"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.