You act like these kids are brats for simply following all advice that is given to them. Students are told, from Kindergarten on, that they need to work hard in school so they can get into a good college so they can get a good job so they can make a comfortable living. They do all of this, they follow all of the rules, they don't drop out like half of their friends, they study on the weekends instead of partying, they do internships during the summer instead of living on the beach. They do all of these things, and then they graduate with no jobs available. This is "wanting life handed to them"?

The most important thing about college is not what classes one takes, but that one learns how to learn. I disagree with this wholeheartedly. College needs to be job training. Engineering, pharmacy, veterinary school, agriculture, and other degrees actually teach you what you need to know to do a job. "Learning how to learn" is what students majoring in anthropology tell themselves to feel better about their major, and somehow convince themselves that they can worry about the job market later on. I credit my parents for making sure I chose a *job*, not a major. I then got the major that trained me for that job.

One could henceforth attend most American universities never having read a word of Shakespeare or one verse of the Bible, never having taken a course on Western civilization or American history, never having heard a symphony or, for that matter, never having experienced anything uplifting or elevating. Please explain how any of that will help me get a job. You are correct in your assertion--when I was in college studying computer engineering, I did not do any of those things (some in HS, and I certainly read my Bible). Instead, I took classes on computer architecture and logic design. and now I work for a company that designs computer chips. This is what college should be--4 years of training for a profession. Instead, people like...

--Keith, tell me again how you can earn self-esteem. You earn it by serving others. When you speak of self esteem being given to us by our Creator, I do agree that since I am made in Christ's image and He laid down his life for me, that I am worth something, if only because He thinks so. However, Christ taught humility and service. He taught that you shouldn't think of yourself higher than others. And I guess that's where the semantics of the term "self esteem" come into play. What schools are teaching today is a basic form of secular humanism that says you and you alone are the center of the universe, and *that* is why you should feel good about yourself. I think this is dangerous, because it produces people who think they are...

Wrong, you *can* earn self esteem. In fact, you *should* earn self esteem. When I was in school, we sat in a circle and each had to name one thing that we were good at and made us feel good about ourselves. The message was, "you are special, regardless of what you do". But this just isn't true. We are defined by what we do. A person that goes and works for a charity is *doing* something that earns them self esteem--they have every reason to feel good about themselves for their charity work. A kid that works nights to help his family pay bills is *doing* something that should make him proud. Instead of teaching kids that we are defined by our actions, we teach them that we are defined by our feelings. Then we ask ourselves why...

Who says we're Republicans? We hated most of that too, when it was happening. People like to pretend that we marched in lock step with Bush, but it was us conservatives that opposed him so strongly on immigration reform and other entitlements.

This is a great way of putting it. Well said.

I assume nothing has changed. 13 years ago when I was a high school junior, National Merit scholarships were given out based on your PSAT score. They took your english score, doubled it, and added it to your math score. They were very public about the fact that the reason they weighted the english grade double is because too many boys were winning, so by doubling english they could bias it toward girls to make things "even". Bothered me then, bothers me now.

Sounds to me like parents and students should take this study seriously--and look for schools that got an F!

I'm an engineer, and when I was in school 10 years ago, the 7 "general ed" classes we had to take were the most dreaded wastes of time we had. The rest of my classes taught me how to do a variety of engineering tasks, preparing me for my future. The "general ed" classes taught me some interesting facts of no use to me professionally.

People often say these classes and liberal arts degrees are there to teach you how to think critically. I say they just teach you to think like the professor. Every student knows the easiest way to get an A in those types of classes are to agree with the professor. They also...

I agree with your premise, but your examples just show that you're the type of professor I hated. Good professors treated me like an adult. I paid for the education. If I chose to be late to class, that was my business.

As for the cell phone distractions, I don't understand how my forgetting to turn my ringer off should translate to an indication that I don't grasp the subject matter at hand--which is what a grade indicates.

In the "real world" if I choose to skip a meeting, I skip a meeting. If I'm late, nobody asks why. I'm an adult. I manage my own schedule.

Instead, you describe a classroom where you are apparently easy to distract, and rather than just kicking people out of the classroom, you take it...