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.
"I think part of this problem results from our obsession with sending everyone to "college"....."
BINGO!! The "College Industry" is basically the liberal employment guild...for liberals so divorced from reality they are suited for little else...
http://www.bju.edu/academics/se/edreport.html
100% pass rate in many areas and high 80's and 90's in others.
OK, OK, OK - you've sufficiently justified your choice of a 4 yr institutiion.
"brave new world"
The universities are busy making "deltas" so they can be the "betas" answering to their "alphas", (the "gamas" are the ones who supervise the graduates and answer to the betas)
:)
Our country, not just schools, devalues work done with your hands and places high value on those in the service industry of lawyers, doctors, stockbrokers, etc. This is a systemic cultural problem.
“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.”
If this is a problem, why do my employers seem more concerned with "fitting in", "getting along", and "socializing" rather than actually doing work?
"I spent 8+ years working actively in politics (local, state, and federal level) trying to get basic skills back into the public school system. Unfortunately, American parents don't want to know or face the reality that Johnnie can't read, write, or compute (thank you Liberals and the NEA)."
I agree with your premise, but not your conclusion. Of course American children can't read, write or compute. Precisely what else did we think that the watering down of curricula over 40 years would accomplish?
I disagree with your conclusion that getting basic skills back into the government school system is the solution. We pour an incredible amount of time, resources, and political capital into a government schools system that accomplishes precisely what?
The underlying educational paradigms need to be challenged. Why should we continue to dump resources into a government school system that produces abysmal results? And does schooling children in large same age groups even make sense in a knowledge economy?
"So far, I am pleased. They taught her to read in kindergarten; I couldn't read in kindergarten! She is in first grade now. I told her that she could help me in the kitchen (more) when she understands fractions and can read the measuring cup."
Are you ready to hear the bad news?
I suspect that your child probably could have been reading by the time she was 4. Once you toss out the government education paradigms such as: childeren should learn to read around age 5-6, and do fractions by around age 6-7, so much more is possible.
These"hard"classes have been watered down so much that only the "AP"classes are up to par.
And even some of those are dumbed down to one degree or another.
Some politician was on the news a couple of days ago discussing his experience at the airport immediately after the incident in the UK. He showed his ID to the security gal and she saw that he was from Montana. She asked, "Is Montana one of the United States?"
Unbelievable! This is the trash that is working in SECURITY, not to mention probably votes; of course, we know she has to vote DEM.
People today often smirk at the idea that the Germans were sucked in by Hitler's charisma, and most of them only HEARD him on radio. We will fare much worse when someone of equal power and charisma comes to the forefront and starts preaching what people want to hear. People who have no depth of knowledge will easily be indoctrinated and fooled. It's coming; only a matter of time. I am not looking forward to it.
public institutions in the distant past?
I agree w/ your historical recount but not the fact that it's inclusion in curricula was essential to "good things" happening.
Nonsense ?
because I disagree w/ your conclusion, timing thereof &/or main contributing factors ?
You pompous...
I would much rather take a technically competent secular person over somebody proficient in the "meaning of creation and man's place in it". The place part for a typical college graduate is pretty simple - it is either on a payroll or out of it [entrepreneurs are a minority]. And for a place on a payroll one better be competent.
Universities were bullied by leftist mobs in the 60's. The bullying has just gotten a little more subtle over the years. Everyone still quakes in fear of being called a racist, bigot, sexist, homophobe, etc
I have never been to the US so I can't comment on what s wrong exactly. But in India, we do have parallels and atleast from that perspective, there are some things that Indians, both parents and teachers do that is helping to alleviate the situation. I am not sure if this will help the American part of the problem but I hope it does.
1) Critical thinking comes in 2 ways, either by being put in real situations or by simulating situations and being asked how one would react to circumstances. With India, problematic situations have always been numerous and Indians learn to haggle, negotiate and finally find workarounds to problems. As life gets better, the richer kids are losing this skill and so, are less prepared to face troubling situations as the average middle-class kids.
2) Competition in schools: I think this is a very important reason why Indians today are competent. This may not prepare them for what their employers require from them in terms of certain skillsets but the ability to size up competition and take measures to meet it comes naturally when a person has to compete to stay afloat in a class of 60 people (atleast) in most junior high schools, 100+ people in senior high-schools and so on. Companies don't expect people to know everything when they join, the idea is to be able to learn quickly.
3) Pushy parents: I come from a middle-class family. My parents were never happy with my grades in school. If I didn't stand first they weren't happy, if I did, then they would be happy but it would be more like "Next time, increase that lead". Indian kids have a lot to live up to. Their parents' expectations are among the hardest. Its also why you find few sportsmen worthy of mention ever coming out of India. Most parents don't care how good you are at soccer if you're failing your science paper.
Hope this helps.
I have been watching my oldest daughter as she proceeds through the system.
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Little Ray,
If you leave your child in government school, you a making a serious mistake. If you can possibly find any way to do it, homeschool.
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