Thank you for the clarification. That explanation makes 100% sense, samurai. I think the ALTs of our generation (and before) were probably a bit more resilient than the graduates of today. It's funny you should mention the drop-out rate, as someone sent me this article today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/ed...18college.html
Sadly, this is the state of American college-student thinking today. This goes back to my original "sense of privilege" theory. The thinking of new college graduates today is not that I deserve a job, but that I am OWED a job for graduating. This article gives hints toward that earlier in college careers.
Notice how not one student interviewed thought "performance" was the deciding factor for grades. It's "effort". This is bizarre to me.
Why would you think in the working world that "effort" is worth anything if your performance is s**t? Aren't universities supposed to be training for life and the working world? I can't imagine going to a boss of mine and saying "Well, I spent 10 hours on this, but it turned out like crap...but I really tried hard! That's good enough, right?"