[noodle]

I think that talking about education is always iffy, especially when it’s compared to previous generations. The comparison is always comparing today’s youths to yesterdays youths… i.e. they never question what today’s youth knows that yesterdays, didn’t know. For example, education today is far more varied than 20 years ago, so it’s normal that people may not be as good at math or English if they don’t study it as much as they did 20 years ago. I’m sure that if they compare what people knew today and what people knew 20 years ago, today’s people would not seem stupid as they have a much broader general knowledge of a lot of subjects. But unfortunately, this kind of comparison is never done.
As for literacy, I find it hard to believe that people today are as illiterate as the news says. I’m sure that when these teens become older and are obligated to use proper English at work, they won’t have problems. Teens are lazy and sometimes, even if they know something is incorrect, they will not bother to correct it.