Academic Entitlement and the K-20 System: The Importance of Implementing Policies to Better the Education System

Introduction

“Just give us an A and leave us alone,” “We are not indebted to the university, they are indebted to us,” “We are paying for our education, so we are consumers buying a product.” Welcome to the world of academic entitlement, where the newest influx of students, otherwise known as Millennials, generation-me, generation Y, amongst other terminology utilized to define this new wave of students, believe they have the power to control and choose all that pertains to completing their academic journey. Gone are the days when educators were looked upon as respected scholars with a wealth of knowledge that can be shared with their students to broaden their horizons (Cohen & Kisker, 2010). This era within education deems to be one where students view their teachers and professors as gatekeepers, and where the students see themselves as consumers having the right to attain the grade of an A without the required work needed to receive such a grade. This student-consumer idealism is not about the learning process, but more of a transactional process where the students feel that if they pay for goods and/or services, they should automatically obtain an A (Cain, Romanelli, & Smith, 2012). Students are now treating their educators as customer service representatives who provide services (Baker, Comer, & Martinak, 2008; Dubovsky, 1986; Morrow, 2009). Cain, Romanelli, & Smith (2012) commented that the term student consumerism and academic entitlement are closely related since “students are paying for their education, they deserve to be treated as consumers in every sense of the word” (p. 1). Although educators have implemented course policies and expectations, this wave of students believes that policies do not pertain to them. One might ask themselves, what is to become of our future? Who will be our future doctors and engineers? However, another critical question to be asked, is, what has brought on academic entitlement and how can we solve this before it is too late?

Truth be told, literature has indicated that there are an abundance of possible causes as to what brings on academic entitlement (Barton & Hirsch, 2016; Lord, 2008; Pinto & Mansfield, 2010; Sonner, 2000; Twenge, 2006, 2017); however for this chapter, the researchers will focus on covering (a) parenting styles, (b) self-esteem movement, (c) institutional climate, (d) millennials and the customer business model, and (e) grade inflation. Furthermore, the researchers will cover academic entitled student’s behavior in addition to the association of narcissistic personalities and academic entitlement. Lastly, the requirements necessitated to decrease and eventually wholly prevent academic entitlement from occurring within all academic institutions from K-20 will be covered.