Dan (et al):

I too feel your pain.  Last semester in my course that covers ethics,
the student with the lowest grade in my class decided to submit a paper
that her boyfriend had submitted the previous spring in the same class
on the same topic.  When I discovered that she had cheated (cheating in
an ethics class, a little touch of irony if you like that sort of thing
HA!), it immediately became "my" fault because no matter what she tried
she just couldn't get an "A" with me.  The interesting pre-script to
that story is that she was ratted out by a fellow student who had
plagiarised material and ended up in my office crying to me and before
hand in a common area to my department chair.  From what I hear, her
performance with my chair was quite a circus.  I hope to avoid any
similar scenarios this semester as I am currently out of Kleenex in my
office.

RDP
-------------------------------------
Richard D. Parker, MPA, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Management
Gordon Ford College of Business
Western Kentucky University
207 Grise Hall
1 Big Red Way
Bowling Green, KY 42101-3576
270-745-5325 (office)
270-745-6376 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.wku.edu/~richard.parker

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 09:43:56 -0800
 Daniel Warner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Colleagues:
>
> As the quarter winds down the students' anxiety cranks up. Yesterday
two
> students dissolved into tears in my office. One asserted vehemently,
and
> repeatedly, that she was "an awesome student!" and that it was * my*
> fault she did poorly on the exams. This student insisted, "Just tell
me
> exactly what I have to do to get an A!" She asked me if I had "looked
at
> what the students are saying about [me] in the chat rooms online." She
> is apparently accustomed to memorizing. Memorizing is not the same as
> understanding or knowledge; memorizing is not helpful when the task at
> hand requires applying the knowledge to a new fact situation.
>
> This is why I keep a box of kleenex in my office.
>
> Dan Warner
>
> ________________________________
>
> USA Today, February 16, "Life" section.  By Sheryl Young, "Students
who
> succeed are willing to fail repeatedly."
>
>
>
> Adrea Sobel shudders at those oh-so-positive messages aimed at
boosting
> kids' self-esteem.
>
> She has heard her fill of "good job" or "great picture" or any of the
> highly exaggerated claims that parenting experts and educators spouted
> as the way to bring up well-adjusted children.
>
> Sobel, the mother of 16-year-old twins in Sherman Oaks, Calif., says
> they could tell "what was real and what was fake," even when very
young.
> "I was tired of going to the sports field and seeing moms say, 'Great
> job at going up to bat.' It hit me early on that kids could see
through
> inane compliments."
>
> Those often-empty phrases, however, raised a generation. Kids born in
> the '70s and '80s are now coming of age. The colorful ribbons and
shiny
> trophies they earned just for participating made them feel special.
But
> now, in college and the workplace, observers are watching them
crumble a
> bit at the first blush of criticism.
>
> "I often get students in graduate school doing doctorates who made
> straight A's all their lives, and the first time they get tough
> feedback, the kind you need to develop skills," says Deborah Stipek,
> dean of education at Stanford University. "I have a box of Kleenex in
my
> office because they haven't dealt with it before."
>
> To be clear, self-esteem is important to healthy development. Kids who
> hold themselves in poor stead are thought to be most vulnerable to
> trouble - from low academic achievement to drug abuse or crime. For
> those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the stakes may be higher and the
> needs even greater. But empty praise - the kind showered on many kids
> years ago in the name of self-esteem - did more harm than good.
>
> "Instead of boosting self-esteem, it can lead you to question your
> competence," says developmental psychologist Sandra Graham of UCLA.
>
> Self-esteem became a buzzword more than 20 years ago, fueled by
> parenting experts, psychologists and educators. Believers suggested
that
> students who hold themselves in high regard are happier and will
> succeed. That culture was so ingrained in parents that protecting
their
> children from failure became a credo. This feel-good movement was most
> evident in California, which created a task force to increase
> self-esteem.
>
> "At the time my children were raised, we were suffering from a
misguided
> notion that healthy self-esteem results from something extrinsic that
> tells you you are a good person," says Betsy Brown Braun, a child
> development specialist in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and the mother of
> 26-year-old triplets.
>
