Would you like to know the number of students in my classes from overseas who complain that American students are lazy and we have forgotten hard work?
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I would imagine most foreign students say this. Foreign students in the US are an intellectual elite of the places they come from, in most of which only a select few are permitted to complete pre-university studies.
This is especially true of students from ex-colonies, such as Trinidad, Jamaica, BVI, the US VI, the Bahamas, etc.
The American students have not 'forgotten how to work hard' they have NEVER worked hard, at least about 80% of them.
I teach Spanish. I always have about 4 to 10 or so students out of a total of around 90 that refuse to buy the book. They are not sharing a book, they do not even have one in class. It is a good book and comes with CD's.
Invariably, they fail miserably. They have nothing to study, and can't and don't. They will only rarely photocopy pages.
I call on every student pretty much every day. If they ask "what page are we on' and have no book, I give them a 0 and pass them by. And still they will not at least photocopy the pages.
They pay or borrow or are granted $1300 or more to take the class and refuse to buy a $50 used book.