“How had students learned to cross boundaries with such breathtaking speed? It was not the actions but the transitions — and the extended grudges — that took me by surprise. In a postmodern world, if everything is right and no one is wrong, what is there left to do?

Moreover, far from possessing the sophisticated tools of deception and manipulation that most teens wield with astonishing brilliance, these students didn’t seem to show incivility so much as immaturity. They were displaying emotional reactions that had nothing to do with the college tasks of developing critical-thinking skills. They had never been trained to respond critically, were unable to contain their emotions, and thought all interactions revolved around them.

Anger, hostility, animosity, tears? I had thought I was teaching students — but maybe I was just raising overgrown kids. I would have never guessed 20 years ago that college teaching would come to feel like being in a dysfunctional family, and that there are days when I’m 10 minutes away from bailing. But desertion under such circumstances seemed drastic and silly. I had to consider that perhaps I was displaying a bit of self-centered behavior myself. …” — http://chronicle.com/article/Freshman-Comp-Tantrums/48431/, Chronicle of Higher Education, accessed 09/21/2009.