I have been reading this thread with a ton of interest....
There is so much to write from both points of view...
Johnnie11 - I will definitely agree that kids today have more demanded of them academically but by no means does it make them smarter and to say it does is incredibly naive. Students today, at all levels of the edcuation chain, have access to such a larger pool of information it is scary. When a lot of the older posters here were in school, there was no internet and no Google for us. We didn't have the ability to type a phrase into a search bar and then have thousands of pages of information at our finger tips. Seriously, have you ever used microfilm oir microfiche because we all did, it was the GOOGLE of our generation.
It doesn't make us smarter then you, it just made us have a different educational experience.