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An Eye-Opening Account of Teaching in Postmodern Amenca

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Peten Sacks

OPEN COURT

Chicago and LaSalle, Ilünois

i11+"

It's coming up on the end of summer' and I'm at a campsite in tlre

Rockies, reflecting on the past few years since I quit rny job as a

newspaper reporter to becóme a college teacher'.ot

'll:-i::lt"t' t

cansaythatl'msatisfìed,forl'vediscoveredsomeimportantinsights and ressons about ,u.áaing as a teacher in the age

of Generation

X. But, in the story that iollows, you may iudge me harshly for the

Machiavellian tactics iemployed io arrive at this position of knor¡¡i-

edge. In my defensg ltt *t say ttrat becoming a teacher was like

fallingoffacliffaslstruggledtore-orientrrryselftothestrange:rrrtì ro*.ii*.t grim realities of teaching in the 1990s'

ln taking leave frorn the world of aaity journalism' I.didn't hat¡c ¿i

clue about what. r wourd be getting myself into as a corlege leacher'

But at a iarge ,uu,i¡un toñl*unìty tollege in the west' I learned

how Generation X áããr," college.ind I discovered horv atr ellec-

tivelv cornrpt edueJtional system' also struggling to come.[o ïerrtls

;;,mïffi;iuiur.r.,uíges in srude.rs, orten rer'varded and cti-

c o glslge illaxil)La nd-mediscrty- I e u te r e d t h e-c iå iË io ó m kn o w i i I g

about the cancer oi me¿iocrity afflicting Aurerica's nunli-c schtrols.

The stories of such upptuttO fíequently in the press' And l'd.aiwa1's

heard that community colÌeges were not bastions ol intcllec[ual

rigor, to say the teast îo be s-ure' I antÍcipated that' But i would sce

lar worse conOitionl*ran t would ever havegpgçlgd' and I r¡'¡otrld

,t29

t ,ntroduction

:T:!9: ,nr, this wasn,r sirnpty a prob.tem wiú lT,y coì]1murìjry cot-reg.Ë or (orrnrunity coJleges in general. lr *as-a iiouiemï,,n o*rc!Ìell3]ld i$ ¡ekric¡shirr-tojtlyoung,peþìq - . .-:: - :-. -- A-s I look back, the results

perrraps predrcrabrel'rü;;;;":1,1T:,iffil:::',lln i:ijî, i:î;abour had crepr inro the reatnl of the c"ll"S,"ã"."öi;; ;rä "r.sider looking in, r discovered rhar ryÞggy lfBq qy{çln n"Jln".n ofast¿ke jn shor¡ls qp cducarioqat srr"ããig, il'ld"Ë"ñ¿iffir; ]ll--s.t^tl:

olpo_sjLe was rhe case, aná nry à*p".t""."î,"r,üä*," ,nourìfofiunate lacl Olcourse. I hear what vou,rc

noitar*nf átouìä;.å"ii,',:ti.:,")Jlå:fl ,.,i",,,.ïti:lä:: educaLion foi the masses, where As and B,s are .ury unãliáio*a,are low."

.. To tl.ìis, I say, j¡ou,re dght. And that,s exactly what,s so scaÐ/. TheHaryards and yales have always n".,l our.Lu,noinf ,.ñãor, ror- ,r-r"eliles, and thcy will alwavs_remaûì so. The eliles will have access tothe besl in educarion and eveiything "ù".^ãr,',fL"'öUfq Þq a,worried abour rnediocrtv ar tnc_cç:lcæ¡ fo¿j¡q¡]ú!Ë;s ue-¿re

'4p!çq*I4lLtbc-exsl.lerc€-rour¡¡d;bl.uçq;i;ilï,versiries. , ,.,.r1:":'1"

college, as rhe coilege olLrG massðå. j".å"rrà.r¡jå ' ":@

l,:1,. _

0",, !9!f ,, ; i,!¡ 1,]y _11d, S.o¡o¡,l

icatly.- ¡¡ ¡¡s errres aren.r taughr how i.ñtrink andnow to distinguish truth fron1 lies, Lhen,f-ì"."irft l,,or,ì.*nr¡ t"r,effective govemment bureaucracies and Fortune S0O comorations.rtìe ¡nabihry ot ordinary peopte.ro ,¡i"t for. ih.rrräi.r,ï.1gn9*'-;' plolound in ¡ts irnplications lor the health of Lh. ,gpr;i;*j. i ordinarypeople ar ordinary co eges areu,r .n.ourrg.à io'ñiffiiiicary anato [ake responsibitirv for rhemsetver, tf1"" ti"y *iff ú"ioìiä'orp", of :l:.i ::: :": :::l :_,:l!:,gh, Louìs Fa rrakhán, u na oir,". popuru,v!,,,dBUgucs w'î_o- Þrosper f rej¡ \ /idesl¡eACLjgl1ela¡_cgand theit abíl :J :"" ili:*: I :,j,, :,::ll : "f,,,"" r,,' u r,, iã i¡,u i ri;,i,i " iir1,äu",ruuLdrur ¡ ¡or rne worKrng crasses is a rn uch betle¡ indi( ator of wher etlre courrtry js headed than George Bush.s al¡na maler.

To be sure, ,,A Mart,, College" has n.u"l l""n lr"l¿ in very highregard among educational institutions, ""a

,f_."ì"r" "ì"

woulO ..;l i::¡,r"::-:::Írocnrra _Bur

iìì raÌk'ns r" .rh;; i;;;;;.ìoi,iì.y.., ']LyL drru c\/en ¿r jnore presrìgious institurions, I discovered that thesirrrrrion \\,as gerLins *orr". ró rhe poinL ilr, ;*il;;;;ìJn"l¡"u"¿ lhe sysicm had reached a crìsis poìnt. rhe collãge unJ uniu"rrity

F

Introduction

teachers I talked to had seen studellt cullule charrge ìn prolor-lnd ways in recent years, to the point thal" many teachers sarv an inct'eas-

ing number of students as practically unteachable, rql$!g-fu1]9!-.

me{?]_g!9stìons whether the exi 1..9J!g_!eì gquçati-tljì even -ap¡ies añy longer to teach¡ng thÍs gclìcratio¡.

itr";t¡çfaføì-ro\\,lllãb¡utm¡i;ourneyio'6ecomeatcache¡' It's a slory of my confusion and bewildermenL tlying to teach Ger'cra-

tion X and how I ultimateìy came to undersLaÌìd the true source oi ttrt'

confusion and frustration. It's also the story olhow I ended up usi¡ì3

the cover of my posìtion as a teacher in otder to galher, and re!çrlio-

the outside wodd, inf onn 4!!q¡..abqut aça-demic Ìife-Ihat' non-iially

wõ-uld be nlaccesljÞìe.!o, !!o-5-t-re:p:-o.r.te.¡s a¡d memþers-of the publìc l ¿l-n't mafã tfrr déci;ion lightly, being well aware of the eihical di- lemmas that I faced acting as bolh reporter and teacher at the same

time. t left daily journalism u/ith the intention ol trylng someihing dil-

ferent, looking for a neu¡ challenge As I went deeper into ihe v'iorÌd

of Generation x, I decided that this was a story I had to tell l decìded tha[ my story was compelling, and that members of the public' \'vho

have certain assumptions and expectations regarding public higher

education, had a right to know what was really going on insicìe slrch

institutions. And so I played the role ofthe college instructor, and I fried to bc

the best teacher that I could. confronted with my own questions' I

went about investigating what it would take to succeed as a college

teacher in the 1990s. I went through what all new instructors v/ent

through, and I became a candidate for tenure Thus, an imporianl

part of ttris story ìs how college teachers are evaluated for lenure'

