rant on "the good old days"

grading, grading, grading (spring break whispers from around the corner, "you're almost there...)...but for now...another paper, another, another.

here is the most commonly recited thesis:

Things used to be better than they are now.

it has lots of different contexts and language, but that's the jist of it....

for some older people...i don't mind so much when they cling to this thesis...i mean, i get it: they fear irrelevance, feel lost and confused by the changes...but a class full of first and second year college students?!

what motivates them to argue for their own irrelevance?