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 ...
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“I think the Internet is causing people to have short attention spans.”
tl;dr
I find this in myself, and fight against it.
Social media and internet news sites have shortened my attention span.
Pretty much everything overwhelms these kids today. They equate having to do things they don’t want to do as being like being under a mortar barrage during a banzai attack.
My goodness what could be the cause of the young people not reading?
“ It’s shocking how few parents show up for our local school board meetings. As in, typically, ZERO.”
Parents have come to totally depend on government for care of their kids. Certainly for education
This is what they get.
The government can educate the kids or they can take over and brainwash them, make them stupid and compliant
Parents are ok with this
The kids don’t know any better. They are victims
I think the Internet is causing people to have short attention spans.
I was going to respond, but I got distracted.
At this point, the government should be refunding the taxpayers.
I was reading at the sixth grade level in first grade. During the summer, my mom would take us to the library, bringing a laundry basket to fill with books. We would read every book in the basket in a week and be back the next to refill it with new books.
But, I bet those illiterate students are great at arguing about LGBTQ issues and socialism, so there is that.
TLDR
I don't like watching videos, I'd rather read....
Because gov’t schools are increasingly focusing on social engineering and liberal indoctrination. The three Rs actually impede the propaganda effort. The last thing they want is students that actually think for themselves.
Internet is a definite issue. When in high school, I had no problem with reading, I was very interested in all types of subject matters and the authors of classics, humanities and drama.
get the computers out of elementary schools ...
An attentions span exceeding 3 minutes is difficult for the instant gratification generation.
Smart Phones, Stupid People
For decades now, K-12 curricula, including of course humanities and English, have been undergoing a crass process of conversion away from substance (a.k.a., denuded of substance) and in favor of so-called “process”.
The problem these professors are moaning about was/is a predictable result of that deliberate change.
I hated school.
I think the only teachers who actually cared about me were my music teachers.
I learned about prejudice and discrimination and favoritism from the actions of my teachers.
It’s no wonder that the youngish do not have the ability to concentrate long enough to finish reading a book.
Then one has to factor the inability of that same cohort to be able to write a coherent book.
I’m taking a playwriting class at the U of I this semester, (I’m retired and like to take a class now and then to keep the brain working...) the low level at which the other students in the class (18, 19 and 20 year olds) is shocking. They can’t sight read, they don’t know many common words and are being fed a steady diet of hate whitey, and gays above all which they lap up with both hands...
Yuk Yuk Yuk.
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