> Maybe with higher standards of living and social changes, we are gradually evolving some sort of extended adolescence. It just niggles at me a bit, and I'm not even sure why.

Something that really gets me is the kind of "who cares?" attitude people are developing towards Higher Education. The majority of people I met at Uni were there because they couldn't think of anything else to do. They routinely brushed off things like "I'm failing my course", and "I have to re-sit all of my exams" as minor inconveniences. Out of a group of ten or so of my friends, only two of us now have degrees - everyone else quit their courses, usually because they were too apathetic to finish it. One guy did nearly 3 years of his course, and then packed it in because he didn't like his final year project - which he had chosen.

What annoys me is the way no-one seems to want to learn anything new; and that the motivation to do so is seen as a strange, unnatural thing. I sit in the lab and watch my first year charges robotically following the instructions in their lab book, trying to get away with the absolute minimum of work so that they can go home in time for "Neighbours" and I wonder "is this it? Is this what you want to do all your lives? Following the instructions, doing a sloppy job, and then skiving off as early as possible to sit in front of the goggle box?"

Doesn't it just seem like a big waste of time? It annoys me because they can't see anything past their own life as it stands. Yes, they may well be happy as they are, but there's a distinct lack of ambition that disturbs me.

Bo"this, too, is the short version."urne