How Do You Introduce Snowflakes to the Real World?

[BaiHu]

hillsdale, and baihu U, are both private endeavors. I've seen some good rigor out of the Jesuit school system as well, and I'm sure there are others.

Point well taken. Public schools have a whole different set of risk factors.

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[Win94ae]

I had "helped" a family member put on his roof. They didn't know anything about the tape measure, fractions, or much of anything that was useful. I ended up doing it largely myself. Both dudes graduated from high school.

I am sure the liberal controlled school system, does not serve in the public's interest.

[ReverendMeat]

I was in the same position as the kids you're worried about, once. I wasn't a special snowflake, but I was lazy and just a bit smarter than my own good, so I DGAF and graduated early from high school, DGAF and sailed through a year of community college. DGAF at a real university the next year and got shit grades, failed a class, dropped others to avoid failing. Quit school, joined the Marine Corps, had a few fun years learning how to stop being a child, did the GI Bill thing and kicked all that math and physics and whatnot in the ass.

You can warn them up front, you can open up your office hours, you can make yourself available for help during your free time, you can tell them about all the study groups and tutoring options, but bottom line is some of them just shouldn't be there and they'll find that out soon enough one way or another. Help the ones who want help, encourage the ones who need encouragement but the rest of them will either figure it out or they won't. Not your problem and not your responsibility.

[jc000]

I still remember the words my father sent me off to college with...

"If you get arrested, don't call me."

Parenting has changed, I guess.

Haha, I could hear my parents saying that, verbatim.

The one phrase I can associate most with my mother: "life is not fair".

[Kirk]

Great thread.

I've taken A LOT of leadership training, studied it extensively in college, study the topic constantly and have a decent amount of leadership experience. I say all of that to say this: it's still very difficult to get individuals to act responsibly. The method I employ in my business is simple. I preach accountability constantly. The first thing I give a new hire is a copy of the book "Extreme Ownership." I've outlined my disciplinary system in the welcome pack I give them and let them know that their success and failure is 100% on them. I constantly communicate with them and teach leadership development and other various things. I'm also extremely organized and systematic and teach everyone a system on virtually everything to begin with, so they know exactly what to do and what is expected on day 1. I obviously allow a wide range of variance in this over time, but I want everyone new learning proper habits and techniques that they can build off of later.

As far as your class, that sounds like an extremely difficult task. Taking an 18-22 year old from our "blame everyone else" and "safe space" culture and trying to get them to act responsibly in a short amount of time is probably one of the most difficult thing you can do. I'm not an expert on these things, but I'd preach ownership daily or for a block of time of the course, give them a systematic approach on how to be successful (study habits, time management, etc), and then I'd stay in communication with them.

I'm sorry if I missed hiwbthe course is setup (I'm in London on business and am operating on almost no sleep), but if this is 1 class per semester, gather all of their contact info and talk to them almost daily. Text, call, email. Set-up checks throughout the way to confirm they are using the correct study habit/time management system you've outlined. Ask them how their classes are going and what areas they are struggling in. If you don't have time to communicate with them yourself, then have an aid or assistant do it to your specifications (teach them what to say/ask etc). If you don't have any assistants, I'd get someone responsible from the class to do it for extra credit or for some type of acceptable incentive. One thing I've had success with is the "Group Me" app. Throw them in the group and you can send out messages daily to everyone. You could even set up short daily tasks for them to complete and email back to you. I WOULD NOT rely on office hours and such, just from personal experience. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who would rather fail and force me to make a change as opposed to coming to see me in my office. I'd be proactive, not reactive.

So basically I'd just teach them ownership, a system, and communicate with them regularly. They are noobs at life, so this may not be a short term solution. This is why I put so much emphasis on figuring out an effective communication strategy that fits your business or teaching model. I understand that there are other layers of accountability beyond you when they leave your class, but you've been tasked with preparing these men/women to be successful so I wouldn't rely on anyone else caring about their success.

Apologies for grammar errors. I'm typing on my phone.

[fixer]

So here’s my situation: this semester I’m teaching my department’s “intro to this department / discipline” class. This is usually the first class that students take prior to actually beginning material in this discipline, and most are either first- or second-semester freshmen. The overwhelming majority are right out of high school with no real-world experience.

Our department has the same major problem as every other organization / business / individual that expects people fresh out of grade school to act like responsible adults, in that we’re expecting people fresh out of grade school to act like responsible adults. Choose your favorite scapegoat, but whatever the case, our society is not doing the best job of orienting our young people to reality.

Our specific angle on the problem is that students come into the university thinking that they’re going to sleep through their engineering degree the same way they slept through their high school degree. Most have already had several AP classes that have counted for college credit, and they weren't too bad, so college must be pretty easy, right? Reality doesn’t hit them until about ten weeks into their first semester, because that's when they begin to receive their second major test / project grades back. By the time they figure out they’re in trouble, it’s too late to recover: their GPA is shit, they’re going to lose their scholarships, and they may even be on the verge of flunking out completely.

I’m usually an advocate of letting nature take its course, because a) that’s usually what happens anyways, and b) it separates the people that really want it from the people who might should do something else. In this case, I’m playing the interventionist, because a) it’s my job, and b) I honestly think our society loses out on a huge amount of talent that could have gotten their act together if they had just received that reality check soon enough. It also serves to spare the people that really want it from a mountain of student loan debt. I’m speaking from experience here: I transferred in from a community college, and got all the easy stuff out of the way. After my first semester of the engineering curriculum, my GPA was 1.9 (credits from other schools transfer in, not your grades), I got kicked out of the Honor’s College, lost my scholarships, and almost flunked out entirely.

So I ask the folks here: how do we pop the bubble of hubris before it’s too late? I’m trying to think of how I would have smacked my own self upside the head to get the point across, but I’d like to hear other people’s experiences and ideas too.

I've round tripped the university thing twice with a BS in biochemistry and a BS in mechanical engineering. The snowflake phenom has exploded and the university setting really seems to allow it to thrive.

My suggestion for this specific situation is to reduce or downright eliminate the grade inflation. This will wake people up. It sure did when I went through mechanical engineering.

Hopefully you have an administration that will back you up.

Edited to add...Like Rich Jenkins said: there is no 'curve' in the real world. Its not joke when you suck at your job in engineering, want to blame it on others, people get hurt, die, and everything in between.

[Greg]

Life is going to kick these snowflakes in the ass. Hard.

I'll be laughing...

[JAD]

My daughter graduated from Hillsdale College a few years ago.

Congratulations. Good work, Dad.

[JAD]

Haha, I could hear my parents saying that, verbatim.

The one phrase I can associate most with my mother: "life is not fair".

From Dilbert this morning, "fairness is a concept invented so that children and idiots could participate in debates."

[Grey]

I am someone that fits that no clue before I hit college and almost flunked out category. These kids need real mentors. Parents aren't there to support and as you said it's a fuck ton of life experience being thrown at them without any guidance. Advisors generally have too many kids to deal with.

I appreciate you actually give a fuck about these snowflakes.

And to put a point on missing out on talent, I went from almost failing undergrad to having a 4.0 in grad school and getting a second master degree.

Good luck and don't give up!