Colleges should teach work skills; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/16/13

Mark Bauerlein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Colleges should teach work skills: "Yet, it turns out, professors don't coddle students and overlook youthful flaws. Another survey by York College finds that professors think the same thing as employers do. It's the 2012 "Professionalism on Campus" survey, a questionnaire about juniors and seniors answered by 415 college and university faculty members. Professors generally agree that professionalism includes attentiveness, punctuality and a work ethic, and 37 percent think it has declined over the past five years, while only 12 percent see an improvement. Even more than employers, fully 64 percent of professors observe an increase in a sense of entitlement in recent years, while only 5 percent say it has decreased. The students text-message during class, send emails to teachers with grammar and spelling errors, and act "unfocused." Faculty members identify parents as the main cause, though American culture in general and grade inflation in high school also receive blame."