Posted on 09/28/2009 4:27:05 AM PDT by IbJensen
Several years ago, I discovered a curious phenomenon among the diverse freshmen in the developmental English classes I teach. These are students who fail the placement exam and are forced to take a reading and writing refresher course before moving on to basic composition. In one of their grammar exercises, the name Charles Lindbergh appears. What I discovered was that roughly 90% of the developmental students didn't know who he was.
That in itself would be unremarkable. More remarkable was the fact that when I mentioned the name to my honors students, roughly 90% knew that Lindbergh was a pilot, and the majority correctly identified him as the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Afterwards, I joked with colleagues about scrapping our entire English placement procedure and just asking students, as they registered, to identify Charles Lindbergh. If they couldn't, they'd be placed in developmental English.
But the Lindbergh phenomenon highlights a more serious deficit. Eight decades ago, Charles Lindbergh was perhaps the most famous human being on the planet. He's part of the cultural ether. Even if there's no need to know who he was, it's virtually impossible to grow up in America and never hear his name. It's a point of reference in newspaper and magazine articles, movies and documentaries, television shows, songs, even old cartoons.
In all likelihood, therefore, the developmental students had heard the name Charles Lindbergh. It's just that 90% never cared enough to follow through. They never looked him up in a reference book or on the web. They never asked their parents or teachers. They just shrugged and went on with their lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
“I believe that 90% of all elementary, middle-school and high-school teachers and administrators should be immediately fired from their jobs, sued for the return of their salaries to the public coffers and prosecuted for malfeasance and and violation of the public trust...”
what you’ve identified is “educational malpractice” and in fact, could be a”civil rights violation” as the consequence permanently handicaps the individual. IMHO...this is how to crowbar the NEA out of our lives...but we need to use their own tactics on them.
Good point!
I would be pleased also with my child reading C. S. Lewis.
During a conversation I once had about these sort of issues with the dean of my college at UF, the dean told me that for too many incoming freshman, high school was just too easy. And he’s right.
Students breeze through their high schools with minimal effort. Teachers tell them exactly what’s on the tests. If they pay mild attention in class they don;t even need to study. Essays are not graded hard (the history teacher does not take points off for bad spelling and grammar). Homework ranges from light to non-existant. Now we have a movement to get rid of the SAT and ACT.
LOL! Yeah, how dare I add math to the mix! One subject at a time, eh?
how to crowbar the NEA out of our livesWonderful image.
Would that we could.
I worked in construction and electronics. Morons were not valued in those fields, either.
“you will get a better job and earn more money than if you don’t have a degree.” That’s the main reason why far too many members of each high school cohort attend college.
That phrase was drilled into my head by every member of my family while I attended high school.
I discovered a little later that it is not WHAT you know but WHO you know that gets you that better job with better pay.
College is just a four year escape from reality to for many(not all) people.
Ok! Some parents are irresponsible! I agree!
Then why should we apply a model of schooling ( our current government school system) that demands parental interest if there is to be success? Isn't this a perfect prescription for failure? Doing this seems to me to be utter insanity, as well as a waste of time and money and destruction of young lives.
Children in homes with dysfunctional parents would do better in schools similar to KIPP schools. George Will calls them paternalistic schools. These schools attempt to duplicate in the institution what happens in the homes of children with functional parents.
Then...What about children whose parents are functional and do show them good examples of learning? How much learning is really happening in the school? How much is **entirely** due to the parents and child's efforts in the home? It could be that the only thing a typical government school does is send home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow. It is the parents and child who are doing 99% of the learning and teaching **in the home**!!!
So?...If children in functional homes are successful because they and their parents are doing 99% of the work through “afterschooling”, maybe these kids would do far better if they spent a lot **less** time in school!
In a functional family it could be that the typical government school is actually retarding and delaying a child's emotional, social, and educational progress.
But Brawndo has electrolytes.
Much of the accurate, disastrous turn to higher education that you describe can be attributed to our national government’s funding of student loans and grants.
Parents now take their children from college to college, watching for what package of dorms and dining halls, athletic and other extra-curricular facilities will grab their offspring’s interest. Only tangentially does cost enter into the equation.
There was a time in our nation's history where a high school graduate was well balanced in his education. He was, indeed, qualified to enter the job market in any number of fields.
Today, many of our factories are gone. They were the source of labor, machinist, chemist, marketing, clerical, etc. jobs. So what's left?
Teachers, diplomats, police, fire, ecological, forestry, and a few others like restaurant management (flipping burgers). In respect to worthwhile occupations like mechanical engineer, tool and die engineers and makers, et al, they're gone forever until we can change the definition of forever.
Perhaps I'm fortunate as my college days were completed before America began going out of business.
But then there's still my adult children and my grandchildren.
Good job, Shaft! You know that is also an excellent way to keep your mental abilities into old age. It keeps the brain laying down new pathways and helps prevent the build-up of plaque in the brain.
Approximately 10% of legitimately graduating twelfth-grade students can earn a legitimate baccalaurate degree.
Of course, since half of the graduating HS seniors are not capable of twelfth-grade work, the fraction of the population that should go to college is about 5%.
First of all, they're not kids. Their peers are operating complex machinery, humping heavy packs through the mountains of Afghanistan, and carrying out various enormous responsibilities elsewhere. They're adults.
Second, getting high, getting laid, and studying cultural Marxism isn't babysitting. It's subversion.
Agree!
To apply another model that effectively excludes the ignorant parent input, along with those who truly care, is exactly what your friendly, communist central government wishes.
as most of the ‘teachers’ are mind-numbed robots themselves.
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If all the government teachers were required to take the GED ( the test for drop outs) next month, how many would pass? My guess is most would fail, especially the math section..and..I am being generous. I would give them a full month to prepare.
He recently read Mere Christianity and he read The Screwtape Letters last year and I think he's quickly becoming a Lewis fan. What a contrast between Lewis and my other son's favorite author, Samuel Clemens. My 17 year old also likes Clemens and I have to admit that I do, too. :-) Over the summer we found Adam and Eve's Diaries and they are a hoot!
I think that is over simplifying things a bit.
The truth is there’s at least hundreds if not thousands of times more things to be “curious” about than there was 30 years ago.
Just because kids are not curious about many of the things we were doesn’t mean they are not curious.
We are in an age of information overload. We can’t begin to be truly knowledgeable in all areas of history, science, industry, culture - you name it.
The age of the renascence man in actual application is at an end. Technical jobs now mostly require specialization because there is far too much to follow/keep current on in a broader scope.
Twenty five years ago I had practical knowledge of just about every non custom semiconductor available from discrete devices to integrated circuits. No human can begin to do that today. It just isn’t possible.
I can’t even remotely keep up with all the developments in electronics these days. I now make little attempt to. Instead I research specific information for a specific problem I’m trying to solve, solve it and move on without trying to retain what I discovered in fine detail. Each problem is different and requires different information to solve. Books, notes, computer programs I’ve written and the Internet are my long term memory now.
Times have changed and we have to adapt.
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