Student dissatisfaction concerning education has been an issue for decades. A 1972 investigation into the thinking of youth found that respondents were neither satisfied nor confident regarding the situation they faced and were pessimistic about the future. The primary purpose of the study reported in this paper was to examine whether students in teacher preparation training in 1992 (n=267) differed in their viewpoints regarding schooling from college students not enrolled in teacher preparation training (n=206); the secondary purpose was to compare students' responses in 1992 with those reported in 1972. The study focused specifically on students' responses concerning the purposes of higher education, their views of schooling, and their viewpoints on the future. Compared to the 1972 sample, the 1992 sample expressed a greater degree of agreement with the statement "more education can prepare one for a more profitable career" and far less agreement with the statements "I came to college to satisfy the wishes of my parents" and "we will have a better society in which to live in the year 2000." Individual item score analyses of variance identified only one item which demonstrated a difference on Gender by Preparation Type, an item concerning the capability of human wisdom to avoid a world war. Indications from these analyses were that males lacking teacher preparation experience expressed a stronger degree of agreement that human wisdom could avoid a world war than did the males who were enrolled in a teacher education program. No difference was found for female respondents. An open-ended item concerning students' dreams for America and the world indicated that both sets of 1992 students were concerned about world peace, discrimination, and pollution. The document concludes with 10 tables displaying the data and a copy of the questionnaire. (Contains 12 references.) (JDD)