[Billthedrill]

Standards do seem to have dropped.

I reluctantly agree. Discipline as well. We Americans have blown public education and I don't see it recovering anytime soon.

If there is an upside it is this: I think it is easier for a young American than a young Victorian to realize what an immense fool he or she has been. That's a watershed of adulthood. Those that pass that test still have a chance.

Mind you, Victoria was Queen for a very, very long time. The technological change that her subjects experienced was as fundamental and shocking over 75 years as our own has been over perhaps half that. Don't despair, the kids are all right and will make us proud yet even if they need a communal thrashing now and then. Sounds pretty Victorian of me, doesn't it? ;-)

[Nowhere Man]

Mind you, Victoria was Queen for a very, very long time. The technological change that her subjects experienced was as fundamental and shocking over 75 years as our own has been over perhaps half that. Don't despair, the kids are all right and will make us proud yet even if they need a communal thrashing now and then. Sounds pretty Victorian of me, doesn't it? ;-)

Great Hyenas, you are spot on, old chap! B-)

The technological change from 1900 to 2000 was the greatest in known history and the century before, 1800 to 1900 would be in second place. From 1900 to 2000, you had steam trains to spacecraft whereas form 1800 to 1900, you had horses and walking to the steam engine. I think in some things we have slowed down except for medical technology and a few other areas.