Interesting read with good info. Your title is completely off base, however. Kids today do what we ask them to do, as did boomers when they were in school. If boomers had the same requirements, they would survive just fine. Your title implies that because education requirements are more severe, that today's kids are more capable.

But nothing in your article suggests that, other than your title. The only point that would suggest that - that graduation rates are higher, does not prove kids today are more capable, merely that they don't drop out, most likely because of increasing knowledge and emphasis that a HS education was increasingly required to get a decent job. In addition, grade inflation has become a major problem. Over the past 20 years, grade point averages have soared while SAT scores and other measures of academic performance have held stable or fallen. And recent studies are showing a decline in IQ levels in America. So kids may be in school longer and get better grades, but that does not mean they are learning more, or are more capable.