All hail the millennial generation, because that’s exactly what they want. ‘They’ meaning anyone born between 1980 and 2000 ‘- you, me and everyone who goes to Northeastern. They demand to be catered to by their professors, parents and elders and I don’t think anyone should do that for them. It’s unhealthy, and it is breeding, or has already bred, a bloodthirsty generation of spoiled brats.
For every generation, there is an accompanying list of stereotypes. The generation before us, Generation X, is generally considered to be skeptical and impatient while the Baby Boomers, who were born before them, are stereotyped as self-sufficient and goal-oriented.
But the most unflattering list of characteristics belongs to our generation. We are said to be completely dependent on our parents, need everything spelled out for us and are extremely demanding of our college professors.
Not everyone is going to fit the mold of any one generation. But more and more I have seen the stereotypes of the millennial generation in the flesh, and it’s not good.
Take for example my math class last week. This class is geared toward non-math majors and is comprised mostly of English, journalism and communication studies majors. Last week, my professor casually mentioned that if anyone wanted to, they could write down 10 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem with each one accompanied by a drawing and a brief poem for extra credit. To me, this seemed like an awesome assignment:’ The professor, I thought, was being really cool and letting us do stuff that wasn’t totally geared toward math.
But instead of accepting this simple extra credit assignment, four or five students in the class started freaking out about how much it would be worth, when it would be due and why we had to write a poem. Some students actually started yelling at the professor for giving such a ‘stupid’ assignment. This ultimately led to them freaking out about the fact that the professor had not yet given out a syllabus for the class with percentages telling how the final grade would be calculated.
I believe this professor was attacked for no reason other than he wasn’t spelling everything out for his students. But so what? He was giving out artsy and creative writing assignments trying to make math fun. Seriously, who really cares what percentages are given to which assignments? I mean, do you really look at that throughout the semester? I say, just do your best and your grade will reflect your work.
Well, thank you very much millennial stereotypes for yelling at this cool professor and making him feel sad and pessimistic about a course he was once excited to teach, as he told me after that class. And the next day, he decided that we will mainly only have tests, which will be worth 70 percent of our grades.
The truth is, I think a lot of people are missing out on the fact that college is about learning and not all about grades. Pay attention, do your best and it will work out. Chill out, learn and you will be successful. Don’t act like you’re better than your professors, because you’re not and when you do that, you just kill their spirit and make them angry.
So instead of personifying the negative aspects of our generation, millennials ought to embrace the positives. We’re a tech savvy bunch who sometimes get frustrated with our elders because they’re not as competent with an iPhone as we are. But please, keep your ego in check, chill out about school and it will all work out.

‘- Maraithe Thomas is a sophomore English major.