According to journalist and author Tom Brokaw, Americans who grew up during the Great Depression and then fought and won WWII were the greatest generation.
Forty years of survey results from the American Freshman Survey indicate he might be wrong.
Since 1966, roughly 9 million US college freshman have completed the survey.
Since 1966, roughly 9 million US college freshman have completed the survey.
Researchers Jean Twenge, W. Keith Campbell and Brittany Gentile have reanalyzed the data and generated some interesting findings.
One finding in particular is attracting attention: An ever-increasing percentage of American college freshmen rate their abilities as above average in key areas such as drive to achieve, intellectual self-confidence, leadership ability, social self-confidence and writing ability.
Between 1966 and 2009, all five indicators went up:
Drive to Achieve: Increased by 15 points (+/-)
Intellectual Self-Confidence: Increased by 20 points (+/-)
Leadership Ability: Increased by 20 points (+/-)
Social Self-Confidence: Increased by more than 20 points (+/-)
Writing Ability: Increased by 15 points (+/-)
Since writing is the only one that can be measured in some concrete way, it's a useful metric.
Today's students are more likely to label themselves as gifted in writing ability, Twenge told the BBC. Objective test scores, however, indicate writing ability has declined since the 1960s.
What do you think: Are today's students and recent grads more driven to achieve? Intellectually self-confident? Better leaders? Socially self-confident? Better writers?
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Related
Do Writing Skills Still Matter?
What Does That Mean?
Reference & Chart
Does Confidence Really Breed Success? (BBC)
_______________________________
Related
Do Writing Skills Still Matter?
What Does That Mean?
Reference & Chart
Does Confidence Really Breed Success? (BBC)