Unfamiliar with some of the people mentioned above, I do agree on the “intellectual” level of some of the kids of today. A few years ago I attended a reunion of my old elementary school. I was pleasently surpised by the comments these “old folks” wrote on their invitations. Including those who got a job on the age of 14, their ability to make understandable whole sentences was better than that of the teachers of today. And yes, we had to do mental calculations in those days. That subject is dropped from the list of skills modern teachers must learn. Because they suck at it. The majority of the next generation of teachers did not pass. The Teacher Training Colleges did not upgrade their education, but skipped the whole subject. Because everbody’s got a smartphone these days, right?