The life of a college student is defined by freedom and the chance to discover, finally, who you are as a person and come into your own. This is a vital time in a young adult’s life and it is critical that they be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them, sometimes on their own.

The phenomenon known as helicopter parents may block this growth. According to Wikipedia, the definition of a helicopter parent is “…a person who pays extremely close attention to his or her child or children, particularly at educational institutions. They rush to prevent any harm or failure from befalling them or letting them learn from their own mistakes, sometimes even contrary to the children’s wishes. They are so named because, like a helicopter, they hover closely overhead, rarely out of reach whether their children need them or not.”

There are pros and cons of having a helicopter parent. The pros are:

• Students who are in constant contact with a parent or guardian are most likely more satisfied in their school life.
• Students report deeper learning experiences.
• Students report greater gains with learning on their own and learning to work with people from different backgrounds.

The other side of the coin:

• Students with highly involved parents tend to have lower grades.

source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-11-04-nsse-helicopter-parents_N.htm

Helicoptering, as the term is used, is not relegated to middle- and upper-class students and parents. The phenomenon crosses all class and race barriers, and can be defined by five different categories.

They are:

• The “Consumer Advocate” parent—views each phase of the college experience as a business transaction and wants the biggest bang for their buck.
• The “Only Want What’s Best for My Child” parent—requires that their child have access to the best classes, professors, dorms, internships, and majors.
• The “Helopat” parent—fights for fairness and think that universities aren’t offering equitable resources to all students.
• The “Entitlement Advocate” parent—believes that no child should be left behind and keeps up with the latest state and federal requirements for education.
• The “Vicarious College Student” parent—tries to live out their missed college years through their child.

source: http://www.utexas.edu/features/2007/helicopter/

Whatever the case may be, being supportive of a college student is necessary. To prevent helicoptering, start early by assigning responsibility to the student during high school. Resist the temptation to step in and take over (except for those situations that need parental resolution). Begin letting go in increments and by the time the student is in college, they will come to you when they need support and won’t feel like you are smothering them.

Happy learning!

Mr. Philip M. Parker, a chaired professor of management science, has developed a unique way of writing books. An article in the New York Times examines his unconventional method of compiling the “meat” of a book by using his developed algorithms to collect publicly available information on a subject. Mr. Parker then, with the assistance of 60-70 computers (!) and six or seven computer programmers, compiles the results into books, producing a product that runs the gamut of genres and usually is about 150 pages long. Some of the titles he has written include “The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea,” “Stickler Syndrome: A Bibliography and Dictionary for Physician’s, Patients and Genome Researchers,” and “The 2007–2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India.”

Mr. Parker has generated over 200,000 books, and each book is only printed when a customer places an order. Although the above books may sound like generic topics, Mr. Parker has applied his theory to crossword puzzles and even scripts for animated game shows. Most of his books are full of graphics, and there have been complaints at the level of generic information given in the content. But Mr. Parker takes on an attitude that if you are not Internet savvy and need a guide to read, his books provide a basic understanding of the topics that he covers and can be useful.

Many authors would call what Mr. Parker does as cheating, but he doesn’t think so. He compares his methods to a traditional publisher, only with his computers doing the scut work.

“Using a little bit of artificial intelligence, a computer program has been created that mimics the thought process of someone who would be responsible for doing such a study,” Mr. Parker says. “But rather than taking many months to do the study, the computer accomplishes this in about 13 minutes.”

Mr. Parker is now venturing into other avenues, including acrostic poetry. He has a love for words and dictionaries in all languages, and a foray into romance novels is in the works also.

It is quite amazing what technology can do!

Happy learning!