Give Me Personal Responsibility

I see a trend in many of my classes that is moving away from taking personal responsibility.

I have students who want me to figure everything out for them; who would love it if class was canceled every time it snowed; who routinely do the minimum amount of work; who ask things like, "If I can't make it tonight, will I miss anything important?"; and who simply are not challenging themselves to be the best learners they can be.

There have always been slackers in college. But I am seeing very few in my classes who simply want to do more - to figure things out on their own, who want to do extra, who want to learn outside the requirements.

The ones who are able to think critically, solve problems and have motivation to learn independently are the ones who I want to become the next generation of journalists. They can learn to write later.