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Most US students not literate enough for complex tasks
Daily Times ^
| 1/21/06
| AP
Posted on 01/21/2006 10:26:44 AM PST by voletti
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To: baystaterebel
Most US students not literate enough for complex tasksWell, thank God their precious self esteem is still intact.
41
posted on
01/21/2006 12:11:25 PM PST
by
Puppage
(You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
To: Puppage
Me: "32oz diet soda please" HS Senior clerk: "umm...Is that small, medium or large?" Me: "Well, I don't know. Is your 32oz soda the medium one or the large one?" HS Senior Clerk: "uhhhhhhhhhhh.... HS Senior Manager: "Here, I'll hold them up for you" Me: "Um...Nevermind"
To: All
If anyone cares to play, I have a quiz for you all based upon my friends, all roughly between 35-40 years old:
Question one: Who is considered the "smartest" of the group?
1) University of Florida grad, Business Admin
2) Rutgers College grad, History
3)William Paterson grad, Communications
4) William Paterson 3 years (business), no degree
Question #2: Of the four above, which one makes the most money, and which one makes the least money?
Thanks for playing! Answers will be sent to you via freepmail.
43
posted on
01/21/2006 12:43:16 PM PST
by
motzman
(God helps those who help themselves - B. Franklin)
To: baystaterebel
"A college diploma is not a certificate of higher intellegence. It is only proof of further education." "If you want a degree, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library." --- Paul H. Gettles
44
posted on
01/21/2006 12:44:02 PM PST
by
Mad Dawgg
("`Eddies,' said Ford, `in the space-time continuum.' `Ah,' nodded Arthur, `is he? Is he?'")
To: thoughtomator
That is a valid point about the elderly getting graduate degrees. Even the younger ones, say a mid-twenties with a fresh MS in biology, who has not been working all along, may indeed get a job with the state but will never actually contribute anything except to his own retirement package.
45
posted on
01/21/2006 12:50:08 PM PST
by
RightWhale
(pas de lieu, Rhone que nous)
To: asp1
Our kids graduate from High School and then need classes to bring them up to speed for freshman college courses. Interesting to contrast public schools now with public schools of the early 20'th century. I remember reading the book 'Truman' by David McCullough. Truman completed High School and could both read and write ancient Greek.
46
posted on
01/21/2006 12:53:21 PM PST
by
6SJ7
To: motzman
47
posted on
01/21/2006 12:56:11 PM PST
by
spunkets
To: voletti
More than half of students at four-year colleges in the United States - and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges - lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers... If understanding credit card offers is considered a complex task, then we're in real trouble.
48
posted on
01/21/2006 12:58:33 PM PST
by
mtg
To: voletti
What's to understand about credit card offers? Get one card, pay it off monthly and throw the rest in the trash.
49
posted on
01/21/2006 1:06:38 PM PST
by
freeangel
( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
To: ElkGroveDan
I'm a professional writer ...My MS Word grammar checker says that I should change "effect" to "affect" in the following sentence: "The car's brakes had no effect whatsoever." Which is correct? Effect? Or affect?
50
posted on
01/21/2006 1:18:56 PM PST
by
JoeGar
To: ElkGroveDan
I know what you mean. I always thought I was a terrible writer. Now everybody tells me I'm a really good writer. Now, I'm not sure if I'm getting better or if everybody else is getting worse. I didn't think that was possible.
51
posted on
01/21/2006 1:20:56 PM PST
by
virgil
To: JoeGar
You said: My MS Word grammar checker says that I should change "effect" to "affect" in the following sentence: "The car's brakes had no effect whatsoever." Which is correct? Effect? Or affect?
***
Assuming you are serious about this question, "affect" is seldom if ever a noun. Effect almost always is a noun, although it can be a verb, such as in the sentence, "He hoped to effect a change in their behavior with his encouragement." [Not a professional writer, just a lawyer-- and not a personal injury or criminal defense one, either]
52
posted on
01/21/2006 1:52:43 PM PST
by
NCLaw441
To: virgil
What was not possible? "[Almost] everybody else getting worse"? - Eminently possible. You getting better?- that'd be much more tricky, and would be possible only with continuous and concentrated effort on your part.
53
posted on
01/21/2006 2:25:55 PM PST
by
GSlob
To: voletti
NO surprise. 50 years of dumbing down and liberalizing education takes its toll.
