Those Lazy, Stupid, Hard-Working, Smart Kids of America

How often do we hear that today's youths are lazy, stupid, behind the curve and obsessed with drugs and sex? A quick search on the subject from Google News pulls up these headlines:

Sex, Drugs And . . . Credit Cards? A College Life Peril, Says LSU
The Appalachian Online - Students today are DARED to fail
1 in 4 high-school students here fails to graduate on time
Decades of effort fail to close gap in student achievement

Oh, just give me a break and flip it™ already. Hard to argue these rather eye-popping stats from the Higher Education Research Institute's annual survey of 264,000 first year college students that was published in that bastion of optimism (sarcasm!) otherwise known as the New York Times:

	Now	Then (yr)
Participated in an Organized Demonstration	50%	16% (1966)
Volunteered At Least Occasionally	83%	66% (1989)
Frequently or Occasionally Drank Beer	43%	74% (1982)

Rock on, youth of America!