Posted on 01/08/2014 6:41:06 AM PST by RightGeek
(CNN) -- Early in her career as a learning specialist, Mary Willingham was in her office when a basketball player at the University of North Carolina walked in looking for help with his classwork.
He couldn't read or write.
"And I kind of panicked. What do you do with that?" she said, recalling the meeting.
Willingham's job was to help athletes who weren't quite ready academically for the work required at UNC at Chapel Hill, one of the country's top public universities.
But she was shocked that one couldn't read. And then she found he was not an anomaly.
Soon, she'd meet a student-athlete who couldn't read multisyllabic words. She had to teach him to sound out Wis-con-sin, as kids do in elementary school.
And then another came with this request: "If I could teach him to read well enough so he could read about himself in the news, because that was something really important to him," Willingham said.
Student-athletes who can't read well, but play in the money-making collegiate sports of football and basketball, are not a new phenomenon, and they certainly aren't found only at UNC-Chapel Hill.
A CNN investigation found public universities across the country where many students in the basketball and football programs could read only up to an eighth-grade level. The data obtained through open records requests also showed a staggering achievement gap between college athletes and their peers at the same institution.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
"Many jocks are dumb and/or undereducated because education begins at home and a lot of these guys grew up in homes where there was no education, and many if not all of the universities are taking advantage of the situation because their priority is money." Gee... I sure am glad CNN's on top of THIS story and not wasting any time on... well... benghaziorthepresidentbeingagaymuslimcokeheadorwhatever...
As someone else on this thread has already axed, "*ahem*... no demographic data was offered..."
So the real news story doesn't get told.
"In certain demographic groups, none that anyone cares to disclose, there are problems with education levels..." Golly I wonder where that would go, 'specially considering all the money that's been wasted in the name of education by the government.
The recent series that SI did on OSU (a school I have no particular affinity for, but happen to live near) was full of unnamed sources, exaggerated allegations and downright wild hyperbole - written, truth be known, by an OU journalism graduate who also happens to be a vindictive, ambitious ass with an ax of his own to grind.
After the truth came out about that deal I'd be surprised at nothing from CNN.
By the way, in the weather report, it's cold today. Blacks and minorities hardest hit.
An adult reading on an eighth grade level is arguably a "functional" illiterate. The ability to vote is not the same as the competence to vote.
Actually I did miss it. Missed his Heisman acceptance speech too. :)
I didn’t write that. I was replying to someone else and quoted them.
“And yes, I suspect there are elementary school teachers who don’t read much past a fifth grade level, let alone an eighth grade one.”
Well, if we have such low expectations of them, is it any wonder?
My apologies. I stand corrected.
These guys are at the age of legal majority. Wether they make something of their college years really is a matter of personal responsibility.
Among my subordinates, I have a retired (defensive something or other) professional football player. He is, by far, the smartest, best educated, most accomplished of the bunch.
As an aside, he is also a member of our EMS team, which consistently punches WAY over their weight in state competitions, and has for years.
Well, yeah, but I was thinking more along the lines of MIT, Caltech, and Carnegie-Mellon ...
As a Duke alum, I would note that a decent percentage of Duke former starting basketball players go on to coaching or announcing careers (where they at least have to read a teleprompter (and work hard get a word in once in a while around Dick Vitale).
Among my subordinates, I have a retired (defensive something or other) professional football player. He is, by far, the smartest, best educated, most accomplished of the bunch.
Kudos to him for maximizing his intelligence and good for you for USING him. He's a role model for the athletes in the VERY best way.
As an aside, he is also a member of our EMS team, which consistently punches WAY over their weight in state competitions, and has for years.
Well, then I expect to see him at one of our Weight Watchers meetings.
Don’t get your Undies in a wad. I meant to type Winston and not “Wilcox”. I was trying to remember the name of the LSU QB Drafted number 1 by Oakland years ago that went bust. Still can’t remember it. Somebody posted the words of Winston at the post game interview. Hillarious.
Just remembered it. JaMarcus Russell. Number 1 pick. Lots of talent...Dumb as a rock.
I've never heard that. Got any examples?
Vince Young. Another example.
“They’re getting ready for the big leagues where the motto is, “My felon is bigger, better, and meaner than your felon”
They are already in college.
I don’t know of any that received degrees and never went to class, but I presume there may be some. Most of the really good athletes opt for the NFL draft before completing college (i.e. sophmore or junior year).
The Northrop division I worked at had support” clubs for Hispanics, blacks, women and Gay Lesbian Transgendered people too.
Unfortunately for me (and them) I was none of those and had to be let go even after 30 years of a spotless performance record. In the past 3 years the workforce of the division dropped from 1200 employees to 380. Unsurprisingly, the corporation gives big dollars to democrats and other PC, lefty causes.
My point is, the barely educated are being passed through the educational institutions and many are in high positions to the detriment of the country, IMO.
In the long,run getting out of that company was the best thing that has happened for me in years. Rant over...! (Oops, not yet) my writing isn't so great now, had surgery yesterday.
Happy FReeping!
What gives you the idea that there are these ‘brilliant’ students reading at the fifth grade level?
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