Posted on 06/27/2017 3:39:36 PM PDT by LibWhacker
To gain admittance to college in the 17th century, students had to be able to read and translate various Latin authors on sight. 100 years ago, students were required to have read various classical works before being admitted.
Today, however, many American students are being admitted to colleges without ever having read a book from start to finish. They are part of a cohort of students known as “book virgins.”
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has pointed out this phenomenon in their recent report titled “Beach Books: 2014-2016. What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class?” The report offers a detailed assessment of the books that colleges across America recommend to their students before they begin classes in the fall.
The reading level of these books is oftentimes very low, meant to cater to the group of students who are “book virgins”:
“The desire to appeal to incoming students who have rarely if ever read an adult book on their own… lead selection committees to choose low-grade ‘accessible’ works that are presumed to appeal to ‘book virgins’ who will flee actual college-level reading… [S]uch ‘book virgins’ have to be wooed with simple, unchallenging works.”
And how many “book virgins” are there among entering college freshmen? According to NAS' David Randall—who drew upon NEA and Pew statistics—about 4 million, which represents about 20% of the entering freshmen class. Sadly, these students have discovered that they can receive adequate, and even good, grades in high school without ever reading a page of assigned texts.
For many students today, it’s considered an embarrassment not to have lost one’s virginity before going to college.
Would that more were embarrassed about being “book virgins.”
And we wonder why China, India and South Korea are eating our lunch.
I went to a private boy’s school. 12 books every Summer, and test on them! Some of the I hated reading! Pilgrim’s Progress, etc. But I had to!
The schools are not helping these children.
I work with several extremely intelligent software developers who “do not read books”. Now, they probably read the equivalent of hundreds of pages every day online and in the course of their duties, but they are adamant that they don’t read books.
It’s interesting to consider how many of the upcoming generations will trend this way and what that means to skills such as storytelling.
Pathetic.
Aside from the physical sciences, math and engineering, what’s the use of these kindergartens? More of the same?
When does learning become learning again?
Well, at least our high school graduates are virgins of some type.
I guess that makes me a ‘book slut’. :\
Perhaps we're already seeing some of that with Hollywood's endless reboots.
(Though a pretty big case can be made that the reason they don't produce new stuff is because then they lose the mass appeal
in the market, and it can be counter-argued that this in particular is ruining their ability to tell a story.)
... or a naughty librarian.
Universities do not care. At all. These days they are only concerned with extracting as much money as possible from the student or from the tax payers.
“Now, they probably read the equivalent of hundreds of pages every day online and in the course of their duties ...”
I’m one of those tech people that doesn’t read books outside of my realm (we can certainly debate the intelligent part :-) ).
I used to love reading when I was a kid. Once I hit high school, I started to hate it. I never understood why I couldn’t read something by Issac Asimov for credit, but was forced to read books by John Steinbeck which I found ridiculously lame (got thrown out of class for calling “The Grapes of Wrath” “Welfare Wagons West” :-) ... also was forced to read “Of Mice and Men” which was a total bore).
When I was forced to take a few literature-centric humanities classes in college, I wanted to jump off a building. I did well, but the books were, again, horrible and the class discussions made my ears bleed.
I don’t think I’ve read a single work of fiction since college ... part of the reason is that I get terribly burnt out reading about stuff that I apply and earn a living :-).
I am a bit ashamed that I haven’t even looked at classical literature in over 20 years seeing that I’m typically pegged as the “intellectual” type (though that’s devolved into cynicism anymore). I might have to give it a shot and see if a few years of life experience will lead to an appreciation for works I’ve completely ignored.
many of them are passed through college without ever learning how to open a book there, either
they enter as Book virgins
they graduate as Book virgins
then they can go directly to welfare for the rest of their lives
Then she said; “Is that a bookmark you’re holding, or...”
ps..
if they do learn how to open a book at college,
many times its something like “Alinsky political Action” or “Mao’s Little Red Book”
or “Transgender Liberation Power Building”
in other words, they’re still unemployable (and ignorant) for, likely, the rest of their lives
what a fraud so much of our American educational system really is, its a ripoff of our youth
Some schools have parents mad because their child has ‘too much homework’. The school board won’t defend the curriculum, lest a parent be made to feel ignorant. So the teacher is told to ‘adjust the requirements’. Unspoken is the end of the request ‘If you want to keep your job”.
Sol wept.
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