Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Hopefully, We'll Get What We Deserve

Enough , already! Even though it's almost Hallowe'en (or Christmas, if you go to the mall), this idea has been following me around lately like trick-or-treaters who realize I give out full-sized candy bars (or Marley's ghost). It slammed into my consciousness after I heard it trumpeted on radio commercials for the zillionth time, then did a flying mare on my frontal lobe when I had to consider the idea as I read a student's essay, and finally came to the screaming point when a student told me today that she thought I graded her first essay "too hard."
I'm talking about the feeling of entitlement that seems to pervade the small area of the planet where I reside.
First, the radio commercials that boast "You can cut your credit card debt or payments for back taxes to the IRS in half! Former IRS agents are standing by to tell you the secrets that the IRS or the credit card companies) don't want you to know!" Hold on a minute. You mean to tell me that if I owe more than $20,000 in back taxes, I can get out of paying most of it? On money that I earned and refused to pay taxes on? Legally? "Yes, that's right. Call now, and we'll show you how to stop the annoying phone calls relating to debt so you can get on with your life!" So, let me see if I get this straight...you should not HAVE to pay taxes on money you earned even though most of the rest of us (excepting folks like Mobil/Exxon) do so faithfully? I can rack up thousands of dollars in credit card debt and walk away? Dang...I never knew I was entitled to cheat other people like that...seems like it was covered in the "thou shalt nots." Face it, YOU used the credit cards, and YOU made the money that is being taxed...and I'm the sucker for paying what I owe.
Students have been getting the rap lately as expecting a grade of "B" or better simply for doing what they are supposed to do...and to all accounts, they deserve the bad rep. I recently handed back a set of 25 basic personal narrative essays that contained nothing so difficult as MLA style citations but did ask for a reflection concerning how the author felt the process went: what was difficult, what might be adjusted the next time...one paragraph...and almost half did not bother to do it. Surprisingly enough, the grades plotted out to an almost perfect bell curve with only two students getting a grade of "A/B" while the rest scored lower. One of the "C/D" students comment on a subsequent reflection that I should have graded more leniently since it was their first college essay. Uh...no. this "I deserve it because it's me" shroud of self-delusion seems to be creeping acfross the landscape like the fog in The Hound of the Baskervilles (another Hallowe'en reference), and I must say that I'm not buying it. I'm no Glenn Beck, making fun of a rural Tennessee family whose house and possessions burned while the fire department watched (seemed the family hadn't paid the $75 fee for fire protection), but I'm no bleeding heart who feels sorry for those who feel more deserving of benefits they have not earned in some fashion.
Call me a moderate...moderately irritated, and hoping I get what I deserve.
(Being careful of what I hope for!)

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