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 ...
Both geophysics and archaeology depend on reports, observations and opinions. Therefore good writing skills.
The best college course I took was Business Communication, which has helped me in various business situations. My spelling and grammar lacked and I paid a price for not doing both well. If I could turn back the clock I would spend more time on both.
The only reason I got through physics and science in college was when I could associate my interests in politics and economics into those courses.
It would be interesting to see if your students could write about geophysics or archeology, whatever they are interested in, to prove the point by combining the two.
If you get one kid to do this then you have changed a life for the better - that is an awesome thing.
Blessings
Mel
“What they’ve done to education in America is beyond criminal. It is treason.”
Amen ! When I was in high school, the AP students in my classes were scholars! Today, even these courses must be watered down to a significant degree. U.S. History is not a requirement for graduation, as it used to be.
I would modify that a little bit. It's more accurate to say "It's not what you know, but who TRUSTS you to know what you are doing, and trusts you to do the right thing without supervision".
At the upper levels, the people you report to may have little understanding of the technical details of what you are doing, and must have faith that you're doing a competent job. They also don't have the time to monitor your day, and must have faith that you're doing your activities for the good of the company and not for personal benefit.
“Just because kids are not curious about many of the things we were doesn’t mean they are not curious.”
I never said they weren’t curious, but learning about some of the things they are curious about doesn’t give them sentence structure and an understanding about history. There are advantages to technilogical education, but you can’t forego the foundation of learning to just zone in one specific industry.
I have to agree. My mother’s generation tended to view the walk on the moon as the most incredulous thing ever. My sons know about it and they realize that at the time it was pretty amazing but they have grown up with people in outer space all the time. And they know more about electronics (computers, languages, CD-ROM, http, the whole alphabet of the pc world,) than I could ever hope to know.
My oldest graduated with an AD in computer programming from a local technical college. But somewhere along the line, he fell in love with the world of psychology. He still lives at home because he has a local PT job and he commutes to the University of DE, an hour each way. He was 21 when he started at UD and didn’t want to live on campus because he ‘didn’t want to live with a bunch of 18 year olds away from home for the first time and partying all the time.’ He is bound and determined to become a psychologist, have a practice and hopes to participate in studies and research some day.
I know his schedule is grueling and the commute doesn’t help. But he wants an education, not a dormitory experience. There are good kids out there learning every day.
Hell--for some, it's the launching pad for a lifetime of escape from reality.
“Having said that - once you are in the door, politics, and “who you know” loom large...especially in smaller companies.”
I can’t agree with your last line.
The larger the organization the more politics involved. Smaller companies don’t have time for it. It is all about producing.
I would guess over half of the people in college have no business being there, and are wasting their time and money.
You missed the point of the article. Knowledge of who Lindy was correlated highly with literacy (as indicated by the results of other placement tests.) Knowledge of the most famous artist or traveler in 400 B.C. did not.
Let's see: 2N3904. 2N3906. 2N3055. 1N914. 1N4000. SN7400. SN7402. LM741. 7805.
By golly, you're right. There wasn't much more to know!
≤]B^)
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My dad was an electrical engineer and did a *lot* of design and research/development work. Whenever I needed extra money (or a job) when I was younger I laid out and built all his breadboards.
You just jolted me with a lot of old memories with that list! Now everything is surface mounted and my dad's workshop wouldn't be up to the job anymore.
Actually you can.
I'm not at all saying that it is right for everyone. But it can be the right path for some people.
Everyone is different.
Some people simply love doing a particular thing. They are naturally good at it. In fact getting a formal education, at least in their area of expertise can be a detriment to their skill. They have a different perspective and come up with different solutions untainted by "how things are done".
I'm an example of that.
I was freed from high school after passing the GED midway through my junior year. I never stepped back into school again.
I love electrical engineering. I'm good at it. I'm a part owner of a small successful high tech company in San Jose. I started as a technician at a large Sunnyvale electronics company and within a couple of years was a senior design engineer. I later became a consultant and then started my own business. So it can be done. And the result doesn't have to be an ignorant know nothing. Yes, my grammar isn't the best - as likely illustrated above... But it is good enough to support what I do well.
How the public school education system has damaged males, especially, for the past generation is beyond measure. That destruction has coincided with the middle-class expectation that every kid is going to go to college, prepared or not. There are then college diploma mills that pick up where the public schools left off. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, you still have an undereducated mass.
Hey now. CMOS was in wide use 25 years ago not just TTL.
2N918, J310, 2N5109 for some common RF devices.
There were a number of common CPU’s then but nothing like today.
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic, yes there were many “common” parts then - but not when compared to today.
6C4, 12AU7 and 12AX7 were among my favorite triodes. The 12AX7 made a great 10 watt push pull AM transmitter final.
Wonder how many of the students that had heard of Charles Lindberg also knew that he was one of most radical members of the “America First Committee” and openly supported Germany before the US entered WWII.
Perhaps they were thinking about the waste of WWI-The War to End All Wars! Perhaps they remembered that entanglement in that war and at that time would expend another hundreds of thousands of American lives.
Perhaps they could see what would happen at the end of a second world war where Russia came out the clear winner taking Eastern Europe and all the machinery, technicians and scientists they could steal and kidnap.
Make no mistake about it; if Germany hadn't been treated so shabbily at the end of WWI there wouldn't have been a II.
Had that thinking been extended to the formation of the United Nations that disgusting body wouldn't be occupying valuable land in New York.
Radical Lindy? No way. Cautious Lindy who when the inevitable warmongers finally got their way served in the Army Air Corps with distinction.
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