r¡ri.n ut the college at which I taught, like scores of other sl'ì.ìaìl [eaching-oriented ðolleges around the country meant being- eva-lJ{

atq{by rhe very studeni ve a hard time getting -9yl.1f b"di;e"r lo.lust¿r trouble distinguishing a comma lrom a seinÌ' .;ÌoiG-;.itt"n English. so f hope readers will bear with me as i teil what it was like to be evaluated for tenure, as welì as \'vhat it was ljke

teaching Generation X, for the two subjects are really opposile sides

of the same coin. on one side were the \¡ery unusual (to my manner

of thinking) ways lhat many students approached college. And Õ1ì th¿

other side was the tenure process, and that included the Power th¿

ins¡iLution had given students in the process As I wenl undercovel,

being granted tenure became sort of a game for me l ended up ì.ì1a-

nipuiaiing the sys[em in order to see lf I could win ¡he game Gelting

tenure, really, wasn'L thai impoflant to me; I was nore than \ /illirlg to get back ¡1to the newspaper busilìess. But I found mysell in a very inLeresling position as an investigative reporter. I wanted to under- sland jusl what it lneant to be considered a "good,, teacher. The an- swer I discovered might not confom] to what most people would v!¡ish Lo beÌieve. And the answer isn't encou¡agit.ìg for the slate of higher educalion.

hdeed, I would discover that my olvn maìlípulations were not unusual, llìat teachers were lnanipulating students, and students wele man4)ulaiing teachers, and all this s],mbiotic game-playjng was really about one thiug: grades. you've heard about grade infla- tion, I'm sure, and all the hand-r¡¡ringing that goes on inside and out- side academia about the seemingly ii-rexorable rise in grades, render- i1S-Ilfetl ,e-s a E14ua11v. rnean

jn qless-ùdica tor of p-e-rfolmanÇe. Doonesbury Iìas ridicuìed it; uewspaper pundits and politicians talk about it as if it were a force ofnature beyond arryone's control. Now I Itnorv, having been on the Ìnside o[ higher education, exactly why grade inflation occurs and why il's not some mysterious process that nobody can do anything about.

I discovered that the college where I taught was a battle ground of a cul¡ure war, and I'm not referring to clashes belween races, sexes, or people of different religious beliefs. I'm talking about something perhaps more fundamental than these often-discussed conflicts of multiculturaÌìsm; I'm talking about a cullure war between genera- tions, qnd race and gender don't mattë*r íiìiñß wãl lne cuiture war-r discovered was between college teachers, typically Baby Boomers like me o¡ older, and membets of ceneralion X.

But this was no ordinary "generation gap." I witnessed a cultural divide, which I now believe to be the result of a quantum break be- lween past and luture-in essence, a break between the modern and postmodem worlds. The problems I saw slemmed froìn educators, rea¡ed under the tenets of the modern age, confronted and bewil, dered by a new reality: a generation of young people who had emerged f¡om a radicaÌly changed, postmodern society. But arriving at this conclusÌon was Ìlo sitrple Ìnatter for me. It rvas only after some thÌ'ee years of searching, trying to make sense of nly exper¡ ence alld lhe experience ol other teache¡s, that I came to this under- standing. Part one of thís book recounls the experiences I went through that helped me reach this conclusion.

For Lheir par[, sludents werc by no means oblivious to this culture

:L:::

[ntroduction

;';"1'-- . .-i::;'

tntroduction

war. But they were a generation that appeared io be sharyly diviricd'

On one hand, some students accepted the traditional roles, expecta-

tions, and responsibilities of themselves as college studen[s; some-

tÍmes they were as angry and frustrated as their teachers that malìy

students weren't living up to their end ol the bargain lt seemed lhal

the student body at my college was tyPified by what I would eventu- . ally call the "postmódern studentl'^ Like McDonald's customers

"iî expecting neaily packaged $l 99 Big Macs, these postmodernists irar¡ore¿ a st.ong t"ns" of being entitled [o easy success and goÛi

grades, even though they were often unwiìling to wolk to aclìieve

t-hem. ,q.nd, these postmodern individuals wete quick to put the enLire

blame for failure on the shoulders of their teachers

The system, for its pan, erted on the side ol mediocrity My col-

lege, wlthout seriously considering the implications or the reasons

bà-hind its pollcies, made huge allowances for this postmodern lrieÌl

tality of coirsumerism, while largely ignoring the needs of more se ri

ous ar'ìd molivated sludents, which would have been unheard ol in

decades past. And the system was somehow locked into this posi

tion, incápable of changing, because the cultural forces pfevenì:jiìg

change were far too Powel ful. Iripart two of the book, I explore postnodernisllì alld education

in amèrica, trylng to place my story into its broadest possible colì-

text, and unáyring the cultural and economic forces ihat have

shaped the Postmodìrn generation. A member of this generation is a

conund¡um of conlradictions' He or she wants desperately to liLrsl' .-- but refuses to trust authodty, institutions, knowledge, facts-all Llre ' traditional sources ol legitimacy and value in higher educatiolr The

postmodern student kn¿ws the value of learlring but expects LÛ be

entertained. He has a keen sense of entitlement but litlle moLìvaiion

to succeed. That is the essence ofGeneratlon X, ihe first tlÏe genera

tion of the postmodern epoch. She is being iorn apad between Lhe

traditions a;d expectalÌons ofthe past and the profound uncerLaiiìty

of the future. Much is being written and said nowadays about Generation X'

including the Iatest attempts of some to counter the supposedly lalsc

stercot),õe that this is a generation of slackers BuL having been oìl

the fro;i lines ol a clash of cultures as a college teacher, and havillg investigated the Generation X phenomenon as a repollel, I've coil-

cludedlhat this could be a generation in troubÌe, foreboding possìLrly

scary times for our country unless the educational establishmellt

clearly understands that a lìew reality has arrivecl on the cultural iandscape. Thus, in the fìnal chapter, I discuss what it means for edu- cational policy and reform once educators understarrd and confront the contlict between the postmodern generation and an educational establishment often entrenched in the ways of modernism.

In the following chapter, I recount my decision to quit the news- paper business and begin my journey into teaching. Then I go on to expÌain the contrast between the professional world I left and the brave new world I found as a college teacher, and how I struggled to understand and conform to this world. As my journey into teaching reached a climax, I discovered what worked and what failed as a teacher in postmodern America.

Thus, if you want a peek at the future, take a look at the place I call The college, where I became a teacher. It could be your college ir-r your neighborhood, town, or city.

-.1,- Ij'" (os+iladL''';V Ì' €'tf'f'';':;;Ïfr"

I During my journey into teaching, as recounted in some detail in the first part of this book, students provided me with much feedback on my teaching, in the form ol student evaluations at the end of each quarter. Here is a paragraph from one ol those evaluations, which seems to capture the sense of consumerism and entitlement that characterized the mind-set of many students:

"l hated this class and found it hard to get up in the morning to get here. I would have dropped it except that I am graduating in June," the student wrote. "You must understand that we are beginning col- lege writers and not graduate students. Your attendance grading is 'BS' because we pay for our school and should choose whether to attend or not. . . . Il I don't get a decent grade because of your critical attitude, I will be speaking to your superiors."

Consider, also, the lollowing descriptions of certain kinds ol people that one encounters with increasing lrequency nowadays. The fìrst refers to the "l have it coming because you owe me" person:

Panics tt ith risk. Emotion high tf there is the perceptÌon of any risk, including that of accountabiliÐ/. With risk, this person needs a life-saver. Tendenqt to deny the loss of entitJement or the

154

Introduction Chapter 13: Postmodernity and the Entitlement Society

requirementfor perþrmance. Follows and memorizes the rules. Avoids risk. Apathetic, passive and dependent thouglt that can be hard to discern under the overt'You owe me' attitu,le.

