I have some very smart people with PhDs. And some very smart people who didn't finish high school. Best not to generalize too much.

I have to agree college students today are working at a much lower academic standard in general. But it is oftentimes the colleges who are sabotaging thier potential in this regard. Example: I just started teaching a course in the history of media. The college decided recently to downgrade this course from counting for two courses to counting for one. Which means: I, as the instructor, get half as much money to teach it, though I still have the same number of students. The adminstration decided to m ake things more fair that the course's one writing requeirement, a research essay, would be eliminated, since the professors should not be expected to grade all these papers for half the pay. In two years, these students will arrive in my higher-level criticism and theory course without having learned how to write an essay and do research properly. Everyone loses. I think the college saves just under twenty thousand dollars a year by doing this; though I am told the reason for doing it is not so much monetary as it is to create equity with other departments whose teachers had similar class sizes.

I try to grade tough and maintain high standards. I can't stand it when students think they can coast through doing the bare minimum.