"But I've Never gotten a B before!"

College students around the nation are supposedly going to classes and turning in papers with high expectations of high grades. Max Roosevelt of the New York Times published an article highlighting what university professors are calling their students heightened sense of entitlement.

Professor Grossman, an English teacher at Maryland University, said he tells his students that if they meet all the requirements of his class and do all the work that is assigned to them they will earn a C grade. In fact that in his classes C grades are the default for completion of all the class work not A grades. Grossman explained that students often complain to him about their grades as being less than what they expected because of the phenomena of students heightened sense of entitlement nation wide.

There are many theories from professors as to where this sense of entitlement stems according to a study from the University of Irvine the cause could be related to parental pressure to succeed coupled with competition from peers and achievement anxiety.

While others like Professor Brower explained that Wisconsin professors emphasized that students reading was to gain knowledge and expand their worldviews. This tactic is intended to help "re-teach students about what education is."

Being a student myself, I feel torn between feeling unjustly labeled and sympathizing with the professors fed up with whiny students. Based on Roosevelt's the false sense of entitlement exhibited by college students could be because of our K-12 regime of standardized tests which fueled our belief in a "magic formula" that produces high grades.

It's funny that I remember those days perfectly. Hours of what now seems like useless tests and the complimentary snacks provided by the school that weren't fit for a dog's bowl. There were "tricks" for singling out right answers on the tests that we were taught in class and no real way for us to study at home. So in a way I can see how my own attitude towards "good grades" could have shifted from a habit of earning a good grade to expecting a good grade because I was doing just what was required in class.

So, to me the point of this article hinges on the specific opinions of each professor and not a philosophical discussion of "what defines an A effort and what defines a C effort." Myself I know that each professor I've ever had has expected different things from their students but every one of them could discern an A paper from a C paper. I've never felt that I received a grade that wasn't equal to the level of effort done in the class. Sometimes I did well others I did not but every time I felt I was graded fairly.

However, if I had to agree with one of the professors from Roosevelt's article it would be Professor Brower from Wisconsin. If students are taking away from their classes are what grade they received than what is the point of learning at all. Brower describes a basic and elementary re-introduction of education to students. It makes sense that if all students are concerned with in school is grades then there is no knowledge gained that can be applied to the real world. In that respect nothing is learned from education. Brower describes seminars held for freshman that tackle real-world issues like solutions to global-warming, which allow students to gain perspective about the world around them as well as cultivate a genuine interest in their field of study.

"College students want to be part of a different and better world, but they don’t know how,” he said. “Unless teachers are very intentional with our goals, we play into the system in place.”

In short, as a student I don't feel entitled to any "high grades" I am only pursuing an education because of my eagerness to gain perspective about life. My ability to learn, really learn , has been stifled. It has morphed into a system of memorization instead of discussion. The exhausting process of reading textbooks as thick as slabs of concrete and regurgitating them back for an acceptable grade has made the process of actual critical thinking obsolete.

My mind wanders to the educational style of Plato, one of the most brilliant and enlightened scholars of all time. He was both a student and a teacher. The concept of grades did not exist students were taught for the purpose of attaining knowledge and insight.

Wouldn't it be nice if going to class actually meant expanding your mind with a goal of gaining knowledge instead of a "good grade." Instead of under achievers students would leave classrooms as students of the world. This is not necessarily the fault of the teacher or the student, on the whole students just need to be re-taught what an education really is.

" In the environmental movement ,
every time you lose a battle it’s for good, but our victories always seem to be temporary and we keep fighting them over and over again.” David Suzuki.

Artists around the globe are harnessing a myriad of unlikely media, picking up rags and ironically eco-friendly industrial strength cleaner to create something beautiful out of the sprawling decay of urban cities. Although to some it is just as illegal as traditional graffiti, Reverse Graffiti is a movement that challenges former perceptions about the enviroment that we all live in. Artists create beautiful, sweeping, epic and even poignant shapes and pictures all of which are a representation of the world we live in today. Created cleaning away layers of caked on industrial grit and grime rather than covering with paint this art form is a beautiful and imaginative way to challenge the polluted and dirty world we inhabit.

Making a statement today, for a cleaner tomorrow.

Cutting off the helping hands.

Susan Ferriss' article, "In-home care may face budget chopping block" in the Tuesday Feb.10 edition of the Sacramento Bee, discusses the possibility of In-home caregivers not being able to help those in need of their services due to California budget cuts in order to cope with the recession.
Ferriss describes 92 year-old Leona Heydenryk who struggles to unload a few bags from her car using an oxygen tank to help her breathe. Seniors just like Leona would score too well on ridiculous "functional indexes" to merit the part-time aid of caregivers who help her shop for groceries, clean house and prepare her meals. Leona's only surviving son, 69 is not able to help his mother with these tasks because of his frail health and fixed income.
According to the article California's In-home Supportive Services program which pays the salary of people like Consuelo Lopez, caregiver of Leona Heydenryk and other disabled people, would cost the state nearly 1.7 billion dollars more than it's willing to pay. California has more than huge deficit problems in common with the rest of the nation; its also seeing an enormous surge in senior citizens, along with this comes a higher need for the treatment of dementia or other side effects of the natural deterioration that comes with age.
Therefore;the demand for In-home caregivers has skyrocketed, much quicker than any other social service program.
The governor proposed a cut-back of In-house caregivers wages even though many of them are paid less than living wages. This creates a more specefic, more rigid means of qualifying who deserves care based on what it will cost the state rather than helping disabled people who are struggling in their day-to- day lives.
In the end people like Leona who is someone's mother, grandmother and daughter will be the one who suffers alone and with no to turn to for help.

Water-Based Eyeglasses: It's a vision thing

According to the December 29th edition of the Guardian,

British native Josh Silver, a former Oxford professor of physics, has invented a pair of water-lensed eyeglasses.
Silver's glasses function based on the principle that the fatter the lense of an eyeglass the stronger its perscription is. The frame is made of a durable plastic and the individual lenses are clear fluid -filled sacs each of which is attached to a syringe at the tip of each earpiece.
The simple design of each pair of spectacles ensures that anyone can customize their glasses to their specific perscription. To adjust the power of the lenses the wearer manipulates a dial that reduces or adds to the fluid in each membrane. Satisfied with the strength of the lenses the wearer twists a small screw and seals each membrane. Then the syringe is removed.
One of the many advantages of these types of glasses is their ability to be mass- produced rather than each pair of specs being meticuously designed with one perscription in mind. While the one-size fits all might not be the most fashionable to those used to Vera Wang or Gucchi, they are well received for those Silver originally had in mind: people of developing nations suffering from poor eyesight but are unable to afford eye glasses.
What this would mean for those in the developing nations around the world?
According to Silver it would be a gigantic improvement, literact rated would increase greatly, fisherman would be able to mend their nets and become again part of the work force.
A retired tailor that Silver met up with named Henry Adjei-Mensah , whose deteriorated eyesight forced him into early retirement , had his eyesight restored by Silver's revolutionary eyeglasses.
Over 30,000 of these extrordinary eyeglasses have been distributed , and Silver's estimated goal: 100 million pairs.