And here is the "/ did the best I could so I don't undu'stand why you're crabbing at me" sort

ì Resrsrant to increased risk or accountabil¡Y. Projects caux's from the self and rationalizes failure: 'Circumstances vvere out ol'my control.' May say: 'This is good enough." Blames others . for nonperþrmance. Very judgmental and frequently verbal. lre- sump¡uousness. Greedy. Avoids assessment. Tries to look good.

Is prone to justify perþrrnance, saying 'Look at the time atú elfort I put inl' Very dilfcult and time-consuming to deal with bc'cause the anxieqt is high but so is the denial of any responsibilil. Hard to budge from Entitlement.

When management consultant Judith Bardwick wrote those de- scriptions' of entitlement-bound employees common to contempo- rary corporations, she wasn't referring to college students. But she might as well have, for those descriptions exactly fit the sort ol at[i- tudes I encountered on a daily basis as a college teacher.

In the dark days of the modern era when industrial capilalism was

its meanest and nastiest, ordinary people were lucky to geL what was

coming to them from institutions of authority. The old saving "buyer beware" was probably an apt characterization of the mood of the times. But so profound has been the delegitimation of the institutions olmodernity, so thoroughly has economic and political power shilted from these institutions to the hegemony of culturalpopulism, that we can change that old saying: Nowadays, call it "The Systenr, beware," or some subset of it, like "Seller, beware" or "Politician, beware." ln my case, it might be "Teacher, Give me an A or I'11 callyottr boss." As a result ol the degree to which power has continued to shift in the postmodern epoch, many people now seem to believe that "the sys- tem" in all its various guises owes them, and owes them far more than what many are willing to give back to the system.

Indeed, the spreading social and economic power seeÌns to have manifested itself in the postmodern epoch as various sorts of entitle- ment, regardless of one's social and economic position. At one level olanalysis, we've witnessed a widening sense of popular entitlement

lss 'tt

"1 t56

lo al least a middle-class exìstence, sort of a quasi-constilulional birthright that one might suppose comes wÌth being an Amerjcan. Thus, for mosL Americans, htgher education, as the main route to econômic success, is considered an entitlemenl, not unlike Social Secu¡ity or Medicare benefìts.

On anolher ler¡el, we see an intensi&ng consumerism, a "h)per- consumel.ism," as perhaps ¡¡e defìning characteristic of postmodern human beings. The prominenL French thinker Jean Baudrilìard cap- tured the llavor of this idea in his i970 essay, "Consumer Society.,' But b]¡ today's accelerated standards, the notion of consumerism, shoppjng malls, drug slores, and a zillion objects to buy seems a bjt quajnl. Poslmodernity has taken consumerism Lo where no man has gone before: h¡rperconsumerism is lransformlng realms of social life once considered ofl limìts to the consumption mentality. And so, for consumers rvho "buy" an education, Lhe nolion of "success" is in- creasingìy treated as a quasi-negotiable exchange; you pay your monev and vou get what you pay for, regardless ofwhat you put into Lhe deal. Indeed, some consumers of education seem Lo invest no more personal responsibility in the transaction thân a McDonald's customer buying a Quafier Pounder with cheese

AÌso jnherent ìn the powe¡ shift, it seems, are va ous related phe- nomena we've all observed with some lrequency in recent years. In- creasingly, the postmodern person is relinquishing his responsibìlìty lo oLhers and lhe larger society; she has an expeclation olimmediate gralìfìcalion wjlhout necessarily having to rvork for Ìt; and he's a "\'ictim" ollhe system if his gratìfìcation is th\ /arled or isn't immedi- ate.

But the existing Ínstitulions of modernity play a key role, too, in Lhe power shift. To sometrmes an alarming extent, we see them pan dering lor rnass appeal in vain and absurd altempts to win back or lo maintairì their faìling legitimacy. And lhus we see such abominations as teachers pandering to students by giving lots of A's, and we see U.S. politicrans pandering Lo voters with promises of ever lower laxes already among the lowesL in lhe industrial world.

Entitlement's Humble Begirurings To be sure, Lhe roots of popuiar entitlement in the United Slates go back lo Lhe vasl inequiLies that no-holds-barred capitalism had cre- ated durjng the bifihìng pains of industrial society. BUL when Lhe United StaLes faced iLs worst economic crìsis in its hìstory during the

Generation X Coes to College Chapter l3: Postmodernity and the Entitlement society

CTeat Depression and nearly one in three n orkers was withouL a job,

economists and politicians woke up to the harsh realily that indus- trial capitalism had to be Lempered in order lo sutviYe Franklin D Roosevelt's vasl reforms of unemployment insurance lbr the jobless,

health care lor the poor and aged, wellare for Lhe poor, securìlies and banking regulalion for smaÌl investors, and Keynesjan economìc policies for the stability of lhe economy-these became lhe pillars of the modern govemment's protection of its citizens from the eco nomic disasters that free markels were capable oI

IL is well known that, after these necessary foundalions for eco- nomic and social stabiliLy were erected, the United Stales saw an ex- plosion of economic capacity after World War II With citizens back inlo the fold of the Ame can promise, and the threal of socialism beat back by capiLalism's reformation, a middle class consumer cul- ture took root and flourished. An exPlosion of mass communica- tions, particularly Lelevision and adr¡ertising for consumer goods' provided rocket fuel for America's posl-War consumer culLure The Uniled SLates economy became the bìggest jobs machine the world had ever seen. You could hardly say "American" wjlhout aÌso sa)¡ing "success" in the same breath

But while the children ol lhe Great Depressìon saw caPiLalism's relorms as establishing an entitlement not Lo starve or lreeze Lo death, that view would change with succeeding generalìons By the tìme Lhe nation's Baby Boomers had grown up and gone off lo col- lege or to a job at auto and sleel mills, you were no lolrger entllled to

mere sun¿ival as an American: you were entitled at leasl to a mìddle-

class life. By the time Generatlon X was born in the iate 1960s and

early l97Os, America's entitlemenL society had become deepÌy en

trenched. Unlike any generation before il, America's X babes grew up

with mighty powerful images of comfort and style to live up lo By rhe 1980s, the constant images of a glossy, perfecl life, lalse

though they mìght have been, proved lo be at least as Persuasive lor

a generation reared on amusemenL and glitz as lhe realiLy ofincreas-

ing homelessness, povety, and weakness becoming evident in the

U.S jobs machine. indeed, the powerlul contradictions between un

real ìmages of the amusemenL culture and the reality ol diminrshing economic prospects rvould become lhe basis of greaL lèaI and uncer-

tainly for much of Generation X. Probably no beller iliuslraLion can be found of Lhe degree to

which popular enlitlemenL has become entrenched in Amerìcan

| 57 rrt

tn l5A cenerarion X Goes ro Colleg€

cuiture than higher education. Assisted b-v such post War eflorls asthe President,s Commissjon on Higher Education tn 1947, the Seruicemen,s ReadJustment Act (ct Bill), the National ¡"t"nr. ¿Ou_ catjon Act, the Vocatìonal Education Act, and the ffigfLer Eàucation Act, the democratization ol higher education ¡..rñ" of¡.iul u.S. polic_\r The cÌear purpose ofthose olfìcial acts was to op"n uf-u.."r, to higher education to aìl Americans, r.egardless of

".ono.åi. .tur.

and prlviìege. The¡, worked exceedingly well. tn 1955, there \^/as roughly a one_

lo-one ratio ol public to private enrollment in U.S. coÌlegãs. By 1 995 enrollment in public colleges and unive¡sities *r, fou. t_", íhut ot private jnstitutions. AtLendance at colÌeges and universities ty 1995 had surged nearly 5OO percent from tnãt oi iorty y"u.,

"go.'in rt"

¡wenL_V year pe rìod lrom t 97l to I 991 , the numbår of bachelor,s de_ grees awarded rose 30 percent. And while just half ol hìgh school graduates went to college in 1980, some 6: percenr of scnåt lraau_ates had enrolled in colleges and unive¡sitiàs jn the fall of lõgz_a record high.

