1844 - Personal coaches

It's funny how people who got their degrees in the past managed to do so without personal coaches and they're doing okay, well, or spectacular.

"Colleges historically have blamed students’ weak effort or poor preparation."

That's because that was usually the cause of lousy grades and incidents of dropping out. People whine and scream about the work being too hard, but the problem usually lies with the students and not the work.

These coaches sound more like counselors to me - they sound like they're just there to tell the students that everything will be alright, which I know some people do need to hear from time to time to just feel more relaxed. But I agree with GreenGrass - it's never about the students in cases like this. It's always someone else's fault, so therefore, that "someone else" is the one getting stuck cleaning up the students' messes. Then again, I'm sure in some cases, the parents are also to blame...perhaps for talking Junior into going to college, or making it seem like there was no other choice, or just instilling the mindset into the kids that everyone belongs in college, regardless of intelligence, desire, or work ethic. Still, a person is capable of making their own decisions before they graduate high school, and if Junior's dream job is working the register at Wal-Mart, then he should be allowed to pursue what he wants (as opposed to trying for a degree in something that doesn't hold any interest to him).

Oh well...I'm sure colleges aren't complaining about people who drop out because the student will still have to pay back their loans if any were taken out.

i find college students/university students to be totally divorced from the realities of the world, and these coaches are only pandering to this attitude, some students arent intelligent, some are dumb. but you cant tell them that everyone has to go to university/college, no one left behind, and yet you come across the situation where young adults cant read, or write or make logical arguments.

its a dumbening down and a not my fault world.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Before a change in my teaching responsibilities, I taught basic and intermediate composition classes to community college students. It seemed that every year brought students who were less prepared and carried more unrealistic expectations of their own capabilities. More than twenty years of witnessing the degradation of our student population made me consider an early retirement, but I could not abandon younger professors with less fortitude to deal with the onslaught.

Guidance counselors need to do a better job of sorting out students who are college material and those who would be best served by vocational training. I do not fathom why some parents or children would become so upset by being told they are not college material, as some vocations are very lucrative and constantly in need. If your child would be a better plumber earning $100 an hour, than why are you wasting time and resources cluttering up a classroom of students who will never earn more than $40 per hour at the higher end. Not every child is mentally capable of the rigors of a college education, even though it has been so diluted in the past thirty years.

In my composition classes, I had the "welfare to work" program single moos struggling to put together more than five words with a minimum sense of clarity and comprehension. Those women were the least motivated and the least intelligent I had ever taught, and they tried my patience to the point of physical agony. Those women were very clearly not college material, but some idiot politicians and our board of trustees clearly saw tuition funds flowing so they were here. I cannot thank the deity responsible for my change in teaching duties enough, but I can tell you the younger generation of faculty have their hands full.

How does the system not work for these students?

Teenagers do not want to apply themselves in high school while their parents coddle them and blame the teachers. Like the above people mention, many of these college kids, who truly act like kids rather than the young adults they should be, end up having to take time to do remedial courses so they can hack the other classes.

No one is ever expected to take responsibility of their own lives. I did not do well in community college at a younger age. It was not the fault of the professors or the school. I was being lazy. I would rather sleep late than go to class and I did not apply myself. That is basically how it went. No one 'failed' me.

And...it is true how college is not for everyone. Most parents...and some students go into deep debt for that four-year degree. I know a lovely young lady who went back to university but ended up back where she was before UCF -- being a server...not that that is bad thing since she makes good $$$$ at it...but she has those student loans to pay off.

They have personal coaches so when they fail, they've got someone to blame.

Remember friends, we absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, take responsibility for ourselves!

I wonder how many of these "drop outs" re-enters the college system a few years later, and more willing and able to do the work?

I actually did go back to community college in 1990 to take courses. Due to my being a dumb-@ss in the early Eighties and being dropped from several courses due to my dumb self not showing up, I had to fill out a request to return to school. When I filled out the paperwork, I made it very clear that my earlier failure was *MY* fault and *MY* fault alone! I mentioned not appreciating education at a young age and just messing up thinking that I would be in my 20's forever. I got accepted back to school and pulled straight A's. I did not get a degree but am glad I did take classes.

I wish I'd had a personal coach back in the '80s! It took me 10 years on and off to get my college degree. Where the hell was the help when I needed it?

What is next for today's young people? Coaches to help them "succeed" at work?

Hate to tell you this, but they already have "career coaches." A lot of big companies hire these consultants to come in and help employees meet their professional and personal goals, while building morale, and self- esteem. I used to work for a big west coast pharmaceutical co. when I was in school, and saw it in action more than once. Imagine Anthony Robbins in the workplace, and you get the picture. I was a part- time receptionist, so I wasn't included in these "workshops" but it was pretty funny to hear the crap they were trying to push on people.

I temped for a large healthcare insurance company that was using the "FISH" Philosophy to increase morale and/or production. What a waste of time. It's a take off of the fish market in Seattle that uses a happy happy joy joy approach for their employees.

If they REALLY wanted to increase employee production and morale, they should have taken the money that they spent on all the books and training materials, in addition to the bloated salary of the suit that thought this shit up, and divided it equally among the employees.

I'm sorry. That made sense. What was I thinking?

I worked for a very short time for an outbound call center that also used the "FISH" philosophy. I enjoyed the video about the happy fish market but I believe it is hard to copy another person's/company's style. This approach worked for the fish place but it did not for the S**rs Marketing Center...where we had to call customers to bug them to buy service "protection" agreements. What a job..