Kids Today & Then

Back in Russia, a couple of instructors at the school I (sometimes) attended used to lament that kids today were obsessed with pop culture and no longer read Pushkin. That being said, I dated a girl who worked in a store, no college education, who had read all of Shakespeare in translation and could intelligently discuss Mark Twain’s writing. Seriously. I’ve known many American graduate students who couldn’t do that. They all have iPhones, though, and back in my day many of them religiously watched Friends.