On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, louis kontos wrote:
> 20 years ago, when i was a graduate student, you could assign eight or ten
> books in practically any course at any decent university. good luck trying
> that now anywhere. this is not to blame the kids; rather, the whole system is
> rotting from inside.
>
It seems like every older generation loves the "these young whipper- snappers don't know anything" rant (this goes back all the way to ancient Greece!). The historical trend in fact clearly contradicts this claim of academic deterioration: IQ performance is up, more students are receiving more formal education, more students are exposed to the rigors of graduate education and professional training in fields like medicine and law than in any previous generation. Keep in mind it's a relatively recent phenomenon for the mass population in the U. S. to earn a high school diploma, much less a college degree.
To put it bluntly, people are looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses: you're comparing how things are now to a past that never existed.
Miles