"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.
Good tactic. It also helps at this phase when they are questioning the grading and its purpose to bring in some 'guest speakers' or relevant industry people to discuss standards on the job and hiring practices. Students seem to take this more seriously; even though the instructor IS exactly that expert telling them the same thing, somehow the outside input is taken more seriously. It functions as backup for everything you tell them!
Adel ,
excellent point! Too often, it seems younger students feel that their "talents" will surpass any negatives & this is simply not true. We need to help them see this earlier.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
These are very good points you make here. I am constantly reminding students that they may be very good cooks but if they fail to follow directions, forget steps, cannot meet deadlines, and do not communicate, that they will not be able to keep a job.
I agree as well. Many of my Gen Y students seem to think that because they show up for class - regardless of whethet they put in the effort or not - they should pass the class. They feel "they are owed that".
Shane,
you make a good point here, that sometimes this is the personality of the student. I would say that it seems to be a generational characteristic as well.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
eric,
an important lesson to help this generation learn is the consequence of their actions & how they impact others.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
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 .
Lisa you may be frustrated but you are abosultely doing the right thing. You are helping them and preparing them for reality.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
