The kids are far from okay

From Critical Mass:

Undergraduates don't become prideful out of nowhere. Arrogance and self-absorption are carefully cultivated in them from their early years by a culture that increasingly mistakes confidence for ability and that increasingly charges schools with making sure kids feel good about themselves--even when it comes at the expense of learning. Learning, in turn, is increasingly feared as something that could be devastatingly difficult. Better to be proud and ignorant than humble and educated--or so the implicit logic goes.

RTWT. (HT: Photon Courier)

Related: Getting Hip to Squareness