Parents giving too much praise?

An article on foxnews.com today caught my eye: Study: Many Teens Overconfident, Parents to Blame. The article states that, after years of research by Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, compared to the 1970s, teens today are overconfident and are very unrealistic about future aspirations. Parents and teachers are the number one cause of this, according to the study. Parents give out endless praises to children inspiring them to do what ever they set their minds to. Teachers "give out" 'A's more often than they did in the 1970s. The study also states that statistics show students today have far less homework compared to 1970s' students.

When I was growing up, I remember my parents were always pushing me to have straight 'A's in school and to participate in AP courses or the gifted and talented program. This always bothered me. It wasn't that I wasn't capable of doing these things because I was. My parents always told me that I could grow up to do anything I wanted and that college was always in my future. They wanted me to have what they didn't have. I think this was common for most of the kids that I grew up with in school. The part that bothered me was the feeling that my parents were pushing their childhood aspirations on to me. They wanted me to accomplish what they never had the option to. This leads me to agree that parents are partly to blame for this new overconfidence. After being repeatedly told "You can do or be anything you want to be." you eventually start to believe that.

Other factors could be involved in this rise in confidence. If you think back to the 1970s there wasn't as many career options out there as there are now. This time period was on the verge of the shift from kids growing up and doing exactly what their parents wanted to kids having their own thoughts on future careers. This could have had an affect on the data that was collected.

I am very grateful that I did in fact take those advanced courses in school. I will be the first to admit that my high school courses were hard. I had homework every night. I also worked full time hours most weeks, sometimes getting overtime. But I still graduated with a 3.9 GPA, and I worked my butt off for it. While not all high schools are the same, I know that my classes were not as hard as they could have been. I've know others that went to various other high schools and had much harder courses than my AP classes. But I am going to have to disagree with teachers "giving out" 'A's. My yearbook advisor had a poster on her podium that I saw every day for three years. "I don't give out grades. You earn them." I witnessed this on every exam, homework assignment and class activity. Yearbook was not a free-for-all class like some thought. There was a certain amount of points you had to earn each nine weeks by taking pictures, writing articles, completing page spreads, selling ads or various other tasks assigned. I know some of the smartest kids that failed yearbook because they didn't participate or didn't want to put in the effort. So, no, teacher don't "give out" grades.

I'm don't know exactly where the research came from for this article but I think there are many factors to be taken into account for the way the statistics fell.

What do you Google?

The small portion of the news that I got to see tonight, after coming home from a long night of work, was a report on Google. According to the news, Google has begun to track the amount of searches for flu symptoms. Apparently this is helping to determine how severe the flu outbreak is in any given area. Is this really a good use of spare time and technology? I understand that this helps doctors and whatnot to determine where the flu is the strongest. But I don't understand why this is a legitimate source. I took AP statistics last year. I know all about the numerous forms of bias that can affect an experiment. This Google data seems to me like it would have a lot of bias. There could be numerous reasons why people are searching flu symptoms. They could be doing some kind of research for a paper. They could be bored and just be googling random things. I think we are all gulty of that every once in a while. But I'm also concerned as to why this made the local news. Northwest Arkansas must be a very boring, low crime, no news city for this to be important.

Taking a break

I try to read The Traveler as often as I can when I'm on campus. I do this for two main reasons. One: keeping up with events and news on campus is important. I like to know a little bit of what has been going on with students I can relate to. Two: I spent the last three years of my life dedicated to our high school newspaper. Reading a student produced paper reminds me of my favorite times. Plus I get to see how another school writes and designs their paper. Call it research for future projects.

While reading Monday's issue, I came across an article about possibly adding a fall break somewhere in the calendar in the near future. I have friends that attend Hendrix and UCA and feel jealous when they come home for a "glorified weekend" and I can't seem to find time to spend with them between going to classes and working full time hours. A fall break would have been wonderful this fall. This is my first semester in college and after a big change from high school, some things seemed very overwhelming. A fall break would have giving me a couple days to catch up on sleep and reevaluate my study habits, as well as start planning for my next few years of college.

