This semester I’m teaching my trademark course in Hispanic Civilization to upper-level students and as a Freshman Seminar to first-year students. The first lecture in this course was the same for both groups. And this is what I have observed. Freshmen are better prepared and more curious than the upper-level students. They know more in terms of history and geography. They ask many interesting questions.
This tells me that each new year brings us better and smarter students. Contrary to the dire predictions of the doom-and-gloom crowd that wants to see young people as getting more and more stupid with every passing year, the kids today are getting more intelligent and intellectually curious. Now our job as educators consists in not throttling this interest in acquiring knowledge.
Clarissa's Blog 
In your faces, O, those of little faith in us youngsters! 😉
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You are lucky. I love teaching college students. And I haven’t been doing it that long. But I can say that, without a doubt, that the freshman seem weaker than they did just a few years ago….especially in terms of basic writing ability. 😦 ………. I still love teaching though!
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I haven’t had a chance to look at their writing yet. I’m bracing myself. . .
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the other possibility is college education is dulling the curiosity and appetite for learning in students.
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If living in a godforsaken village in Southern Illinois didn’t dull their desire for knowledge, I don’t think that being on a bustling fun campus will. These are kids whose lives before college are incredibly drab. We give them a chance to travel, see the world, discover something outside Church socials and cornfields.
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