the unprepared ones is particularly challenging.

There are many reasons that students are not well prepared. Where I teach, the state has mandated a series of tests. School funding is tied to these tests. The more students who do well on the tests, the more money the school gets. So, there is pressure to teach to the test, not to prepare students for college or a career. Unfortunately the tests are not good predictors of how students will fare in college. These tests are fairly simplistic. Students learn to memorize key words. This word matches that word. If you ask them the shape of the Earth, they will say that it is round. That is the answer as worded on the test. But, round in what way. A surprising number of my students don’t realize that round means spherical. Many of my students envision Earth as a disk. Anything that is not tested is seldom taught in school. So, my students come to me with great holes in their knowledge and skill base.

Students need to be properly prepared in order to be led to learning. An Army officer cannot lead troops into battle that have never fired a weapon. No matter how good of a leader someone is, he will fail if he tries to lead troops that have never been trained. No matter how wonderful a corporate leader someone may be, he will be unsuccessful in leading an airline that does not have anybody who knows how to fly an airplane. The best surgeon on Earth will lose his patient on the operating table if he tries to head up a surgical team composed of himself and people taken from the street who have never even seen an operation, much less assisted in one. The most loyalty inspiring leader on the planet will fail as a fire chief if no one in his fire department has ever had any fire fighting training.

Now, these may be extreme examples, but similar principles occur in education.

What do you think?

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