Another key barometer of the degree to which American hìgher education has been democratìzed is enrollment in communiÇ col_ leges, institutlons lhat have minimal or no admjssions r"qriraJ.nt, ln 1994, attendance at pubiic two_year colleges stood at ;.5 milhon, roughì_v equal to that at public four_liear scñools. But open admis_ sions haven't been limÌted to communitv coÌÌeges. Some 20S lour l,ear_ instjtu lions, or i2 percent ofsuch schools, wiÌl accept viItually an¡' htgh scl ool graduate

But we now lace some distu¡bing consequences from the noble goal ol unlimiled access to higher education. Grealer access has co_ incided with the intensiû/ìng hvrerconsumerism in the larger culture, rvhìch has der¡aìued lhe entire higher educatìon enterprle. Just as many Amencans have come to vte\^/ a middle_class existence as an inalienabie right, success in higher educaLion as the principle means lo achieve lhat lêvel of maLe¡ìal existence has risen to neir entÌfle menl status Responding to the demands of lhe consumer cultu¡e, educaLors have gone far beyond the pnncipÌe of more egalitarian ac- cess to highe¡ education; Lh€y have sold the lìclion to tie American public that success is achievable upon an economic lransaction, regardìess ol one 's skjlls, motivation, or talents. I,ìl explore rn more detail lhe student-consumers, demands for ,,success,, and the

Chapter 13: Postmoalemity and the Entitlement Society 159 r'l

ìnstitutional back flips the educalional estabÌishmenl has uììdergone

to supply thls succãss. But nrst I need to explajn lhe evolution of

"h¡perconsumerism" in our Lime 'N4y

admittedl)' sìmple and abbrer'¡iated version of rhe e\'olution oI

a po;tmodern, h¡perconsumer culture goes like thls: During the

mòdern era in Europe and lhe United SLates, when nation-slates pro-

vided the legal infrasüuclure for a surging induslrÌal capitaìism' pro

ducers domìnated society in the form of such stalwarts as Ceneral

Motors, Standard Oil, and AT&T The role of cilizens in lhis scheme

were primarily as workers for such induslrial enterprjses As workers

first and consume¡s second, people learned, as it were' thc ABC'S of

consuming, from buying ne\\' cars lo washing machines But being a

.on.u-..ïu, a new rvay of being on lhe human landscaPe; mainly' people earned and consumed enough to fulfìll their roles.as good'

strble *ork.rs. This era mìght be s¡mbolized ìn the novelly of lhe

early Sears-Roebuck catalog, sort of a Lraining manual for lhe Ameri-

can Consumer in adolescence But the balance of power between producers and consume¡s

slowly began to shift as incomes rose beyond what people needed to

=u-ií. r! workers, and the demand for consumer goods surged

Americans gradualed from the Sears-Roebuck Consumer Traininq

Academy to graduate-leveì consumerism With consumpLion grow-

ing ,o u..or"n, lor two-thirds of economic activity' the iate of lhe

na"tion's economy became hog-tied to the fìckìe altitudes of consum

"t.. rnr". resea;ch organiztlions were founded iust lo check the

temperment of the Amã¡ican consumer on a quarlerly basis' so 'le-

penàent were the nalion's economìc lortunes on something as amor-

phous as "consumer sentiment "

I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to say that' eventually'

U.ing u .onrrm.r and being human had become in many ways indis-

,ili Ìitf,rnf. consuming tlie thìngs, services, and populal images of the culture had taken up virtually all one s waking mol¡enLs

''we

nuu. reu.h"d the point where'consumption'has grasped lhe whole

ol life," Baudrilìará wrote in "consumer Society " By the lime Genera-

üon X had come of age some Lwent]¡ years after Baudriìlard wrote

those words, Americans had become something lar mole intense

than mere consumers. We were superconsumers from lhc tips of our

-hicago eutts hats to lhe toes o[ our Nikes' and h¡perconsumerìsm

.nàruit"tit"¿ the posLmodern condllion consumptiorr' says the

postmodernisl writãr Z. Bauman, seeming to take Baudrillard a step

rn 160 Generation X coes to Colege

furthe¡, had become "the cognitive and moral lorce ol life, Lhe inte_ gralive bond oI society."

Indeed, h]?erconsumerism has played a key role in revolutioniz ing the societv's power anangements from the institutions of mode¡_ nit_V Lo forms of popular power. Therefore, \,/e see that traditional di_ viding lines between elites and popular masses being disintegrated, not Via political action of ciLizens, but through the hegemony of con_ sumers. As one example, in recent years Lhe venerable auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's have vasLly broadened their cÌjentele lrom wealthy elites to mìddÌe class consumers, known as,,street people" in Lhe auctìon trade. Nowadays, about haÌf of the 20O,O0O to 300,000 items Christie's sells each ¡rear go for less than gS,OOO and one-quarler lor no more than 91,000, a ,,terrifying,, fact, Christie,s chairman, Christopher.J. Burge, toìd the New york Times.

The individual logic of the superconsumer is straightforward One earns or otheru,ise obLains money, and commands absoluLe sover eignty over jts dtsposition. pavment enâf1es one to lhat power and discrelion. No moral or ethtcal responsibiÌities to others bear upon the decision olwhat to consume or when to consume it. Consump- tion is an absolutely egaliLarian act. One pays money lor a consum- able item; one receives lhe ilem. Consumplion is an act of individual empo\À,/emlent. lnvoking the magisterial natu¡e of lhe exchange from Lhe consumers' poìnt of vierv, market-orienLed economlsLs have a r¡alue-laden lerm for Lhe consumplion acL: They calÌ it,,consumer soVereignty."

Ofcou¡se, lhat set-up works rather rvell for bu¡ang something like a parka at L.L. Bean or a flatbed truck from Ford Things would be- come overì¡r complicated and muddled if matters of individual ethics and responsibiìity to others got mixed up ìn the purchase. But nowa- davs, h\'perconsumerism has wound up in segments ol socìeLy that once seemed off-limìts to ils logic, raising imporlant queslions u/helher Lhese spheres ol acLivity are compatible wilh the superconsumer mentalìty. For example, we watch the rjse of Lhe "customer-driven" church, trying to make its "producl,,more appeal- ing and entenaining in response Lo changes in American culture. Is such an approach conducive to spjrituality? One theoìogian has doubtsr "The deeper meaning of the tradition is blanded out as the chu¡ch is democratized," Sa]¡s CharleS Mccoy, of the Center lot Elhics and Social Poljcl' aL Lhe craduate Theological Union in Berkelev.

