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Elite colleges shocked to discover students ‘don’t know how’ to read books: ‘My jaw dropped’
NY Post ^ | October 4, 2024 | By Lindsay Kornick

Posted on 10/04/2024 9:44:17 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

Several university professors expressed concerns to the Atlantic about students who come to college unable to read full-length books.

Assistant editor Rose Horowitch spoke to several teachers from elite schools like Columbia, Georgetown and Stanford, who each described the phenomenon of students being overwhelmed by the prospect of reading entire books.

Columbia University humanities professor Nicholas Dames described feeling “bewildered” when a first-year student told him that she had never been required to read a full book at her public high school.

“My jaw dropped,” Dames said.

Some professors do find a few students up to the task, but described them as “now more exceptions” rather than the rule, with others “shutting down” when facing difficult texts.

“Daniel Shore, the chair of Georgetown’s English department, told me that his students have trouble staying focused on even a sonnet,” Horowitch wrote.

“It’s not that they don’t want to do the reading,” she said. “It’s that they don’t know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: arth; books; college; democrats; education

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To: The Louiswu
"I’m taking a playwriting class at the U of I this semester"

University of Idaho where one of my girls is?

I didn't think so, looked at your profile and also the U of I (daho) doesn't have too much of that woke stuff).

101 posted on 10/04/2024 1:23:59 PM PDT by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: Dalberg-Acton
I find it annoying that everything is explained on YouTube videos now. It's hard to find text to read instructions anymore (which I prefer).
Even more annoying, are the red-dots that I can't understand a word of what they are saying.
Then, there are the (mostly Chinese) that use a synthetic voice to speak the instructions, usually of a synthetic female 🤪🤔
102 posted on 10/04/2024 1:38:19 PM PDT by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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To: Night Hides Not
If you can get through the first 100 pages of Atlas Shrugged, you’re halfway there.



"Yes, at first I was happy to be learning how to read. It seemed exciting and magical, but then I read this: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read every last word of this garbage, and because of this piece of s**t, I am never reading again."
103 posted on 10/04/2024 1:38:50 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

" ... And there was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn't just for fags and neither was writing. People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting, and I believe that time can come again!"

104 posted on 10/04/2024 1:41:33 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: x
Our children's school has a standing order with me for any of these books I can find in readable condition for the school library.
105 posted on 10/04/2024 1:55:08 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: dfwgator

To each his own, gator. The author of that quote obviously skipped over “The Aristocracy of Pull, Miracle Metal, and
The Concerto of Deliverance. Three of the most weighty chapters in a powerful novel.


106 posted on 10/04/2024 2:42:20 PM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
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To: gitmo
I don't know if they were adult books, but my son loved to read. The school had a Q&A sheet for many of the books for the kids to prove that they had read them and understood the themes.

They only had a limited number of books that they had the Q&A sheets for. We ended up buying them for the more advanced books our son wanted to read.

I was speaking with an acquaintance that teaches at the middle school (7th graders?). He is ready to retire. Between trying to teach kids that don't even know english to the terrible behavior of the students it is really difficult to teach the normal kids.

107 posted on 10/04/2024 2:54:49 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant - Never Fearful)
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To: Dalberg-Acton

Yes, they have the attention span of a gnat.
I see them at my workplace. They do their job for maybe 5-10 minutes, then have to get to their $8 coffee and surf on their phone.
Rinse, repeat all day long. Absolutely no focus, discipline or work ethic.


108 posted on 10/04/2024 3:01:45 PM PDT by GnuThere
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Try Alibris.com. I’ve found quite a few books there that are out of print or otherwise hard to find.


109 posted on 10/04/2024 3:05:04 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
a first-year student told him that she had never been required to read a full book at her public high school.

I've always read books (in full) because I WANTED to read them, not because of some requirement. So this person never felt the interest to actually read any book at all. OK.

That said, some books on my English Lit reading list I found tedious and not to my interest by topic and/or style. THOSE books I did not read to the end. I had better books to read.

110 posted on 10/04/2024 3:56:54 PM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building.)
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To: Dalberg-Acton
I think the Internet is causing people to have short attention spans.

TL;DR

111 posted on 10/04/2024 4:05:35 PM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building.)
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To: FamiliarFace

“I think you meant Jonathan Livingston Seagull.”

LOL, it’s been about 40 years. I’m lucky to have any remaining memories. :)


112 posted on 10/04/2024 6:46:39 PM PDT by T. P. Pole
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To: nwrep

We knew 50+ years ago that the “elite colleges” were cesspools of liberalism. Furthermore, they do not produce the best educated graduates.


113 posted on 10/04/2024 6:57:05 PM PDT by Machavelli (True God)
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To: T. P. Pole

I just remember that book, too. Yes, we are lucky that we can remember even a few things from so long ago.


114 posted on 10/04/2024 7:57:29 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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