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.”
I interviewed a young lady a few weeks ago. She has a JD degree, but hasn’t ever used it (I don’t think she was able to pass the bar, but that’s my personal opinion). Now, she thinks she might want to go into instructional design (no background in that, either). We asked what type of books she enjoys reading. Her answer was “Harry Potter books.” She’s in her mid-30s.
Nice list, Pippa. Wish I had read half of those books when I was a kid. That’s when our brains are still forming and I think a good reading program in childhood changes a person forever, for the better. I could read those same books now and not get the anywhere close to the same benefit, though I may still enjoy it. At least that’s been my observation when looking at people who read a lot as children vs. those who did not.
Not really, I gave it eight or so episodes and then went w/ something else. (It had some interesting plot-elements, and the production quality was really good, but in the end I didn't really like it.)
Really? What didn’t you like about it?
What kinda shows do you like?
It's really been a while, but it was probably more the underlying metaphysics than anything else. (The metaphysics is why I don't really like Evangelion either.)
What kinda shows do you like?
Well, it's kind of varied -- I love a good comedy, and a good science-fiction; high-fantasy can be really enjoyable as well -- but I'm a bit of a storyteller myself so it needs to have some good/interesting story.
I suppose a list of a few shows and why I like them could help:
What if?nature of the parallel Earths.
pulled into the gamegenera, but each with its own 'personality' and interesting story and/or world. SAO is probably the weakest on the list. (Konosuba has IMO the best characters.)
Seitokai Yakuindomo is a really ridiculously funny ecchi comedy.
Thank you — I’ll check it out.
“Harry Potter books.” She’s in her mid-30s.
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Not uncommon.
It is scary to see how uninformed and uneducated our up and coming supposedly best and brightest are.
Then she said; “Is that a bookmark you’re holding, or...”
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“...are you glad to read me?”
This is so true. This young woman said several things in her interview that I would have found better ways to phrase, even if I felt the overwhelming need to unburden myself of that information. We asked her to describe a time she had received difficult feedback from a supervisor and how she handled it. I thought she was going to start crying, right there in the interview. She mentioned that a supervisor had criticized the quality of her writing (legal briefs) and wanted her to put more research into it. She actually said she thought the supervisor was toxic, so she quit the job over that feedback. We asked her to describe a time she failed to fulfill a commitment, and she blamed the customer for her failure. Her answer came down to "I didn't get it done, but it was HIS fault." Did I mention we hired somebody else? She had been our front runner candidate until the second round of interviews, looked decent on paper, but push a little, and it all fell apart!
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