I had several careers over the years and ended up teaching high school biology and chemistry for seven years. I retired this summer. I support what you say. Among my teaching colleagues were many teachers who wrote abysmally and had little comprehension of math. Typically our older teachers had good literacy and reasoning ability. Many of the younger ones were clearly products of a lax system of instruction and certification. They used all the proper progressive buzzwords, did lots of group projects and used plenty of technology in the classroom. Unfortunately, they also wrote in fractured English and conveyed incorrect information to their students. It is a very deep-seated problem in our educational system.
I found high school students weak in basic skills. Except for the very best students in the school, they struggled to understand textbooks, and lacked understanding of even basic arithmetic. I taught a lot of 15-16 year old students who could not figure out practical applications of division or calculate percentages. In talking to 'old timers' in education, most linked the widespread weakness in literacy to mobile devices. They experienced rapid declines in student literacy about the time cell phones and tablets became widely available to young people. Few students read books now. Book reading involves greater concentration and engagement than much of what they read on their devices. As they spend more time on social media, flitting from message to message, their immersion in complex writing and challenging vocabulary is reduced. Technology brings change - some good, some not. Teachers are told throughout the school year that kids have changed since we were in school and that we have to change our methods to engage them. That means making school fun and doing lots of team projects and using a lot of technology. Having students listen to a lecture, take notes, and be individually accountable is pretty much considered 'dinosaur teaching'.
I concur, as well, with what you have indicated. I spent years teaching uni. students from Freshmen to Seniors. So many observational conclusions I could tell here, but yeah, one thing I noticed/observed is that many of my Freshmen students could scarcely put a proper academic paragraph together, many lacked adequate studying skills, most failed at rational objective thinking and reasoning, and even lacked the ability to read and then comprehend what they read. I have literally witnessed, year after year, Senior level uni students GRADUATE and still lack those writing, reading and comprehension skills.
After 12 years of watching and experiencing higher education literally become just another failed mechanism like the K12 system, I knew it was time for me to leave and move on. I loved teaching and working with students, but when the system is too busy indoctrinating them and sucking every last dollar out of their souls, so to speak, I realized that both the K12 and uni/college higher education had/have become nothing more than an ideological libtard assembly line that I could no longer tolerate. Imagine a system that is creating our future leaders .... who for the most part, are themselves ill-prepared to face the real world and the host of real life situations and problems. I could go on and on, but will not. So frakin’ frustration, but yeah, we are currently reaping what we have sown, how sad and unfortunate.