Posted on 12/05/2024 6:21:52 PM PST by Rummyfan
To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.
Nicholas dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.
This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I grew up in NY State and education was top-notch - but that was way before Carter and the Department of Education....
A lot of real oldies. Which is why Triskit was so happily munching on glue bindings. Yelled at her frequently for eating my books, but a Sheltie can get the most amazingly pathetic look when yelled at. And between the most precious book and a pet, there’s not really a choice.
Applauding! Applauding! Applauding! Applauding! Applauding! Applauding! Applauding! Applauding! Applauding! Applauding!
When I arrived on campus as a new freshman in 1965, the amount of reading I had to do for every class was a challenge. Hundreds of pages in different classes were required each week.
It isn’t that the children cannot read. It is because their days are filled with phone and computer garbage that shorten their attention spans to that of small children.
Get the kids off the phones and computer games.
But I've read and performed most of the Shakespeare, so...brownie points?
I take exception to that! My first tech manual was made a contract level example for Navy contracts. And, yes, many ARE dreadful.
Very sensible analysis. Well argued.
One of my best friends is one of the world authorities on Shakespeare. I send him every weird thing I read about what people are doing to the Bard and love reading his pithy responses. Shakespeare was a favorite when I was less than 10, and one of my best memories was of watching a traditional Shakespearean play in the outdoor garden of our university. Perfect weather. Perfectly thrilled audience. Medieval music.
Another of my friends, now gone, taught Shakespeare at an inner city school. She was magic and held those kids in her hand when she taught. They were extremely protective of her and made sure she was safe in their neighborhood.
Unfortunately, I’m not the least bit surprised at that. I knew eventually it would be like this. Now it’s even in the “elite” schools as well. Even those who are late GenX like myself I’ve noticed in too many cases don’t like to read as it’s “too boring” to them. Thankfully, I still enjoy reading when I can.
Harry Potter was replaced by TikTok. They were following fads like wearing masks, LGB, Trans and becoming Autistic.
***..at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book.***
Strange. at every High School(1960-1964) I went to we had to give “Book Reports” ever so often. Those dull English novels about did me in! I was saved when i found CAPTAIN BLOOD and CORONADO’S CHILDREN at the school library and found there really was life after dull English novels. I have read hundreds of books. Now much less in my old age. Last ones I read a few years back were..
Phantom of the Opera
War and Peace
Doctor Zhivago
I Claudius
Claudius the God
True Grit
and many non fiction histories along with “pot boilers.”
A person after my own heart. I have read several of these.
They can’t even form a proper sentence or thought when speaking either.
The academic rot is probably across the country like a mosaic but I only picked on NY because of Columbia U. though they assuredly draw students from across the country and world.
And they’ll mumble and look down to their phone if forced to actually speak.
FTW! :)
A restaurant I used to deliver to in the 80's had the walls lined with books. Very quiet and well-insulated. Sounds like your house.
Today, rapid visual and text overload trains the mind to engage in cursory examination as well as lack of retention. Like as seeking God and Divine Truth prepares the heart for appreciative, valued reception, versus of little value, so the ease of seeing images as well as text cheapens it, and fosters reducing life to an easily accessed smorgasbord of largely superficial interactions.
Google search now restricts search results to just 10 per page, and of usually insufficient responses.
Are there some publishing houses that do not produce quality books? Of course. But books have been printed for hundreds of years and there are billions of them around from a myriad of publishing houses.
If you choose not to have them available in your house for the children to read, that is entirely on you.
Disagree with the connection to images. For most books, the occasional drawing is a wonderful surprise when you turn the page and can compare your imaging with that of the artist assigned the book. The color illustrations in books by George Barr McCutcheon at the turn of the 20th century are collectibles that are my especial favorites.
As for comics, ADORE THEM! Superman! Batman! Wonder Woman! These were the most marvelous supplementary materials to the Great Poets in mother's library and never moved me an inch away from appreciating As You Like It or Comedy of Errors.
When I began writing fiction, I was THRILLED when the editors arranged for illustrations. Later, I illustrated the poetry of my 5th great grandfather and made the pages into little comic books of my own.
To Master Timmy Dwight, son of Yale President Timothy Dwight
When I came to write biographies of my ancestors, I was lavish with illustrations as frequently as I could fit them. That's the wonderful part of an e-book. You can be lush with color and it doesn't raise the price as it does with a soft cover version.
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