54
posted on
01/21/2006 2:29:47 PM PST
by
Bullish
(Proudly and consistently hating the Clinton's since 1992)
To: GSlob
Concerning the advancement of learning, I do subscribe to the opinion
that, for grammar schools, there are already too many
the great number of schools which are in your Highnesss realm doth cause a want, and likewise an overthrow [surfeit] both of them inconvenient and one of them dangerous; for by means thereof they find want in the country and towns, both of servants for husbandry and of apprentices for trade; and on the other side there being more Scholars bred than the State can prefer and employ
it must needs fall out that many persons will be bred unfit for other vocations and unprofitable for that in which they were bred up, which will fill the realm full of indigent, idle and wanton people
--Francis Bacon, 1611
Point well taken. I would point out that Booker T. Washington in his book "Up From Slavery" mentioned the same sort of thing in re: education of the Negro [to use his term] in the second half of the 19th century.
While I don't have the direct quote in front of me, it ran something along the lines of how Negro youth, were being taught a form of education "both of them inconvenient and one of them dangerous". He said that since Negroes at that time earned their keep by unskilled, manual labor (waiters, washerwomen, etc.) education should focus on how to work better, more efficiently, more business-like, at those jobs so to advance them, i.e, go from a washerwoman to a micro-business owner who employees two other washerwomen; go from being a wait to being a headwaiter and perhaps even a matrie d'hotel.
However the "liberal arts" education that was being given the Negro youth -- handwriting, geography, science,Latin,etc. -- ended up both boring the youth (hence the high drop out rate)and causing in them a contempt for manual labor and the long, slow climb up the economic ladder.
One result of this was that a huge number of young Negro girls, esp. in big cities, turned to prostitution*. In exchange for "putting out" they got money, attention, and nice, flashy things: like feather boas, silk stocking, and dressed that sparkled when they walked. You know, the kind(s) of things they felt they deserved b/c they had had an education.
(* And youths in to crime)
55
posted on
01/21/2006 2:45:22 PM PST
by
yankeedame
("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
To: yankeedame
Well, everyone has one's limits in everything - be it the weight one can lift, or the speed at which one can run, or one's ability to absorb and profit from education. Thus the only proper and necessary form of educational segregation is by ability - into separate and by design unequal educational streams. From the retardees to the gifted and maybe even "super-gifted" - at one extreme they will struggle with the multiplication table within 6x6, while at another they will be doing [in their heads] multidimensional geometry as visualization exercises. To each one's own.
56
posted on
01/21/2006 3:14:02 PM PST
by
GSlob
To: voletti
Boy, would this generation be in trouble with personal accounts for retirement!!
57
posted on
01/21/2006 3:17:32 PM PST
by
Snoopers-868th
(Borrowed tagline: Who do I vote for-the Republicans are socialist and the Democrats are Communist)
To: JoeGar
My MS Word grammar checker says that I should change "effect" to "affect" in the following sentence: "The car's brakes had no effect whatsoever." Which is correct? Effect? Or affect? In your sentence, "effect" is correct.
My version of Word (Office 2000) doesn't do that. Check your Autocorrect list (under the Tools menu) to see if someone has added "affect" and "effect" to the list.
58
posted on
01/21/2006 3:48:52 PM PST
by
meadsjn
To: ElkGroveDan
You ever read excerpts from journals, letters, and personal correspondece from Civil War soldiers? The 'common man' knew how to write very well and very movingly, with references that would be way above the head of even the modern most elitist readers.
59
posted on
01/21/2006 3:52:22 PM PST
by
HitmanLV
(Listen to my demos for Savage Nation contest: http://www.geocities.com/mr_vinnie_vegas/index.html)
To: thoughtomator
I would wager that two years of apprenticeship - actually doing something - would go farther in the marketplace than these specious four-year degrees (excepting of course hard sciences, math, engineering). I think 18-year-olds should have a year or so of a dead-end job in the real world before they go to college. I really think that with some real experiences smacking them in the face at that tender age, a lot of the BS peddled by progressive professors wouldn't pass the smell test and be challenged.
60
posted on
01/21/2006 3:55:35 PM PST
by
HitmanLV
(Listen to my demos for Savage Nation contest: http://www.geocities.com/mr_vinnie_vegas/index.html)
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