> It wasn't limited to the West Coast. Raising self-esteem became a
> national concern, and educators thought it could help raise academic
> achievement.
>
> But schools got sidetracked into worrying more about feelings, says
> Charles Sykes in Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel
Good
> About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add. "Self-esteem has
> virtually become an official ideology," he writes.
>
> A 1991 teacher training session in the Houston area taught the evils
of
> red ink and told teachers to pick another color, says Pat Green, a
> teacher since 1982.
>
> "They said it had a very negative impact, because red is so symbolic
of
> wrong answers," she says.
>
> Some also said grammar and spelling errors should be overlooked so
> students wouldn't be discouraged from writing, Green says. "It was so
> 'don't damage their self-esteem' to the point where you would praise
> things that weren't very good."
>
> Cassie Bryant, 22, is a product of those times. "I kind of became an
> award junkie," she says.
>
> She believes the awards motivated her and helped her get into a
> competitive college. But, she recalls her first semester at New York
> University as "brutal."
>
> "I had always been in honors in high school, and the writing teacher
> said, 'I don't think that's a good place for you.' I started crying
> right there. I had never been told that before."
>
> Now, the tides have turned. Schools teach the basics to improve
> performance on standardized tests, and self-esteem programs have
evolved
> from phony praise to deserved recognition for a job well-done.
>
> Girl Scouts of the USA promotes self-esteem by emphasizing strengths
and
> skills while encouraging feelings of competence, says developmental
> psychologist Harriet Mosatche, senior director of research and
program.
> "It used to be, 'Whatever you do is great.' That old-fashioned misuse
of
> the notion of self-esteem is not positive. It's unrealistic, and not
> helpful," she says.
>
> Well-meaning parents lap up that philosophy in the movie Meet the
> Fockers, with Bernie Focker proudly displaying his grown son's awards
> when he visits to introduce his in-laws-to-be. "I didn't know they
made
> ninth-place ribbons," says the future father-in-law.
>
> "They have them up to 10th place," Focker replies. "There's a bunch on
> the 'A for Effort' shelf there."
>
> Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Florida State University in
> Tallahassee, says he had "high hopes" for the benefits of boosting
> self-esteem when he began studying it more than 30 years ago.
>
> But his lengthy review of 18,000 articles, published in Psychological
> Science in the Public Interest, ended with the realization that only
two
> clear benefits emerge from high self-esteem: enhanced initiative,
which
> boosts confidence, and increased happiness.
>
> "There is not nearly as much benefit as we hoped," he says. "It's been
> one of the biggest disappointments of my career."
>
> Overall, research shows that self-esteem scores have increased with
the
> generations, says Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego
State
> University who compared studies on self-esteem of 66,000 college kids
> across the USA from 1968 through 1994. Such studies are typically
based
> on self-ratings.
>
> She also has noticed that the undergraduates she teaches tend to have
an
> inflated sense of self.
>
> "When you correct writing, they'll say, 'It's just your opinion,'
which
> is infuriating. Bad grammar and spelling and sentences being wrong is
> not my opinion, it's just bad writing," she says.
>
> So when the criticism flows, some college students are increasingly
> seeking counseling.
>
> Sam Goldstein, a neuropsychologist at the University of Utah, likened
> some students to bubbles - on the surface they seem secure and happy,
> yet with the least adversity they burst.
>
> Neil Howe, co-author of Milliennials Rising: The Next Great
Generation,
> urges colleges and employers to better understand this group, born in
> 1982 and later, who are in college or recently graduated.
>
> Howe believes "milliennials" are a very connected, team-oriented
> generation that could benefit society. "It's a positive for the
> workforce and possibly for politics and community life and
citizenship,"
> he says.
>
> But employers such as Sobel, director of recruitment for an
> entertainment firm, aren't so sure.
>
> "One of the things the managers talked about is an incredible sense of
> entitlement for people who don't deserve it," she says. "They'll come
in
> right out of college and don't understand why they're not getting
> promoted in three months."
>
> Howe blames the attitude on society's high expectations. "We've
become a
> much more child-oriented society around milliennials," he says.
> "Self-esteem for them meant you're the focus of society's attention."
>
>
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