Ned's friends will relish today's story in the NYT of a report on the self-assessed "emotional health" of incoming college freshmen. Seems some pointy-headed intellectuals take a survey every year asking these kids how good they feel about themselves. Since Ned's sense is that they are all chronic narcissists who have been told all their lives that they are exceptional, great, above average and all that rot, it comes as little surprise that they could be overwhelmed when they find that they might actually have to accomplish something on their own, and precious little at that, given rampant grade inflation at colleges across the country. But this to Ned is the best part, "The share of students who said on the survey that they had been frequently overwhelmed by all they had to do during their senior year of high school rose to 29 percent from 27 percent last year." Now, Ned's researches have shown that the performance of high-school kids has dropped steadily from the '50's to today, so to hear that these kids feel 'overwhelmed' by the trivial work that they are actually asked to accomplish speaks volumes. Moreover, the GPA of HS grads has been rising faster than their waistlines, such that a 4.0 is about equal to a 3.0 three or four decades ago. Combine this with numerous reports of HS students who basically take their senior years off to plan their proms, take extended spring breaks in Cancun, have their tummies tucked, tits and derrieres lifted, and drive their new BMWs back and forth to the nearest Nordstroms to buy whatever they want, it's no wonder they feel overwhelmed.
Ned feels a case could be made for an entire new government agency to look into this crisis and perhaps suggest new tax cuts for billionaires and Sneering Plutocrats to fix it.
And all those kids who never get to go to college or drop out of HS? Fuggeddaboudit.
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