Thanks for this data about our students, and for some suggestions about how to deal with these challenges that "today's students" may be facing. My question, however, concerns the premise at the beginning of the post. You start off by suggesting that there is a constant idea that "intelligent" and "well read" adults look upon the youth as underperforming in comparison to their generation. Thus, we should be skeptical of this narrative. I agree with this and try to remind myself of that constantly before falling into that trap. But I was wonder why you only presented data from the present, rather than demonstrate this point by showing some time-series data on these issues. Are students facing similar or different challenges today as they were in the past? We kind of lose that strand of the argument along the way. Anyway, thank you for this substack. I always read it and appreciate its insights.
Thanks for this data about our students, and for some suggestions about how to deal with these challenges that "today's students" may be facing. My question, however, concerns the premise at the beginning of the post. You start off by suggesting that there is a constant idea that "intelligent" and "well read" adults look upon the youth as underperforming in comparison to their generation. Thus, we should be skeptical of this narrative. I agree with this and try to remind myself of that constantly before falling into that trap. But I was wonder why you only presented data from the present, rather than demonstrate this point by showing some time-series data on these issues. Are students facing similar or different challenges today as they were in the past? We kind of lose that strand of the argument along the way. Anyway, thank you for this substack. I always read it and appreciate its insights.
Thank you for reading, Joshua! That's a good point. We appreciate the feedback and will be mulling it over as we continue discussing these issues.