J.

chapter 13: Postmo¿temity and the Entitlement Society 16l r'l

The quaint notions ol responsibility for one's actions and a sense

of obligation to the public good are completely laundeled oxt of lhe

consuÃption equatiòn. As hlperconsumerism has come to dominate

our posñodeï; exislence, we've seen a collapse in the elhic of indi-

vìdual responsibility. And, the flip side ofthaL has been a rroLable rìse

in the erhà of vicri;hood. If I live lhoroughly within the mind-sel of a

consumer who is to be seruiced by the system, and I feel entitled to

immediate gratification of my deslres, then I feel cheated and vìctim-

ized il I doi't get what I wanl Unfortunalely, this leeling of being cheated, that ai organization or the sysLem or people olauthority are

to blame jf I don't get what I want-this world view has become per-

vasive in a society based on the near absoluLe right to consume one's

way into happiness, or into the middle class or wherevet consump-

tion might lead one. conlervatives, of course, have raiìed against the collapse of

indì-

viduaì responsibilily that seems lo characle ze our tlmes But even

Deoole in such basiions of conseruatism as Orange County' Califor-

ll.'ur. no, immune to the flight from responsibilily Thus' after the county suffered huge losses on speculalive invesÌmenLs-invesl-

ments'that substitutd lor the property Lax hikes that would other-

wise have been necessary lo fund county seruices-voters in the

iuÇtf .onr"-urive, *ealthy Southern californÌa county rejecled a otå in r SSs to raise the state sales lax by half a cent ln order to

pay

ãäIrrrn'.,prr Uon¿holders whjle voters enjoyed public servjces' they

l.r"n'trvìlting to pay for them, and their colleclive refusal lo make

sood on the ciounty'i obligations threalened lo wreak havoc in the

Ëntire municlpal bánd maiket. The move not only damaged orange

ðàrnt1t't auiltty to ever raise monev again for public purposes but

also túe ability of all local governments to do so'

Success as a consumer service The very same h)Perconsumerism that has taken

hold of the Ìarger

aÀ.ri.ãn culturå^has also gripped higher education bv the throat

,h;.;;;.g lo rende¡ -.uningt"tt such tradjtìonaì nolions as hard

rvort, respänsibility, and slandards of exceìlence StudenLs nowa-

auyil"..'lo.n intá the culture ol hJ'?erconsumerism' arld ma¡y' I'm ui.äi¿, ¿on't ft¿¿te with fine dìsljnctions between going

to coìlege as

an act of consumer sovereignty and many other t)'pes of consumer

pl.n"*t. tf.r" responsìbilíiy fo' ont'' súccess' Lhen' lÌes with the

rtt 162

institutions and the teachers who staff them. Failure, i.e., consurner dissatisfaction, is ruled out upon paymenl of one,s Luitìon.

Davjd Reisman, the Harvard sociologìst and long_tjme observer of trends in higher educaLion, took note of the transition from faculLy con¡roììed universities to student-dominated consumerism several veats ago. "Thjs shift from academic merit Lo student consumerism is one of the two greaLest reve¡sals of directjon in all the history of American higher educaLion; the olher being the replacement oithe cìassrcal coì1ege b]¡ the modern university a century ago,,,Reisman saJ¡s.

Whal do sludenL consumers want? According to my own modesl sun'ey (which I discuss in detaìl in pafi one) at the college ln,"vhjch I taught, by and large, studenLs view themselves prjmarily as consum_ ers who inLended to study Just a handlul of hours a week lor all their classes, and who expected, at a minjmum, soÌjd B,s for their efforts. Sludents raised in a poslmodern society of h)¡pe¡consumerism ap pear to want faciìe knowledge, sen'ed up in easily digestible, bite, sjzed chunks. Thev have liLtle Lolerance for messv thinking or expan_ sion ol their frames of reference bevond the routine and predicrãble. ln short, theJ¡ vie\^,/ Lhemselves as consumers who pay Lheir Leachers to provide "knowledge," regardless of how superfìciaÌ that knowl_ edge mjght be. After all, ho,,v hard should a consumer ha\¡e to work at buvjng something?

"Adapt-a-Chapter4¡ As an example ofthe sort ofsuperficral knowledge I,m talking about, consrder \'vhat are known as "study guides,, in educatlonaì circles, n'hich are page b¡i page summaries of texlbooks-which themselves are often simpìifìed versions of more substanli\¡e works and jdeas Thus, lhese studl¡ guides represent a dumbing down of lhe al¡eady dumbed dor.r¡n. When I fìrst slarted leaching and found out about Lhe existence ol these guìdes, I was surprised thal the]' wete needed lo¡ college level studies. That surpfise turned to near disgust when I ac tuaìl¡r sa11' ¡¡s from an undergraduate ps],chology course that a stu- dent provided me. The example shorvn js somewhat modified from a small segmenL ol that guide.

The student who shared thjs gurde rvith me said thal lests for Lhe course in question were Laken almost directÌy from the sludy gulde ìtself. ll this st¡ikes you as cookbook education, you,re right In Lhe same spirit ol dumbjng down the alreadv dumbed down, an

Ceheratjon X Goes to college

1i-

Chapte¡ 13: Postmodernity and the Entitlement Societv

A Couege Textbook Study cuide page Jú'om text

)ã Since 19A0, the average U.S. IiJë expectonqt has íncreased from _ to _ ln I90o _% oÍ reported deaLh:, ¡nvalved persons under age 1 5.

)c{ Know the lhree main causes of death and theî percenß. xx Taday about

-% of deaths occur in on institu¡onal

setting.

){x Give at leastJnve examples o-[ the \uay \ue use ]ûü?ua7e ta avo¡d tlle real¡ry ofdeath

instruclor I know who compiled a lextbook sLudy guide called jl "Adapt-a-chapter." But such methods were lar lrom unusual. Several students told me about Lhese sLudy guides, a few believing lhat they constituLed an unwarranted degree ofhand holding BLrL from what I galhered in talking lo Leachers and sLudenls, most studenls expected this soft ol spoon-feeding and were upset \À¡iLh theìr teachers il they dìdn't get it.

Of course, college studenls norvadays have their ¡tinior hìgh and high schools Lo thank for ner¡er having been weaned fr.om Lhe hând- holding and spoon-feeding that they Ii¡sL learned in kinderga¡len. Consider lhe tale of a Tacoma, Washington, newspaper columnist, C.R. Roberts, who tells us about a request he ¡ecejved ftom a Puyallup, washingLon, high schooL sludent-by fax, ofcourse The day belore his assignmenL is due, the studenl rnlormed "To Whom lt May concem" at lhe newspaper that he has to write a teport on Sri Lanka. ''Please heJp mel" the sLudent's lax implored. With his tongue firmlv in his cheek, Roberts wfiles in his column: "How proud I am to help, albeil a bit late. How pleased I am with an educational system thal would encourage students to have others do their work lor them. . . . I am delighted lo be of assistancel" Then Robeds, hopefuìly, leaches Lhe kid â lesson lo re member, offering the high schooler reams of made-rlp, beautiluììy crafted garbage about Sri l-anka.

For their part, coìlege teachers and the ìnsliLutions who employ them might also take a cue from C.R. Roberts. As opposed to taking Roberts's approach to douse the entitlement mind-sel rviLh cold ü¡a ter, institulions are doing back flips \vjth double Lwists ìn whaL strike

t 63 rrt

me as often Herculean efforts to ensure that student consumefs'ex-

pectations for success be satisfÌed' As consumers of educational ser-

;ice, students-along with the skills and motlvation they present-

literally end up shaping their own curriculum and standards. Amid

the poitmodein shift ìn power from authodljes to consumers' the in-

stìl;tions themselves appear unwilling to draw ltrm lines in Lhe sand

lnsLead, lhe)¡ have ie-defined lhemselves in the age of h¡perconsumerism as providers of consumer services' while

paying

h-p sen,ices to lheir traditional roles as galekeepers and vanguards ol

academic standards. "Again, it is consumerism-the rise in socielal

demand and the interplay between that demand and the universìty's

tradittonal ideals-that ii denning what we do"' acknowledges Rob- ert Zemsky, founder and director ol lhe Institute for Research

on

Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvanla "An

example ol the rising tone of consumerism in higher educa-

":1 tìon can be iound in rhe notÍon ol "TQM" or Tolal Quality Manage- :a *"n," ut, approach to business developed in the

earÌy 1970s' later

adopied by tire American aulo industry Lo improve quality Here's a

farrìat Oescription of TQM taken from the Educational Resources ln-

[ormation Center:

