Posted on 12/11/2007 10:02:24 PM PST by MadDoctorD
It is indeed sad. I realized the other day that your average European teenager probably speaks and writes better English than your average New Orleans (where I live) public high schooler.
hehehehehe...now that's a new word I'm going to have to remember!
I was in New Orleans and vicinity a few weeks ago. I could hardly understand a word anyone said.
Including my brother.
I hope they were able to follow at least a little of what I said. They all nodded and smiled as if they did!
Well, sorta. I can’t speak for public universities - I went to a private school. There are lots of things that might be classified labor market inefficiencies - tenure really, and the apportionment process between departments.
I don’t think if you got rid of job security for Professors it would help much, though. The reason is because this sort of basic, error-free writing proficiency should be learned in secondary school, and isn’t. Professors aren’t supposed to teach the A-B-Cs and they don’t care much about them- a good school will have some sort of intensive writing seminar for freshmen, but often students will get poor feedback or idea-oriented feedback.
So, why are a bunch of borderline-functional teenagers going to college? A lot of it has to do with student loans and government subsidized education, I think. Lots of kids that can’t and never will write end up at school because they’re supposed to. If anything, we ought to be subsidizing (much cheaper) loans for trade and technical schools to make sure our industrial base doesn’t evaporate completely. College is a lousy career path for lots of kids. We still need to make things, but crappy guidance counselors and the conventional wisdom is to just shove everyone to college that has a pulse.
The result has not been better kids, it’s been much worse universities.
Don't worry...it's just 'cuz we're all drunk. If you were drunk, it'd make perfect sense.
In English, Some College Grads Can’t Read or Count.
Well, that sheep skin sure helped the scarecrow, and he didn't even have a brain.
Children come already prepackaged, fully self absorbed and feel no difference in wants and needs, no surprised then they end up at a local college without basic skills.
“Higher education institutions should take careful note of the important benefits derived from emphasizing analytic and critical thinking, and the application of theories in preparing students,” says Peter Ewell, vice president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.”
Good article and good comments ...First the colleges should teach writing skills with precise use of words, correct grammar, and ability to develop the test essay or written report to a logical conclusion....Then over 2 to 4 years stress the analytical skills and critical thinking. Multiple choice questions may test memory but tests requiring essay type answers help to sharpen the mind and the writing skills....ironic that tuitions are much higher today than in yesteryear, but the finished product is not as good as in previous generations...many college students today are just unable to analyze verbal problems and pick out the key points...Then they wonder why starting salaries in the business world are so low...
not surprising since college and universities are really spending most of their time these days brainwashing students into becoming radicals of some leftist sort.
Your rite.
Ugh! "Than" and "then"
"your" and "you're"
"ensure" and "insure"
"its" and "it's"
and the misspelling of "separate" all drive me absolutely crazy!!! On a pickier note, my husband often points out that most people do not know when to use "that" or "which", and that non-words like "irregardless" are so common now that they appear in some dictionaries.
And this is news to whom?
Many a truth is spoken in jest.I recently went to the 50th anniversary reunion of my HS class. Obviously, a bunch of old guys and gals like me; very few of them recognizable. But what struck me was the realization that the school had - I suppose, any school would have - categorized us quite unfairly back in the day.
I myself had a pretty high class standing, and I had to laugh at myself for having any hangover from that unfair categorization - which I of course was far too polite to express openly, fortunately. Because at a 50th reunion, class standing means zilch. It would be interesting to stand up at a H.S. graduation and express that thought . . .
And that brings up the point that some author has made - Charles Murray I think - that modern schooling artificially induces people to selectively mate by IQ.
the’ir ya go again!!
Absolutely. I was disappointed that the people conducting the survey were not more upset by the results. I certainly was.
The dumber they are, the more liberal they’ll vote. The dumbing down of our schools isn’t just an accident.
Seriously, in reading some of the cover letter excerpts from post #3, I think I recognize syntax and grammar errors common to Asian students. If this is true and it carries over into the study, then the problem may not be as serious as it seems. They may not be able to write English compositions well but they can get the clock on the VCR to stop blinking 12:00.
Yes. It is rather like using “U” to represent “You”.
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