Employers complain about communication skills

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Sunday, February 06, 2005 | Jim McKay

[Prov3456]

That's true, and partly for the reasons you give.

What is also true is that for years the public schools have not really TAUGHT students to read. Instead of basic phonics and systematic reading instruction, they teach "whole language" reading.

My daughter's teacher actually instructed her students to "look at the pictures and guess" when they didn't know a word. The only time words had to be spelled correctly was on "spelling tests" (8 words/week and the word was counted wrong if the "i" was not dotted). During "creative writing" lessons the same word could be "sound-spelled" (mis-spelled!) and was not even underlined, much less corrected. The whole language approach to reading nearly destroyed my daughter's reading ability.

We transferred our children to a non-denominational school starting in 3rd grade. While she still doesn't read for pleasure (and does IM, etc. as you mention), at least she CAN read. She's now a college sophomore and on the dean's list.

Partial illiteracy is a major problem for many of these job-seekers.

[k2blader]

During college I took a handful of English courses, and all my profs/TA's were white, but they spouted leftist drivel as well. One teacher openly admitted to being a Christophobic Marxist. A few teachers heavily employed the "peer critique" method, which involved students reading and evaluating their classmates' work. Most of the writing I reviewed was appalling.

[FreedomPoster]

Excellent point. Basics like a meeting agenda beforehand and meeting minutes afterwards are not so basic, it seems. Nor is showing up on time.