<p>CrystalWolf ---- your post is the nicest thing I’ve read in forever. I think you are going to go far in life with such an abundance of wisdom and compassion!</p>
<p>No hostility here. Like I said, kids are just a reflection of where they come from and they are essentially an extension of their parents. </p>
<p>When I was 18- I moved out of my parents home and went off to have an experience 2000 miles away- living with my parents beyond that age was weird and pathetic- at least that is how why I felt back then.</p>
<p>Nowadays, some kids are proud to tell others that they live with their parents and their parents pay for everything- that is having a dramatic and negative impact on the culture as a whole in my opinion.</p>
<p>I just heard a 21 year old college student say something like “Just because my parents pay for my tuition and my bills, it does not mean that they can tell me what to do”- If this dumb young woman represents in anyway how most people young people out there think- we are in big trouble!</p>
<p>In 2009 and you were getting an MBA and last year you were studying Petrolium engineering at Kansas, and now you are getting 60% in your Iowa state classes and you are worried about our kids with their 3.5 and 4.0 gpas? </p>
<p>I’m sorry, I’m not really all that worried about my kids work ethic. They work jobs and they go to school and they do very well. </p>
<p>They don’t have the same future opportunities we had at their age, and they have a lot of debt to clean up from the boomers, and whatnot, and they are certainly not walking into the world the way it used to be now that we are in a global economy. These kids were all in school when 9/11 happened. Their history is very different and their world view cannot help but be different, even if they and we do not really understand why.</p>
<p>But I’m not worried about my kids working hard or being disrespectful slackers. I was raised by hippies. I know every generation has a story.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, I’m not really all that worried about my kids work ethic. They work jobs and they go to school and they do very well.”</p>
<p>I’m with you there, poetgrl. My kids work very hard both inside and outside of school. As Jamiecakes said, “it’s a broad generalization based on a tiny sub-set of kids.”</p>
<p>And by the way, I lived at home during college. Moving out wasn’t an option. My kids live 2500 miles away, but I’m not particularly proud of that, nor would I be ashamed if they lived at home. It’s a financial choice, and I don’t knock anyone’s decision.</p>
<p>"…you are worried about our kids with their 3.5 and 4.0 gpas?"</p>
<p>Everybody’s kids on these forums have 4.0 GPA’s, have led perfect lives, etc, now when they don’t get accepted at a particular university- obviously, it must be the university’s fault, but never their fault.</p>
<p>The amount of BS and lies that I read here is just unbelievable. Keep telling your kids how special and smart they are until they fail their first Organic Chemistry or Physics test-they will be absolutely devastated once they learn that they were not all that special after all</p>
<p>My kids work hard, too, and an outside observer can never really know what is going on at a particular moment in time. My D is a respectful, serious person who happens to be attractive and dress well. She generally doesn’t use her phone or laptop in class. However, during organic chemistry on Wednesday, the love of her life had major surgery and she texted me several times and surely watched her phone the rest of the class to see if he had come through or had had to be put to sleep. Who even knows what a judgmental busybody would have thought of her if he took that class period as indicative of the whole of my daughter’s character, intellect, work ethic or value.</p>
<p>My oldest is a dyslexic who will graduate in a couple of months and has her job all lined up for graduation. Not one single thing about getting through school from grade 1 on has been “easy” for her, but she’s worked hard and done well. A perfect life? Hardly. But so far a hard working one? Absolutely. And believe me, when you are dyslexic, your first failure comes when everyone starts to learn to read. Orgo? She was the girl in the front row who ruined the curve for everyone. But, she doesn’t think she’s any more special than anybody else.</p>
<p>As I told both my kids growing up, “Either everyone is special or nobody is.” I think everyone is, personally, even you.</p>
<p>“it’s a broad generalization based on a tiny sub-set of kids.”</p>
<p>Anyone who has taught college courses are laughing at this. All- certainly not. Most- depends on the size and style of class. a significant portion-most of the time.</p>
<p>I don’t want to debate what effect this has or what it says about kids, but come on, you must be made aware prevalent it is. Ask the professors, we know. hey, I predominantly teach our majors (not a gen ed type course that people with different interests must take) and it’s a problem</p>
<p>“I don’t want to debate what effect this has or what it says about kids, but come on, you must be made aware prevalent it is. Ask the professors, we know. hey, I predominantly teach our majors (not a gen ed type course that people with different interests must take) and it’s a problem”</p>
<p>As much as it has been fun debating this topic, I am DONE posting here. I was hoping that some parents would even try to understand what I am saying, but it seems like most parents live in absolute denial-“Not my kid”- Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>People who teach can make generalizations based on large populations and knowing the gra des given. Other students are just spouting nonsense because they have no way of knowing anyone else’s situation.</p>
<p>I teach adults in a class that they paid for, that is purely an elective-they want to be there. Still, over the last couple of years, it has been a struggle to get them to put away their telephone, stay off the laptop, etc. they seem to struggle at first because they are now used to jumping on the internet to look things up for quick answers.
