As I’ve been saying, things have been weird with students since COVID. In the course I’m teaching now, a little over half of the students have dropped out. The rest will all get As. It’s going in the direction of the only grades possible being A and W (withdrawal).
What’s really unusual is this:
1. How easily many students give up. I know these students. They could have been successful in the course with just a bit of effort. Yet they chose to give up completely and very early. And it’s not just any course. It’s our gateway into the program. Dropping out means dropping out of the entire program, which is a big decision.
2. How extraordinarily hard the remaining students work. I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire career.
This is an enormous stratification happening right in front of us. I’m seeing something like it among adult colleagues, too. Some people have just given up while others have been propelled into the stratosphere.
This is not a phenomenon that’s specific to academia. If you’ve heard about the current fad of “quiet quitting”, you know that it’s happening everywhere.
Clarissa's Blog 
It’s happening in the church, too.
Casual churchgoers are disappearing. The people still showing up, or new to it, are not the “cultural Christians” I remember from my childhood– where church is primarily a social activity with a religious gloss.
Every week, there’s a table of young folks at coffee hour hashing out the finer points of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory Palamas. There are at least two young men in the parish with plans to go to seminary.
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I’m seeing this, too! It’s happening in many areas of life. It’s like some people had a propeller attached to them while others got a boulder tied to their necks. I can’t figure out what causes the difference. I know people who were mega energetic pre… everything that happened. And now the wind has gone out of their sails.
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