TQM is based on the principle thal the custamer is the mÒ'Í

iÃportant person Tie ma¡or tenet of TQM con be summed up in

niÀe '¡'oíls' SatiE, the customer' satisf)/ the customer' satisfi L\e

cusLomer'

while TQM might work fine lor making cars or toaster ovens' it

Strìkesmeasnaiveplac|iceinthelaceofapos|modernpopularcul. ture that is iargely based on amusement and h)'pelconsumerism

What the sLudenL-customer born and bred ln such a cuìture wants is

success; he u/ants it no$', and he doesn't wanL [o have to strugg]e to

achieve iL Bul Lhis phenomenon often seems losL on lhe devotees of

TQM and cuslomer-driven educaLion (who I would guess more often

than not tend to be enrollment-maxjmizing educational administra-

lors rather lhan teachers) Besides the TQM *"ntuut1" the dominant \

/orld view Ín much of

higher educalion ls Lhal students ought to succeed-in.college-al any

cost. One illustratlon is found in a newsletler cal\ed lnnovation Ab-

slrdcß, published by the Unjversity of Texas College of Educatjon in

Aus[in From what I can ascertaln' lhese newsletters often amounl to

"t 164 Genelation

X Goes fo college Chapter 13: Postmodemity and the Entitlement Society

tips by reachers fof teachers on how to bend over backward iust a

liitle bit farther to appease unmotivated, acutely passive sludenis Here are a lew such examples from Lhe newsletler, in whrch college

instrucLors related, ln all earnestness, how they have de\rised schemes to help students "succeed " Their suggestions for innovative

teaching ìnclude:

. Creating assignmenls thal encourage students lÕ participaLe in grouP writLen essays

. Allowing studenls Lo have queslions for essay lesls days be- fore an examinalion

. Permilting students to re-Lake exams untii lhey gel the grade lhey want.

. Devising scored "drills" at the beginning of each class thaL colleclively amount to one maior assignment' u'hich stu-

denls can work on cooperatively This js to encourage atten-

dance. "\\¡fìile il does noL solve all problems (some sludenls

have not yet learned to take responsibility for their learnrng)'

jL does seem to get more students lo class and on Lime"'Lhe

inslructor advises.

What's more, the size of ihe non-academic infrastructure institu

tions have built to assist in the viltual undentrriting of studenl suc

cess is indeed imposing, and, arguably drains resources from lhe

academic side of instituLions The plethora of student servlces al

most colleges and universihes includes entire departments devoted

to such things as psychoìogical counseling, disabÌed student ser-

ula"r, "¿u.uti"io"ul

planning, hnancial aid, healrh sen'ices' men's and

women's resourcei, multicultural studenI services' tutoring' elc The

ûend for instìtutions ol higher educatìon lo become social service

provrders is noI unlike the rise of "nannyism" in the American corpo

iutio.t cornpuni"s are providing employees rvith "a broad arra¡r ol

noo¿ies. ,aneine lrom the sensible shoes variet¡r (job training and tu

irti ..i-Urä.ä.nLs at $35 billion annually) to more exolic offer- ings" such as employer provided legal services and weilness

pro-

gráms, says Laura L Nash of Boston University'" Noi to -ir= an opportunity, textbook publishers have exploited the nannyism in highèi education, creating somethjng akin

to a mrni-

industry for succeis lexLs Houghton Mifflin, as one example' has

launchád an enlire "student Success Programs" serics The program

165 rtl

rrt 166 cenerãtion X Goes to College

o¡fers several texts, varjousl)¡ Ti|ted, CoUege Stu(ly Skìlls, EssentjalStudy skitß, Study ski,s in practice, n"ro.ing o Már;ì"i*ãr,, ^OThe canfident sLuden¿ These and rexts sucfr ai waãrl"r,î:rïrr,.a",l:f:

axla tence: S.trategies Íor Success are intended for what has be-come a vast market_a generation of students t¡,ut lu.t, iÁ"'utt.ntion spans, social ski s, and srudv ¡uu,o n".¿.Jio, .àì,àr" i**According to a togl sun.ev bv rhe National Resource Cenr-eilor theFreshman vear Experience, róughly 612.¡ I ,oO+ .J¡r¡i""î ,r,.*ncollege credìt ro f¡eshman for orientation .or...r. it,"r. .áu"..¿such basjc topics as studv skiìls, ,,leaming sÐ,les,,;tl;e';;;;;."r,

_o,l::.:l:i ,yl,'"r papers usins,-¿ o;;Ë"*å,r, *ä

"i'iå.'ËJJ,n""rrgorous subjects.

. Be)'ond the great efforts jnslitutions are making to assjst studentsin college level classes are those offered to stud.ni, *h;n;;;;m" :l:lll"li: rhe srgnificanL scope of remediat "¿r.rii.^'rn

',iräúr¡"0 Jldlcs orren at taxpayer expense for corege students who stÌr havedjlficulty composing coheient sentences or solvìng simple math ljl?l"rt. underscores rhe practi(auy non .rir,.nL'u?J;;,; ;.rn ::t l:,:":"r]"S and succeeding in coltege. nutt¡, :o percenior tnerdLion s srudents in colreges and unlversiLìes are enroried in remediar cou¡ses ol some t]pe, and one_third of institutions

"ff"r'r.rn.¿irfcourse work Bet\^/een l97S and 1980, enroÌlment ln ,"_.áiui.utn courses at public, four year colleges surged 72 percent. Th;;; ;o*make up one-quarter ol all math courses taught at these colleges. Rtone urban campus of the California Stare üniverslty syst"r-, irlfyeight of ten l¡eshman jn t993 w glish classes.

ere unprepared lor college-level En-

But even those fìgures don,t account for the unknown amount ofremedial wo¡k rhar takes place daily jn supposedlv _li"nã Ë*f l^îiit.:-

rhe Äd¿pr a-Chapter kinds of Lhings. rh. r.u.hirS I.u. rdrKco rlr (]o so \vtUrnglv on an informal basis, bul it,s a vast commit_ me¡t of rherr tjme and energy. And now pressure, ,r. ¡uila,nã åi rn"instrtutlonal level for teachers to formall¡r Ìncorporate remediãl workinto their college-ìevel classes. As one small example, inã oi.'o. partment ofEducatjon spent some $255,000 on a three_u.u. na*ifo. 1:^']f?1

, SL¿re universirv purporling to chow rhai ,.;¿;;;;;;r" oìar language skijls in courses signìfìcantly improved pJrformänce ofa Lest

_sample olstudents compared lo lhose who ¿idn , n.i i1.,".ì,r,help But a .lo<e look aÌ the sludv.s dala. provided i"

"";r;;.;;,_makes thar claim doubrtul. ln the seconã y.u, oi,tl ffi,'ìo.

chapler 13: Postmoalernity and th€ Entitlement society 16? t't

instance,3T percenL of lhe speciaÌ tesl group ol46 sludents leceived

As compared to 42 percenl ofa regular group of 177 strìdenls Some

i 3 percånt ol Lhe specìal group got B's-half rhe rate ol lhose who

didn't get remedial helP.