These are people ages 25-60, not spoiled children.</p>
<p>I can’t think of many jobs in the real world that don’t require you to be constantly in contact by phone and computer while also working on whatever project. I don’t know if my kids are using the phone or whatnot during class and I don’t care. Their grades tell me they are learning what is being taught. If they were being taught more they weren’t learning? I’d care.</p>
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<p>Thought I did. Admitted my own kids were a product of current parenting trends. What did you want to hear? Parents absolutely condemning themselves/their offspring as worthless slugs?</p>
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<p>Some Profs/instructors…including myself if I encountered a student who was texting for that reason would have rather the student take that class off and make arrangements to make up that missed class through notes and make-up session(s) during office hours/appointment. </p>
<p>Students texting during class is not annoying for the Prof, it is also highly distracting for other students, especially those sitting around them. </p>
<p>Saw many instances of this while sitting in Prof/TA friends’ undergrad courses or in office settings where it sometimes got so bad that some Profs/office managers would collect everyone’s cellphones, turn them off, and place the box right in front of them for the duration of the class/business meeting. </p>
<p>I’ve also known of some folks who work in offices where they literally have to check their cell phones into a secured area and aren’t allowed access to them until they leave the office area for lunch, breaks, or leaving the office at the end of the business day. </p>
<p>Not to mention some folks work in areas where cellphone coverage is bad due to location. A pharmacist I dated worked in a basement level of a hospital so the only times she could use her cell to call anyone or text is when she’s taking her breaks outside of her workarea.</p>
<p>Cobrat, for your information, she is doing research with this professor and needed to be there to present something at his request, he also has the same breed of dog and knew what was going on. Your assumptions are so incredibly tiresome.</p>
<p>Texting in class is disrespectful but sometimes its the only way people can make it to class. When I had a sick family member and when another was getting surgery I couldn’t go to class if I didn’t have my phone out (on silent) so that I would know what was going on and I could be texted any good/bad news. I felt going to a 500 person lecture and texting (in back of room) wouldn’t be too much of an issue. I have a friend who texts his parents if he feels like he’s going to have a panic attack and sometimes its the only way he can make it through a lecture. It may not be polite but sometimes there are extenuating circumstances for being on a phone during class and as long as its silent and you’re not in the front sometimes its more important to be there. I do agree though that playing games is rude and I usually sit towards the first few rows and its annoying when the people in front of me have their laptops open and are watching YouTube videos or something</p>
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<p>It can be distracting to the students sitting around the texting student unless the student deliberately picks an isolated spot where no one is sitting within 2-3 seats of him/her. </p>
<p>Moreover, you’d be surprised at how many people either don’t know how or don’t care to place their phone on vibrate/silent. </p>
<p>In the 300+ person stats course I took one summer at Harvard, so many people’s cellphones were going off loudly while the owner tried to pretend it wasn’t his/her phone that the Prof finally had the TA ask all students to check in and turn off their cell phones before the start of the 2 hour lecture because he grew fed up and other classmates were complaining about having to endure listening to loud ringtones throughout the lecture. </p>
<p>However, you’re correct that it would be less distracting in larger classes provided the texter chooses to sit in an isolated area in the back far from other students and otherwise tries not to draw negative attention to him/herself.</p>
<p>Last term my DD’s professor emailed the following message to his class:</p>
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<p>This is the only notice you will receive about computer use in the classroom. I permit the use of laptops exclusively for intellectual work directly related to the matter at hand. Any other use is rude, indicative of an inability to function intellectually at a level appropriate for our students, and, frankly, tremendously easy for your professors to ascertain, even without looking at a screen: to be blunt, you fool no one. Should such rudeness, anti-intellectualism, and inappropriate behavior continue, I will prohibit the use of laptops and deduct one full letter grade from the class participation grade of the offender(s) whose regrettable behavior would have forced the change in policy.</p>
<p>I don’t know about that. Except for myself, every single adult in my family is a teacher both at high school and university and they don’t consider it a huge problem. I asked my son and he said kids are not texting in class (HS) and pay attention. </p>
<p>The OP is making an assumption based on ONE class at ONE university and essentially saying “kids these days” blah blah blah. </p>
<p>Look, I am not going to say it’s not a problem at colleges AND in the workplace. Every generation has issues. But the tone here is a bit much.</p>
<p>I am going to venture to say that “kids these days” are going to turn out just fine and prepared for THEIR world, not the world of 15 years ago when the OP probably got his UG and not 25 years ago when I did.</p>
<p>My kid suffers from spatial comparison deficiency sydrome. He suffers from the inability to determine when the garbage pail is full, resulting in my constatnly having to tell him to take it out. Sad but true.</p>