Though the authors’ collective teaching experience
ranges over multiple universities and across several
states, the commonality of the problem at hand is of
concern. While it is clear our current students at a state
selective liberal arts university have benefited from
better educational systems in general than some
students in our previous situations, this benefit does not
appear to have differentiated them in terms of
intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, or willingness to
engage course topics intellectually. Perhaps our
frustration is compounded by the understanding that
these students, the majority of whom come from
families with parents in the professional class, have
been given so much benefit early on, and yet their
educational expectations flounder somewhere beyond