Posted on 08/15/2006 9:10:59 AM PDT by JSedreporter
It’s official. We are a nation of illiterates, with college degrees. “As if this weren’t enough, there are also disturbing signs that many students who do earn degrees have not actually mastered the reading, writing and thinking skills we expect of college graduates,” the U. S. Commission on the future of higher education found. “Over the past decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined.”
“Unacceptable numbers of college graduates enter the workforce without the skills employers say they need in an economy where, as the truism holds correctly, knowledge matters more than ever.” The commission members, who serve without pay, were appointed by the U. S. Secretary of Education—Margaret Spellings. On August 10th, they approved for submission to the Secretary their report with its gloomy findings on college literacy.
“According to the most recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, for instance, the percentage of college graduates of all ages deemed proficient in prose literacy has actually declined from 40 to 31 percent in the past decade,” the commission reported. “These shortcomings have real-world consequences.”
“Employers report repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today’s workplaces.”
So what did the commission recommend? “The federal government, states and institutions should significantly increase need-based student aid.” And how did the business leaders on the committee react to that finding? They promised to support it.
None mentioned the trendlines on student aid that already show that this subsidy is zooming off the charts while colleges and universities jack up fees and spending every year. In other words, the commission meeting looked much like board of trustees meetings on most college campuses.
“We do better by the best but not by the rest,” Trinity University’s Arturo Madrid observes. “We are privileging the privileged.” Dr. Madrid is a Murchison Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature at Trinity.
In a commission dominated by academics and their allies, economist Richard Vedder stood out at the unveiling of the report at the Department of Education by bringing up salient issues that other members would not address. For example, he noted that two-thirds of college spending is already paid for by public funding.
“For me it was a tough decision to vote for this report,” Dr. Vedder said at the meeting at the DOE. Specifically, he criticized the deletion of any reference to “the $80 billion student loan industry omitted due to protests to the chair [Charles Miller].” For the record, the chair did not respond nor did any of Dr. Vedder’s fellow commissioners.
Dr. Vedder is a distinguished professor of economics at Ohio State University. He went on to criticize other “errors of omission” in the report including the lack of references to:
• “The deplorable lack of intellectual diversity” on college campuses.
• “Hedonism on campus.”
• “Members of Congress who politically interfere in research allocations.”
Still, Dr. Vedder, who is an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, does note that “the report calls for more transparency in college and university administration and that could be a transcendent change.” Yet, in the end, could there be a link between the lack of intellectual diversity that only Dr. Vedder of the 19 commission members would discuss and the illiteracy that the advisory panel could not ignore?
If you focus your classroom activities on indoctrination, how much time is left over for the imparting of basic skills?
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
True, very true, but I was especially concerned with the ability to read and comprehend. Hopefully, if you get a kid reading well, they'll actually enjoy reading and do it frequently, which will include a good deal of history.
Scory's thesis is right and you are wrong in atacking the poster personally. Don't jump to conclusions based on your own prejudices.
Through all of my education - elem thru grad degree - not 1 mention of deism.
Half of the kids currently in academic classes are absolutely lost.You should see the grades for Algebra and Geometry-both required now-at the schools in my district.Most classes are failing kids at a %75 rate.
Back when I was in school,the kids with lesser abilities took General Math or Business Math and the college prep kids took advanced math.Now with EVERYONE taking classes all the way up to Intermediate Algebra in 11th Grade,the charade has reached the point of absurdity.
The truth was that back in the day there WAS tracking,often by race.I know many black adults now who had the talents to take advanced classes but were shunted into dead end curriculums.What is occuring now is the opposite extreme,forcing ALL kids to take college prep in order to compensate for the discrimination of the past.
Its become a huge joke.Problem is,the kids aren't laughing.In fact,they are downright angry.
He is talking about the past...not your lifetime.
& just how would he/you know re: public institutions in the distant past?
or is your knowledge base confined to 2 glorious years at Bob Jones or Oral Roberts U ?
I would agree that you should check into what she is reading at school, but also check to see what she is reading at home--not for PC or indoctrination, but to make sure it is quality literature. Even 1st grade literature should still have characters that show development, a plot, a conflict and a resolution. Think Frog and Toad, Little Bear and the Cam Jansen series--all good books for your little one. Steer her away from Goosebumps -- they are like sugar -- addictive and non-filling. She will encounter them eventually as all the little ones are crazy for them, but if she is used to good literature, she will lose interest pretty quickly.
Good luck to her!
Remember, they may have some quirks, but not a penny of your tax dollars go to support anything there, unlike the indoctrination that goes on at your typical state university.
So you're the guy...
Please remove my name from your email list pronto!! Thanks :)
If you hadn't been google searching for Viagra, we would never have gotten your IP address...
correct me if I'm wrong - BJU : pay your fee, collect your degree
I received an excellent education there-- of course that was helped by the fact that attendance at classes is required, not optional, unless you are admitted into the hospital. Overall it is a very rigorous with no grade inflation.
I don't know a thing about Oral Roberts University
If you want TRUE competition for universities, make student loans dischargable in bankrupcy based on the new means test.
if a degree actually creates earning value then universities will not have much to worry about.
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