.rys for All Comers But whether the sludents are gelLing remedìal assistance at lhe ìo\^/li-

est of public communlty colleges or doing advanced sludies aL an

elite university, lhey are being paìd handsomely for their eflorts in

terms of lots and lots of As and B's, grades Lhat once upon a tìme had

some relationship with excellence. lndeed, easy grading has become

pan of the enlitiement bargain in higher education, and as I dis- cussed at length in the fìrsl part ol this book, few if any players in

the

syslem have much incentive to break the cycle of grade inflation In

fact, sLudent consumers demand it, administrators seem Lo encour

age il, and leachers who try to maintain rigorous grading standards

eipose themselves to ruinous studenl evaluations, dwindlìng class

sizes, and possible loss ol a job

Thus, we see how administralors at a coliege in Austìn' Texas'

overruling an English jnslructol, peÍnitted a sludenL lo retake a lest

and then ãhanged his fìnal course grade from an F to a c The-instruc- tor maintaineã that students have a right to succeed' but lhal the-v

should have lo work for il An unreasonable demand? r\pparenlly so ;campus offìcials said privatel]¡ that (the instructor's) expectalions of

his students were too hlgh," according to Lhe Chronlcle ofHigher Edu'

ccÍion. Ot, consider Lhe case of one Boston Univer-ciLy professor'

once, over her "slrong objeclions," the chairyerson of h€r deParl-

menl changed a student's F Lo a Pass. Asked to justify the change' the

chairpersoi told the professor, "Both of his parents are law]¡ers " or'

hear ihe lrust¡atlon of Daniel Kazez, an associate plolessor of music

ai rvittenuerg unlversit)¡ in ohio "No prudent' career-minded profes-

sor dares rìs-k inluriating students by givjng out anything but A's or

B's. Studenls who recejve a C, D or F on a test or paper tend lo hold

in. åu.n", p".ronaìly responsible Rare is the professor who can af-

ioi¿ ro uonå." to higi standards, give students the grades the)¿ de-

serve and accept the personaì, prolessional and fìnancial conse-

quences." And, we can read Lhe lamenls ol a Yale graduate teaching

lrristunt, who says: "1 can honestly say that lor one of these (Yale)

kids to get beiowã C would require a major lederaÌ oifense As long

as Lhey"hand in 'somelhing,' no matter how cìiche' plagiarized'

rt t6a

poo¡ly punctuated or sloppv, they will pass, usuallv at ,8, levei. IL,sjnluriating but that,s how Lhe sVSLem works ,, In a system hke thjs, then, ii,s hardly surprising that college ftesh_

men in.log+ reporred the highest ever proporLio; ol R aveîaees in high school, at 29.1 percent. That means nearll, e¡s in .uár"rn... studenLs got A's-compared to just t6 percent ;ho .urn.¿li, uu., ages in 1970 No¡ should it be surprlsrng that, at the colleg" *h.re f teach, nearlv nine of ten students, or g5 percenl, g.t grua"", oie o. higher. Thar mÌght sound exLraordinarily higl.,, Uui irt"noir^rruf, :::::ii::-r :r:1. selecrjvir.\, of Lhe instirurjonl Ar stanrora univeisity,ror ìnstance, 90 percent of the grades ate A,s and B,s; aL Han/ard, more Lhan 40 pe¡cent of sludents get As alone.

.Could these trends possibly mean that young people have Justgotten smarter and harder-wo¡king over thè y"*.i rf,ut possibilitv

seems quìte remote, given the tnexorabÌe, .o.rtinuou, Aecìine since the I 960s jn scholastic achievement scores at all points of the socio economjc spectrum Verbal scores on the SAT in i993 were 4z points belo\,v Lheir levels nearly thÌrty years ago, and average math perfor_ mance was down l4 polnts. Simply aïtilacts ol grealer numüe¡s of disadvantaged students taking the test? perhãps. ert;on.i¿"r, Amencan high school seniors taking advanced pìacement bìoÌogy, n ho presumabll' consìst of mostìy mìddle_class ,tuO.nt. .À.p"i.nt in Engiish, in one international competjtjon pÌaced /as¿ out olthi¡teen other natjons, jncludìng rapan, taiwan, À4exico, Canada, and thai land.

Rather than grade inflation being the result ofstudents, finer work eLhic and greate¡ brilliance, it seems more ìikely thaL ìt,s an artifact of a despe¡ate educational establishment choosìng to ptay mate_Ue- lieve.games. Educators are trying to engage u g-"n".åtión ofl,oung people that, in ìarge measure, has lost hearì and wilÌ. Many Gáxers are, deservedì¡r so, quite lrightened abouL the future and tÁelr ability to make thetr own way in an economy that seems Lo be olferÌng ever fewer opportunities lor them. But ìnstead of demanding tn" å.f of excellence students wilì need to reall_v succeed in the wãrld, educa- tors have responded to the cdsjs in motivation bJ, making achieve_ ment easier and easrer, hoping that loLs of As and n,s riight help young people leeì good about themselves and thus, propel ärem to_ \^/ard excellence, or at least medjocritv. perhaps it,s time to consider the possibiliry rhar this approach isn,t working, the flìp side ol g;de

r/

Generation X Goes ro College chapter 13: Postñodemity and the Entitleme¡t Society

inflation is a ruinous dellation of academic sLandards' and that can'L

Ua no"O l"t the country, let alone all the individuals who can L find a

tlL.urt" lhev have neveÍ reallv learned how lo think '""åiiinã"tt""'o i., Ãor, ,tu¿"nit realize thal lhev've been lìving

ttr.oit., in a ne.'er-nevtr land where nobod¡r is below average.and r;À;t; '=;;..*" in school is virtually guaranteed' no matLer how iniìá irl"v Lro to work for it And if you ask lhem' most will

give you

lorrr" ,,áuting admissions. Nen's anaìysts ìooking for ne\\, angles

.r. lr*p "" ifì" "Generarion X as mlth" bandwagon lill the cows

."À. Lå.", but somefhmg is goìng on here that cute new storyr angles won't disPel.

Listen to Frededck, a Lwenly-year old student f talked to at lengih

Here was an obvlously bÏight guy who almost always showed.up lale

i" .irtt, tf ft. came ai all, ãndmight be described as the quinlessen-

tìal cen X "slacker'" ,qs always] he \/as characteristically blunt.

;u-Ã nrv perspectìve, we are lhere (in college) t^*"1* tllt^,i.1':l n'.,.rlhrl i," ,ui¿. "ff,u, is what we're doing ' . our generatlon is

;;il;t u"*, u." lazy we don'L work a tenlh of whal our parents åìo'^iio. t"'.'t. iotiir un¿ riïed ol everylhing lhe resulr is

lazi

169 'r/

NCSS.

LÌsten lo Keliy, eighteen-year old freshman: "Yeah' kids want it

nunîã to tnem,'; re"tty told me "Kids see people like (\"licrosoft

¿;;;;i eiti cuo= *-ho gets rich out of nowhe¡e' they just kind.of

êvne.l il exDec[ it to come out of Lhe sky somervhere lt seems a lot :î:..;i;

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"ol having ro work rhev just come.into ìr

:"i;""ä;:;* il'úi¿,1' t have-rriends who expect Lo set good

"r"olt'rio i't.u o"n, t'úoy They get mad at lhe leachers "nd

blame

ii.;* 'tìilät

aäì io, t*utpl" -oice

r had an English cla's and the

i.ti-.,"tí* ""ty

strict sludenls would call him names an9 make

nì- r.". like he was the enemy The system has often made it loo

easv to succeed."'-il;";;;;" twentv-year-old Marsha: "A ìol of rimes studenls tr.rinü,'ì'. puv*g this teaåher, it (learning) should.

jusl happen.llhink

ärt'ì"iir. "ã'.t.rv

is like thal right now' . Teachers pander to-thal ;;.i;il" I remámber the nrst couple of months in my

program'

;;;;;t a test coming up The teacher would go over every ques-

tion on the Lest . . There were no surpÏises As long as ¡'ou could

^."."ttt.1", were nne Thars part áf th" tontu-tt mentalily-l

paid for it so I shouldn't have to work for it ''

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So Long, Horatio, Hello, Forrest As Marsha suggests, Genxers seem to understand implicìtly what l,ve tried to illustrate throughout my discussion ofeducation ìn postmodem Ame¡ica: lheì¡ sense ol entjtlement as consumers of education or any lhing else wasn't some¿hing the)' just up and invented one day. They understand that their behavior is fundamentally no dÌflerent than Lhe ways most people exposed Ior very Ìong io postmodemity have come to behave. Xers are stmplv younger and more thoroughly postmodem Lhan somebodv like, say, me, who as babv boomer, u¡as fìlled with lluxleyìike "hlpnopaedia" of a dillerent sofi during my fomative years But as I suggested before, u'e're all postmodemìsts now in some fash ion. We a¡e skeptics, il not cl,nics, towatd traditional sources ol knowl- edge and authorìty; sea¡chers for larger, more soulfuÌ meanings abouL the u¡orld lhan whal scienLtftc rationalism seems Lo provide; superconsumers of amusemenL or aûthing else the spectacLe puLs be fore our eves. We are people who have seen it all, who want it all, but are up against a world Lhat won'L gìve it to us.