A few conditions were mentioned if this new fall break were to be implemented. The semester might start sooner than it usually does or end later than usual. The starting early part I wouldn't really have a problem with. Beginning the semester sooner wouldn't be that bad if I had a fall break to look forward to. It wouldn't seem as bad. But the ending later part I do have a problem with. Final exams are already too close to Christmas for my liking. Although I already live at home, this doesn't give much time for me to recuperate from the semester before spending days at several family gatherings or working late hours because of the busy holidays. Not to mention Christmas shopping. That doesn't seem very likely if I'm spending every spare moment before Christmas studying for my tests. Overall this seems like a good idea to me if it is approached correctly. The fall break is supposed to improve students' sanity not diminish it even more.

Living with a herd of people

While watching the 10 o'clock news this evening, I saw the report on a group of four families living together in a four bedroom house in Springdale. This was brought to the attention of the building inspector when a little girl was treated for numerous mouse bites. The 23 people were living in this house with mattresses spread out on the floor of every room. There was food scrapes and waste on the floor. Not surprisingly, the building inspector declared the house unsafe to live in and the families were forced out of there home.

On some level, yes, this is sad. A little girl shouldn't have to live in a home where there are mice and waste all over the place; no one should. A family should not be forced out of their house for unsafe living conditions. But there is a point where the sympathy stops. If you are willing to submit yourself and your children to these living conditions without worrying about the health of your family, I have no sympathy for you. A sane person should not have to be told that their home is unsafe to live in. It's not difficult to clean once a week and take out the trash daily.

Also, the fact that there were 23 people living together under one roof is just absurd to me. I only live with three other people and can't even imagine living with more than that. I have to have my personal space and a private place in our home. Thinking about it now, 23 people would be like living with my extended family: my three uncles and their families living with us. No thank you.

I hope these families learn from this experience and clean up their act, literally. If their children continue to grow up in this atmosphere, they will not be learning from a very good example. After all, a clean home is a happy home.

Connect to life

I am not one of those people who's whole life revolves around their phone. Currently, I couldn't even tell you where my phone is unless someone happens to call or text me. This makes me wonder why people need phones that do just about everything. I'm talking about the iPhones, Blackberries, the new G2 and any other PDA that is out there these days. I see numerous television and internet advertisements for these products describing one's entire life on their phone. Specifically, every time I watch my favorite show on the internet the same 15 second ad plays while each clip is buffering. In this short clip, a boy kicks a soccer ball which causes various unrelated objects and activities to fly around the screen and eventually form together to create a blackberry. The voice over says "Connect to everything you love in life with Blackberry" Why is this necessary, I ask? Why does everything I love in life have to be connected with my phone?

These phones can take pictures, videos, access the internet, email, driving directions, restaurant information, city attractions, play music, plan a day and pretty much keep someone entertained for a lifetime. They do everything. As my mom likes to say "It does everything but your laundry." And for the most part, she's right. Not to mention the outrageous cost of these phones. One of them costs about my 40 hour work week wages. I'm sorry, I have bills to pay, not expensive gadgets to buy. Sorry, Apple, you won't be getting any of my money this month!

The phone that I use on a daily basis does the following: send/receive calls and text messages, take pictures and videos, has an alarm and a calculator. What else do I need? After all the telephone was invented to make calls, not google the closest McDonald's to my house. Care to guess what it cost me? That's right, a whopping $49.99 with a $25 rebate card. And I love this phone!

Impending Birthday

As my birthday quickly approaches, I can't help but think 'why does this one not seem as important as all the others?' Usually by this time I have been counting down the days since September. This year I wasn't really thinking about it until a friend asked what exact day my birthday was on. It was the first week of October when she asked and after that I was like 'Oh my gosh, I turn 19 in like a month!' How did this one pass me by?

Sometimes I wonder, once you hit 18, is it just all down hill from there? I mean think about it. When you are a kid you can't wait to get into the double digits. Then once that happens you can't wait to turn 16, the magic driving age. And after that it's only two years before you are legal and can vote. But what's after 18? Well sure there's 21, but to those of us that aren't alcoholics, this means nothing.

Childhood birthdays were always great because you got to have a party, lots of cool toys from your friends and, of course, cake. I've never really been one to have a very long wish list, but once you pass the toys faze there's really nothing to ask for. Now my birthdays feel like just another day.

But I do look forward to going out to my favorite restaurant and having a slice of my favorite homemade lemon cake.