I had a student recently who never did reading, never spoke in class, failed the mid-term, got poor grades on his written assignments, and then emailed me the last week of class to say he was worried about his grade and what could I do about it.

You could tell him, "What can I do about it? I'll send you an email that says, 'Do the work. Study for the midterm.' Then you can forward the email via an email time machine to yourself at the beginning of the semester."

My MiL turned into a helicopter parent between DH, his sister and his baby brother. SiL is 25 and BiL is 18. She did thing for them that she NEVER would have done with DH--including arguing with teachers over grades, pushing for extra credit and creating that feeling of entitlement with the younger kids.

DH just shakes his head. He can't believe some of the things she's done for them. It shows in their achievement levels.

I think most of the teachers on the board have posted about this kind of thing and, from what I hear, a lot of it comes from the parents. I think at least some of it comes from the stakes, either real or perceived, being high - as in, get into the right college to be able to get a good job afterwards.

Of course, I saw some of the same thing in my job more than 20 years ago - kids straight out of college with a liberal arts degree expecting to be hired into an upper level professional job at a fairly high salary.

I wondered when Gen X started (I'm 1970).

I wondered when Gen X started (I'm 1970).

I think it's officially 1963? Anyway, right after the boomer birth numbers dropped off.

t gives secret 1970 handshake

Cash, that is totally me and my brother. My parents had me really young (mom was 18, dad 19) and they had nothing. I appreciated everything I got as a child because I didn't get tons all the time. By the time my bro was in his teens (born in 77), they were doing very well. He was completely spoiled. I resented the hell out of it until I was old enough to see that I was the lucky one because I'm completely independent. At 29, he is still leaning on the parents (now with added wife and 2 kids). Ayayay.

t returns cool-ass 1970 handshake

I wondered when Gen X started (I'm 1970).

From Wikipedia:

The exact demographic boundaries of Generation X are not well defined, depending on who is using the term, where and when. According to generation researchers Neil Howe and William Strauss, Generation X includes anyone born from 1961 to 1981 in North America.

Frank, born in 1966 puts you in Gen X.

Huh, Wikipedia agrees. I coulda sworn there was a group in between the Boomers and the X-ers. shrugs

X-Wikipeding

Huh, Wikipedia agrees. I coulda sworn there was a group in between the Boomers and the X-ers. shrugs

You think you are entitled to your own personal generational designation, don't you?

Nah, remember how we were always the "Baby Bust", before we decided to give ourselves a cool-sounding slacker-hip new name instead?