Drowning in the blue sea of mediocrity

I'm swamped by the sea of blue answer books for the final exams. 137 blue books to be exact. It's a mind-numbing work grading these scripts. I'm also a bit pissed and disappointed at the quality of answers provided by these students of mine. The disappointment doesn't come without a good reason though. I gave my class the essay questions and the terms identification list 2 weeks before the final exam, fully expecting that they would be better prepared and be able to write well-articulated answers. Heck, I was wrong - at least up to this point since I still have about half of the blue books to slog through. But the signs are plenty clear. Majority of these kids just don't give a shit! One of them even got caught cheating during the exam! Most of the answers are just verbatim recitation from my lecture notes with almost non-existent critical analysis and independent thinking.

It just goes to show how impoverished their minds are as shown by their lack of critical thinking skills. I've been trying all semester long to drill into their heads the concept and practice of critical thinking and independent analysis but as the final exam has proven it was all for naught. I wonder if it's too late to introduce and teach critical thinking skills at the university level since from my personal experience American students are exposed to this kind of learning since high school or even earlier. It's just a matter of refining the critical thinking skills once they get to the college level. Based on the observation of my students, North Americans and Europeans are much better in critical thinking than the ones from China and the Middle East. It's obvious that open and liberal societies produce more critically-minded students; hence, better students. I guess it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

A closed and repressive society has a top-down and very rigid hierarchy. It means that the people are trained and indoctrinated to never question authority and to always follow orders from the top. Uniformity and conformity are the required norms. All facets of life is highly structured and regulated. Dissents via critical thinking are considered a threat and social taboo. I wonder if the students who grow up in this kind of socio-political environment are able to free their minds from this life-long indoctrination. I thought that I had a whole semester to steer them out of their very restricted monochromatic worldview and to see life from various different perspectives. Alas, it ain't enough!