DAVID WEBBER: Students write about concerns of America's decline

Students in my “Is America in Decline?” class shared some thoughtful, and varied, concerns about the future in their first assignment last week. While not a representative sample of Americans, or even all MU students because the class is disproportionately white male, their papers reflected widely discussed themes with several insights. Students were assigned to listen to family members or friends discuss their concerns and reactions to the alleged American decline. The assignment was intentionally vague and did not ask students to describe and rank their own concerns.