In some respects, the students are right: Professors are to blame.

We cultivate students’ unmerited pride with high praise for mediocre work. And we tolerate all of the other sins by abdicating responsibility for the culture of our classrooms. Again and again, I have heard students say their classes are so easy that almost no effort is required, even for top grades. Residential student life, at many institutions, is mostly free time to explore and indulge one’s vices. And we professors — too busy chasing our ambitions — avoid maintaining standards because they are time-consuming and costly to our teaching evaluations. —Thomas H. Benton —The 7 Deadly Sins of Professors (Chronicle)

I’d been looking forward to this one since Benton published the 7 Deadly Sins of Students.