<p>I would bet the top 20% is less confident as a group than the rest (who looks for validation in the chances threads?).</p>
<p>“If 75% of the kids think they perform in the top 20%, 55% OF THEM ARE OVERESTIMATING THEIR ABILITIES. If that’s not overconfidence, I have no idea what is.”</p>
<p>I think you are overestimating your statistical reasoning abilities.</p>
<p>Confidence is a significant factor. It is different from being realistic. If I wasn’t as confident and being as sure as I am, I am sure that I would not be getting A’s in 5/6 classes. It takes hard work and optimism, and I am quite sure the work load has gotten harder since the 70’s. Only 1 AP course and 1 Honors and I am doing homework until 10. Most of these kids put the hours in, and they expect something in return.</p>
<p>my graduating class of 500 (in 2008) had 1 person that got straight A’s, i believe.</p>
<p>I think lots of the intelligent people at my school had fair ideas of what they would get into/ the chances they would get rejected. On the other hand, there was a handful of students with UCsanta cruz average stats, if not a little lower.</p>
<p>Like I had a friend who thought they would get into UCSD, UCD, UCI, UCSB with no problem, and even thought UCLA was a good chance (yet suprisingly thought UCB was not that good chance). I wanted to tell them that they were completely stupid for the assumptions (they said they were sure they would be accepted at even UCSD) but i didnt. Instead, with a lovely SAT score of around 1500 (out of 2400…yeah, really low), they were rejected from all but UCSD.</p>
<p>Reliable news sources only, please. Typical fox news: appealing to the older generation by saying how much harder they had it and bashing the liberal, anti dodgeball self esteem movement. This study really shows absolutely nothing.</p>
<p>Reading that article is upsetting. It sounds like it’s directed stright at my HS. v_v</p>
<p>Actually there have been studies on this issue and it is traced back to the self-esteem movement of the 70s. They purposely introduced the notion “that everyone is special” and a “winner” into the classroom believeing it would increase students’ performance. How many times do you go to an award ceremony and EVERYONE gets an award. All it teaches kids is that you will get rewarded whether you’ve earned it or not and that is not how the real world works. The byproduct of the self-esteem movement is actually increased incidence of depression (I guess that’s what happens when kids find out they are not so special after all.)</p>
<p>Call me a product of the age of overconfidence, but here are my two cents:</p>
<p>The article is very vague, but how is it possible to quantitatively measure how “easy” it is to get an A at any given high school in America? And since when was it a terrible thing to be optimistic and confident? You don’t get in where you think you can, big deal, move on. It’s certainly far better than being pessimistic with low self-esteem, which the article appears to almost advocate.</p>
<p>I agree that it appears to be reactionary propaganda in response to the “liberal feel-good overconfidence” attitude that appears to be prevalent today.</p>
<p>You guys aren’t really talking about the article.</p>
<p>First, it’s not from Fox News. It was an article from another source that Fox News published. How could you guys not have noticed that at the bottom of the article? Unless, of course, you didn’t finish it…</p>
<p>Second, Dr. Jean Twenge has been working on generational differences since college and has basically done nothing else. She’s qualified to make statements about the issue at hand. Her C.V. justifies her authority.</p>
<p>Third, you really need to check out the book she wrote, Generation Me. I have read it, and the article was a very rough skeleton that included none of the facts and case studies presented fully in the book. I encourage everyone to read it; it’s quite easy as well.</p>
<p>I basically agree with her. Kids today have way higher expectations of college acceptances, starting salaries, etc. than every before. It’s not who has the nicest clothes anymore, it’s whether you have a VW or a Porsche. Kids are not being rewarded for performance, but rather for effort. Again, the studies are in the book, and Twenge analyzes different curricula that states have adopted as part of the self-esteem movement.</p>
<p>Please know what you’re talking about before just looking stupid.</p>
<p>Not to mention that so many more kids are taking calculus (and higher level calc, like III and Differential Equations, as well as Linear Algebra) which was virtually unheard of in the 70s.</p>
<p>Too much money…spoiled brats. That is what does it. And Television and Hollywood that promote their sassy mouths and being disrespectful of adults and expecting too much too soon. Then PERMISSIVE parents who give into them.</p>
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<p>You know, I’ve always wondered if this were true. Everyone believes it nowadays, but I’ve never seen any evidence of such (if anyone has any, I’d like to see it).</p>
<p>I read Foxnews and declared the article bull****</p>
<p>You can not blame a kid for dreaming. I consider it rather a muse than a sense of being overconfident.</p>
<p>5 hrs of hw per day!?! WHAT!? i do less than 1 hr of hw per 3 days… and if i ever do hw its because i have a test coming up and need to turn in my assignments</p>
<p>i think it’s a grade inflation thing… a much bigger problem now than then.</p>
<p>at a very competitive hs, i have made straight A’s and am in the most APs/honors that it is possible to take senior year, and i’m not even in the top 10% of my class. most nights i do homework from about 7:00-1:00, though admittedly kind of off/on while listening to music. still, looking at my parents who got into princeton on a few hours of homework a night, i think it’s pretty clear that times have changed.</p>
<p>There’s so much to say, but eh, I won’t even go to a lot of this.</p>
<p>
I agree that it’s getting more competitive, but this part seems a bit awkward and untrue from what I know:</p>
<p>From what I know, kids nowadays are being rewarded for their performance and results; it’s the results that matter regardless of effort and time from what I’ve seen…you have the credentials, grades, scores, doesn’t matter how much time you spent on them/the method by which you obtained them mentality is what I see daily.</p>
<p>“I read Foxnews and declared the article bull****”</p>
<p>Ooooh…more closed-minded, ignorant stupidity. THE ARTICLE IS NOT FROM FOX, PEOPLE.</p>
<p>“From what I know, kids nowadays are being rewarded for their performance and results; it’s the results that matter regardless of effort and time from what I’ve seen…you have the credentials, grades, scores, doesn’t matter how much time you spent on them/the method by which you obtained them mentality is what I see daily.”</p>
<p>Of course, in the higher-level education this is true. But what justifies this? The seeds that are planted in the lower grades. I help out with kindergartners at my church, and every time it’s “You are special,” “You are loved,” “You are unique.” It’s this mentality that leads kids to the sense of entitlement that makes them feel justified in cheating.</p>
<p>This is an age-old issue. Every older generation thinks the younger generation is headed for disaster. “Kids these days” has been a mantra for centuries. In the 1920s, adults ranted and raved about how the youth were “burning the candle at both ends,” and they had no perception of reality. What happened in the 1960s? How about the 1990s, with disaffected youth? This happens all the time. As long as people have children, they’ll complain about them.</p>
<p>Wow, what a earth-shatterting article!</p>
<p>In other news: Sand Found in the Sarhara</p>