College Just Isn’t For Everybody.

The NYTimes published an article about the rampant sense of entitlement on college classes everywhere.

The article is basically this:

1) Students in college believe that their grade should reflect their effort in the class:

Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland echoed that view [grades should reflect effort].

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,” Mr. Greenwood said. “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?” he added. “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.”

2) This idea was backed by actual survey data:

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.

3) The professors don’t agree:

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

The first thing I want to say is that I bet Jason Greenwood feels like a real ass right now. Seriously, dude? Serious? Look, man… if you put in all the effort to read every chapter and attend every class (and I’m assuming you actually pay attention and take notes) and you’re still getting C’s, you’re doing something wrong. It’s not the professor.

Did you actually say, to the reporter of a premier newspaper, “What else is there really than the effort you put in?” What else is there, Jason? I don’t know what you’re thinking, dude, but if you think reading the assignments and doing the homework means you’re going above and beyond what is expected of you, you’re in serious trouble for the real world. You are supposed to read the assignments. You are supposed to go to the classes. You are supposed to do your homework. Those things are there to help you learn the material–that is what there is besides effort, Jason. Learning. You learn new things and then you prove that you’ve learned them by utilizing them in your papers and tests. Then your grade reflects your grasp of the materials and ability to apply them. If you have an elementary understanding of the material, you will get a C. If you can manipulate the material to derive new ideas, you get a B. If you can take full command of the material, you get an A.

This is college, bro. Man up. You don’t get a gold star for raising your hand and sharing with others. This is to prepare you for the real world and in the real world, you don’t get paid just to “try” to do your job–you get paid for getting results.(1)

I thought it was bad when I got to grad school and found people complaining about not being allowed to use calculators or getting lower grades than people who they thought put in less effort or thought it was unfair that they were asked to handwrite a paper because they didn’ have Microsoft Word to spell and grammar check for them or posted completely undecypherable assignments on public message boards… I thought it was bad, but I let it go. This, however, is a whole new level of idiocy I’m not ready to tolerate.

Footnotes:
  1. Unless you’re the CEO of a large bank. [↩]