AnC so in'e are collectiveÌy mesmerized by Lhe make-believe. An innocent, virtuous, lQ-challenged waif named FoÍest cump comes along, and he strikes an amazinglv receptive cord among Americans. Many c¡itics have suggested he represenls the triumph of ignorance in our cuÌLure. There's surely enough willlul vacuitv in our mÌdsl to make lhaL a valld inlerpretaLion. But I think ForresI cump represents something much more basic. He's the guardian angel who floats into our li\¡es through a movie screen. His presence strìkes at the wishlul hear ts o[ a wean¡ cu]ture whose people have all but girren up on the hopes and dreams of modernjtv The rhetoric ol modetnity-trust in lhe struggle lor progress, belief in sclence and reason, and a reliance on hard work-slill fìlls up our heads. But people sense a hollowness jn lhose ideals, lhat modernity hasn't ljved up to thetr hopes. Living up lo lhe ideals of modernily is such a struggle, and for what?

America willed Forrest Gump jnto bejng. As Forrest cump's inno cenl image is mixed and morphed on screen amid the horors we blame on modernrty, such as Vjetnam and racial strife, we're wit- nessing the birth ofour ner,v angeì, ofa new, pos[modem hope. He is a refleclion of lhe new Evenman we wish were possible in an overly complex, technologicaì age. He is the antithesis ol Horatio Alger, modernism's slmbolic ofle ng to the collective psyche. Wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't il be nìce if you could just simply Òe, however dumb to lhis r,r,o¡ld, and still have the fruits ol its bouni)¡? Wouldn't it be nice il cump could just happen?

Generation X Goes ro College

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Of .our.", I'm not alone in many olmy observations ab, ,uL declin- ing standards, consumerism, entertainment. and anli-ralionaL beliefs of Lhe larger culture threatening highèr education as one cf lhe few remaining pillars ofsober analysis, deeÞ.reflection, and betief in ¡ea- son. ln recent years there has been a notãble backlash among some writers, intellecluals, academics, and othèls who in Lheir man)¡ djs parale ways have, in effect, mounted something of a courlter-revolt against the influences ofpostmodernism in acãdemia and elsewhere in our cullure.

we see books attacking postmodern ways of thÌnking, such as philosopher James Harris's Against Relativism, àn ìndjclment of postmodemìty's relativistic notions ol truth and objecljve reaìity. At one point, Hards confides: "l have chosen to throw mi]ot with the remnants of Modemism, and lhis book represents some.thing of a 'rear€uard aclion' lor modemists who will hopefully galher their forces and mount some kind of counteratLack in defense of reason and rationality against the onrushing tide of pemicious relativists " Similarly, we see books atlacking anti-scìence sLands u'ithin aca- demic circles, such as Paul R. Gross's and Norman Levitt's Íligher Su perstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science.

lr1

Cl¡rñtu l!orli õirrrcs

Fcbr.uary 18, 2oo9

Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes By MAX IìOOSDVEL'|

Prof. Marshall Glossman has come to expect complaints whenever he retulns graded papers in his Er.rglish classes at the Univelsity of Maryland.

"Many students come in with the conviction that they've wolked hald and deserve a higher mark," Professor' Grossman said. "Sonìe asselt that they have never gotten a grade as ìow as this before."

He attributes tl.rose complaints to his students'sense of entitlement.

"I tell my cÌasses that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet thc standald requirements, that they will earn a C," he said. "TÌrat is the default grade. They see the default grade as an 4."

A lecent study by tesearchels at tl.re University of Califol'nia, hwine, Iound that a third of students suneyed said that tliey expected ìì's just for attendir.rg lectures, and 40 pelcent said they deserved a B for completing the requiled leading.

"I noticed an increased sense of entitlement in my students and wânted to discover what r.r'as causing it," said Bllen Greenberger, the lead author of the study, called "Sclf-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Palenting, and Motivational Factors," which appeared last year in The Journal ofYouth and Adolescence.

Professor Gleenbelger said that the sense of entitlement could be reìated to increased parental pressure,

competition arnong peels and family mernbels and a heightencd sense of achievement anxiety.

Aaron M. Blower, the vice plovost for teaching and learning at the Urriversitv of Wisconsin-Madison, offered ar.rother theory.

"I thinlt that it stems fronr their I(-tz expcrienccs," Plofessor Brower said. "They havc become ultla-efficieut in test preparatior.r. Ald tl.ris hyper-efficiency has led them to look fo¡ a nagic formula to get high scoles."

James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Educatjon at Vanderbilt Universitv, said: "Students

often confuse the level ofeffort with the quality ofwork. There is a mentality in students that'if I work hald, I deserve a higl.r grade."'

In line with Dean Hogge's observation are Plofessor Greenbcrger's tcst Ìesults. Nearly two-thilds ofthe students sur¡,¡eyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be tahen into account in theil glade.

I ol2 flr I ll9l1O 4:22 PM

Jason Greenr.r'ood, a senior kinesiology major at the Univelsity of Maryìand echoed tllat view.

"I think putting ir.r a lot of effort should melit a high glade," Mr. Gleenwood said. "What else is thele really than the effort that you put in?"

"If you put in all the effort you have and get â 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 ofthem and more, thcn they should be getting an A like their effort deseles. If your maximum effort cal only be average in a teacher's mirld, then sonrething is wrong."

Sarah Kinn, ajunior lìnglish major at the University ofVelrnont, agreed, saying, "I feeì that ifI do all ofthe readings and attend class regulally that I should be able to achieve a glade of at least a 8."

At Vånderbilt, there is an emphasis on what Dean Hogge calls "the locus of control." l-he goal is to put the âcadenic buÌden on thc student.

"Instead ofgetting an A, they make an 4," he said. "Similarly, if they rnake a lesser grade, it is not the teacher's fault. AttributiDg the outcomc of a failure to someone else is a comn]on problem."

Additionally, Dean FIogge said, "professols often try to outline the'rules ofthe game' in their syllabi," in an effort to culb haggling ovel grades.

Professor lh'owel said professors at Wisconsin emphasized that students must "read for knowledge and write with the goal of exploring ideas."

This info¡l¡al mission statement, along with special seminars for freshmen, is intended to help "re-teach students about what education is."

The seminars ale integrated into intloductory coulses. Exanples include the conventional, like a global- warming scminar', aud the more obscure, lihe physics in religior.r.

The seminars "are meant to he\r students think differently about their classes and connect them to real life," Professol Blower said.

He said that if studer.rts developed a genuinc interest in their field, glades would take a back seat, and holistic and intrinsically nrotivated lealniug could take place.

"College students want to be part of a dilïerent and better world, but they don't know how," lie said. "Unless

teachers ale vcry intentional with out goals, we play into the system in place."

CoÞyrioht 2OOs The New Yo¡k T¡mes Companv

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