A more cynical take:

I don't agree with this wholeheartedly; I have relatively few students who "only want to be told how right they are and how good they are." (Though the few that I do have tend to stick out in my mind). But I do think Marsalis kind of nails the entitlement phenomenon a lot of us in education see:

(Oh, tiny language warning at the beginning, but I think it's justified)



I do like his comment on how some people are more interested in looking like they are something than they are at BEING that thing, and it "works, as long as everyone is winking at it at the same time." Though that may be more true in other disciplines than it is in the sciences; at least among my students, they will call B.S. on their fellow students if they think their fellow students are full of it.