This coming week is the half-way point for the semester, and I’m giving a big midterm exam every day but Monday. Tonight and tomorrow, I’m finally catching up with my grading, and tomorrow night I’ll be writing the two big exams, one for each class I’m teaching.

Am I overreacting when I tell you that I’m a little unnerved because so many of my students didn’t know what a ‘fire escape’ was? Or knew that Seattle is a city? Or knew Emma Lazarus’s famous poem? Or knew which nursery rhyme character is usually portrayed as an egg?

Or knew that the Statue of Liberty is made of copper? And that’s it’s green because that’s what happens to copper when it’s left out in the elements? And that it isn’t CARVED?

Or had ever heard of Maya Angelou? Or knew that Eisenhower was a general before he was a president?

Or realized that we really WERE in Korea, and that it wasn’t made up for a tv show? And that Evita was a real person, not just Madonna playing herself? Or that New Mexico is part of the United States?

Heaven help us all.