We know where we're goin', but we don't know where we've been.

I think I've come to the conclusion that, as a class, considered of themselves, I hate undergrads. Of course, there are some exceptions. Some of them are perfectly well-adjusted, hard-working, etc. But most of them are whiny, annoying little children who expect everything to be handed to them and think that when they get it, it's some major accomplishment that should be recognized. It's just so annoying. And I'm not just talking about my students, either. Although this is certainly true of many of them. Just undergrads in general. They're right on that cusp between being children and being adults - many of them still haven't thrown off all the trappings of adolescence. And they piss me off because of it.

Take the cadre of jackasses that we've been playing in softball. From the other side there seems to be a constant need to be recognized as awesome, or the best, or having just done something incredible. This causes them to take steps that end up making the game unfun, or to talk trash, make fun of people none of whom they know.

My students also display many of these properties, but fewer, mostly because they have to act reasonably under control when they're in my presence qua instructor. But when I interact with them just as person to person, it's clear that they don't have any clue. None whatsoever. But therein lies the problem: they have no clue, and yet they think, because they're in college now, they have some right to be treated as if they do have a clue.

I hope I'm not just sounding like some old dude yelling about the younger generation. I'm really not. I'm just absolutely surprised at how much growing up many of these undergrads have to do. Some of them never will. But this brings me to a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately: many, not all, but many high school seniors are simply not ready to attend college the following year. Doing good work in college, being focused, being able to take advantage of everything it involves requires a degree of maturity that most 18-year-olds don't have. They just don't have it. They should wait. It's not imperative for everyone to enter college right after high school. A difference of two years might make the difference between them sleeping through their classes because they were out drinking the night before and actually being able to learn something.

Most people do a lot of growing up in college. I did, I'm sure. I didn't grow into this paradigm of wisdom, wit, and wonderful-ness in a day. Sometimes I wish I could just be sequestered into some graduate student-only conclave. That would be sweet. I think I could do without interacting with undergrads for, oh, a long time.

That is all.