It is rather amazing what conclusion/judgements about us we, as a population, are happy to let slide without as much as a raised eyebrow. Take the little item that appeared in the news about four weeks ago, give or take. Our country, we were informed in no uncertain terms, failed to reach the European standards of academic education and we remain far short of the EU’s average educational benchmarks.

Already embarrassing enough, right? But there's more. In order to accommodate their rather less bright brethren that reside in the bowels of Europe, the powers that be figured they'd give us a break and lower the target. Just for us. Because Europe is generous that way.

Well, what do you know? We failed to reach this adjusted target too. Humiliating doesn't even begin to cover it.

Our reactions to this dismal failure? None. Bar, that is, an overly optimistic assertion from the relevant authority that yes, despite the well-researched predictions to the contrary, Malta will indeed reach – and exceed! - the adjusted target.

Let's say we pull a miracle and actually manage this. We will still be lagging behind our neighbours. The new generation will still be at a considerable disadvantage on the international job market. And the Maltese will still be those people the rest of Europe speaks about in condescending tones, being part of that country that got lumped with a big, fat F.

In the meantime we continue in happy oblivion. The mystery for me is how we got to this stage in the first place. Our education system is a sound one. Our state schools offer both facilities and qualified human resources. Which leads me to only one possible conclusion. If it’s not the system that is the problem, it must be the quality of the grey matter itself. Which is odd, given that until less than ten years ago the Maltese could be considered somewhat academically precocious.  If anything, as a country we have always tended to perform well when compared to our European counterparts and the continent is full (I use "full" in the loosest sense of the word) of Maltese who have reached a degree of success in their chosen field.

So where did we screw up? If you ask me (and even if you don't) we can chalk the current disaster to a generation of young adults who sport a rather well-developed sense of entitlement and who seem to think that not only does the world owe them a living but heavens forbid if anyone - including school teachers - dare burst their bubble.

I belong to a generation that was taught not to expect free handouts. A generation where parents would point to the garbage man and warn their kids to study if they didn't want to end up collecting trash for a living (I won't apologize for that. No-one wants to pick up thrash for a living).

But it was also a generation where you accepted that if all else failed and becoming the "garbage man" was the only option, then you were going to suck it up and do it. And to do it well. Because being a bum was never an option.

Not so today. Today we have parents siding with their kids whenever their teacher dares discipline them. We have kids whose idea of writing an essay is googling (the fact that googling has become an accepted word is quite indicative), cutting and pasting. The result is a generation of dimwit school leavers who can barely string two sentences in Maltese, let alone in English. And a generation of layabouts who expect to be given plum posts as soon as they leave university, because wow... they have  a Bachelor in Uselessness chalked down to their name.

And when said plum jobs fail to materialize, it's off to the ETC for a lifetime of bumming, because no one gave them the job that was theirs by right, jaħasra.

In the meantime the rest of Europe watches perplexed as it tries to figure out whether the moron gene is something that can be bred out...