Generation X goes to College (Essay Sample)

Generation X goes to College
Customer Inserts His/her Name
Customer Inserts Grade Course
Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name
21th October 2012
Generation X goes to College
1 The attitude of student’s towards college life is a very important aspect among college tutors. In this essay I will be identifying the thinking attitude of an average college student from generation X and determine how it differs with past generation.
2 This concept is important because it can help the tutors to learn attitude changes. This is very important in keeping college tutors up-to-date with the needs of the student. Further it enables tutors from different generation to remain up-to-date in the midst of change.
3 I think I need to know the thinking attitude of generation X and compare it with past generations, I also what to evaluate the changes in attitude between students of different generation. I will compare this attitude with the knowledge I have.
4 The first thing I will do is to come up with a rough idea of the changes I have discovered among students. I will draft this point down and consequently compose some interview questions to ask some students in the writing course. I will gather the students and ask them to respond to the interview questions as per the instructions given. The first step to confirm this assumption wall be to ask students to give written responses of the grade they felt they deserved to get in a writing course. The second step to confirm this assumption will be to carry random experiments on generation X students to gauge their reasoning attitude on different aspects of college life. The first step in these practical experiments will be to carry out experimental surveys to measure the attitude of 150 students. The students will be first required to give anonymous answers to random questions. The first question will be motivated by the feelings of inadequacy on the college tutors. It will deal with the qualities of college instructor. The goal of this question will be to reveal the crucial personality traits that the students valued among their college tutors.
Part 2: Responding to Argument
1 Chapter 8 of Peter Sacks’ book Generation X Goes to College starts with the student ranking of the most important trait preference in their college tutor. 41% of the students ranked entertainment as the most important trait (Sacks, 1996). Consequently, the author links this choice to the high amount of entertainment the students get exposed to while growing up, ranging from MTV to sesame. According to the author, generation X students are automatically exposed to entertainment images and consequently, they value it most among their college tutors. Further, the author supports this assumption by showing how the 2nd most valued trait was being warm and friendly. Though this assumption might be right to some extent, it fails to incorporate the very fact that the level of exposure to entertainment among the students vary greatly among the students. There are students who do not get exposed to such outlets of entertainment e.g. due to family values or religion. On the other hand, the students might have preferred a tutor with soft skills because they can easily approach and relate to him or her rather than because of the level of entertainment they have been exposed to. In the first place, there was no prior experiment to gauge the level of entertainment the students had been exposed to. On the other hand, there should have been comparative experiments done on students of other generations to proof or disclaim this claim. Further, the fact that almost a quarter of the students choose a tutor with a hard trait, a tutor who challenges students, contradict the very assumption that generation X students have been greatly affected by entertainment. In the same question, 60% of the students’ preferred a tutor who accommodates their individual learning styles and abilities. This preference exceeds the 47% who preferred entertainment and should be the basis of any claims.
2 In regard to grading, the student felt that grading should depend more on knowledge and performance in subjects. Consequently, the author links this to the deep believe in the ‘success’ model and the common perceived ideas of the American meritocracy. The fact that only half of the students preferred to be graded on how much knowledge they had arouse more schism from generation Y. in my opinion, grading should not depend on only one criteria and thus the survey question should not have given only one criteria. The students should have been given an option to rank various choices rather than just one option. This does not show a gap in traditional or non traditional lines but it shows the variety of options that should be incorporated in grading students. Despite, learning does not just involve the knowledge and performance in subjects but it involves all the options given; the level of hard work applied, improvement as well as individual attitude towards learning.
3 On the other hand, blaming the students for choosing the average grade as a B is not only unfair but illogical. No student goes to school expecting to fail and consequently, a B as ...