Helicopter Parents

I don't know where this week has gone. Teaching every day means grading every day, and I also gave my students a midterm exam since we're halfway through our five-week summer session. Needless to say, I'll be grading all weekend, but I love teaching.

This week has also been trying since I had a student show up the first week of class and then miss all last week only to show up again this week with a series of excuses. I'll spare you the details, but it's amazing how so many college students today depend on their parents. We like to call them helicopter parents since they hover over their children, who are legal adults, and want to make their lives are as perfect as possible.

I have wonderful and supportive parents, but my parents never would have called a college professor to complain about a grade I earned. For those of us teaching now, we're facing a privileged generation that has been taught they are all winners and they are all special. In the eyes of parents, their children are special, but that doesn't mean they are the best at everything they do.

College is a time for young women and men, who are now adults, to find out about the world and how to live in it on their own for the most part. The family support network should still exist, but it can't help them from falling and failing each and every time they make a mistake. As one of my colleagues recently said, "The world isn't interested in your excuses, only your results."