I think you are missing her point. This is not a "kids nowadays" rant
key graph:
>"The students are not stupid or blind for using this narrative. How could they not fit new information into this narrative given that it is the plot of every movie, every "X History" month story, every behind-the-music biography? It is the plot of heroism and the plot of achievement. It is the story to get children to do their homework and practice the piano. It is the story that gets students through a 25-hour day, 8-day week filled with family, work, and classes."
It is not just the pervasiveness of this narrative. It is the usefulness to the students. These are working class people doing their best to survive. In the absence of any meaningful left movement considering the larger power structure is useless to them on a day-to-day level. Considering themselves 100% responsible for every part of their lives is probably the best coping mechanism to help deal with the terrible work load and pressure "making it" requires of them in a world where NOT "making it" comes with dreadful penalties. Those who don't "make it' while holding this view will suffer worse for lack of any perspective that does not lay 100% of the blame on them, but overall from an atomistic point of the view, the benefits of ignorance are probably exceed those of knowledge in this area. I think some old dead white male of a Greek philosopher said something on those line.
Of course neither we nor Clio, nor the (very long) dead white male take a purely atomistic viewpoint, and I doubt the students do either. Still in dealing with this, we need to understand not only the pervasiveness but the practical utility of taking this viewpoint.
No it is by no means the only way to gain either a work ethic or a sense of personality responsibility in those things actually under our influence. But the pure self-help narrative is a very powerful tool in gaining those things. Just as non-depressed people may sometimes have a less realistic judgment about the nature of the world around them than the depressed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism ) but function better for their illusions, people who live with a purely heroic self-help narrative may survive better than those with a more realistic understanding of social structures.
This sounds suspiciously like the argument O'Brien made in 1984 while torturing Smith. Perhaps I'm feeling a bit depressed.