Posted on 12/19/2002 3:08:50 AM PST by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - The college seniors of today have no better grasp of general knowledge than the high school graduates of almost half a century ago, according to the results of a new study.
The average of correct responses for modern college seniors on a series of questions assessing "general cultural knowledge" was 53.5 percent compared with 54.5 percent of high school graduates in 1955, according to a survey by Zogby International.
The Zogby poll of 401 randomly selected college seniors was conducted in April for the Princeton, N.J.-based National Association of Scholars and released Wednesday.
"The average amount of knowledge that college seniors had was just about the same as the average amount of knowledge that high school graduates had back in the 1950s," said NAS President Stephen H. Balch.
Balch noted that the high school grads of half a century ago performed better than today's college seniors on history questions, while contemporary students fared better on questions covering art and literature, with no appreciable difference on geography questions.
The questions asked in the April poll by Zogby were virtually the same as questions asked by the Gallup Organization in 1955, with a few questions being slightly modified to reflect history.
"The questions were just about identical, as identical as we could make them," said Balch. "In most cases, they were absolutely identical."
Balch attributed the stagnation of performance on general knowledge questions to several factors, including a decreased emphasis on general knowledge in high school, placing colleges and universities in the position of having to fill academic gaps among students entering college.
"This is fundamental knowledge that everyone should have and if your students are being admitted without it, then that only reinforces the need for you to take general education seriously," Balch said.
But Balch said he didn't consider such actions to be remedial in nature, noting that "the remedial problems have to do with students not being able to write or read at the eighth grade level and still getting into college. There are many institutions in which that's a difficulty. You have people who just don't have the skills let alone the knowledge."
Even though the NAS study raises questions about the caliber of general education offered in high schools, colleges and universities also bear some responsibility, Balch said.
"I think it probably has a lot to do with the dumbing down of curriculum, both at the college and high school level," said Balch. "It looks good, certainly, to say 'more people are graduating from college,' but is there any real intellectual yield from it?"
Also part of the problem is that many colleges are placing less emphasis on liberal arts education in favor of more specialized education geared toward specific career paths, which Balch said isn't necessarily in the best interest of students or society.
"I think these results, which don't seem to show a great deal of value-added in the general cultural knowledge domain - I think these results are quite interesting and disappointing," said Balch. "We would hope that the college students of today would have done a good deal better than the high school students of the past."
Also contributing to the trend is an easing of college admissions standards. While Balch doesn't advocate a return to standards requiring competency in Greek or Latin, he does say colleges should "insist that the student coming have basic areas of knowledge."
A solid background in general knowledge, Balch said, is "very important both for good citizenship and, for many people at least, for a happy and interesting life," by providing students with what Balch called "cultural furniture that allows them to be better citizens."
Click here to read the general knowledge questions.
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It used to be that most people would go from high-school directly into the working world. Most businesses didn't care if you had a college degree, as long as you could read and write well -- what you needed to know, you could look up and study as needed.
What changed between the 60's and today was the passage of the various the Civil Rights Acts. These days YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED to give any sort of written test to job applicants, if such would have a "disparate racial impact" (and just about any test would). So, an employer wanting to get applicants who can read must now specify "college degree" on the requirements, in order to get somebody who can read. But this will not be good enough any more, because the illiterates are being given degrees now by colleges with seats to fill.
If businesses could hire literate people straight out of high school, they would -- but they can't, because they would be forced to hire from the high school crowd "by the numbers" or be sued for discrimination
How fondly I remember being marched into the school hallways and told sit with my back against the wall and put my head between my knees. It was a nice diversion from rigorous studies.
I hate you.
And my blondeness has nothing to do with it.
Better than the other way around, heh? We live in a specialized world, and given how unionized and politicized the pedantic proffession is nowadays, I'd say you were fortunate to get what you got. At least they make good workers.
Pretty neat, but could a telemarketer then be prosecuted for arson? :)
The teacher in Arkansas asked her class, "Now, who can tell me who our president was during the Civil War?"A little boy raised his hand. "Yes, Johnny?" said the teacher.
"Jefferson Davis," the boy said proudly. And no one could argue with that.
Not to mention that they're multilingual. After all, they're fluent in slang, Ebonics, liberal Newspeak, Political Correctish. They can't speak English, though...
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
And my blondeness has nothing to do with it.
I do appreciate frankness, and blondness, but have grave doubts about your hate, because I suspect disingenuousness in your self-deprecation.
(However, in case I'm wrong, what I just said is a complement.)
Hank
As for the "spreadsheet" argument, it is shocking, but these kids cannot even add/subtract/ or multiply basic numbers BECAUSE they "let the computer do it." But if you don't have the theory as to how to find the angle of a plane, all the computers in the world won't solve the problem for you.
At UD, we have a STRONG committment to "overseas" and "foreign" experiences, but I find that it is like a sponge bath. These kids don't LEARN cultures, yet they think they have "experienced" them.
Sorry, I wish I had better news, but the students I have observed, PARTICULARLY IN THE LAST 6-7 years, have gotten progressively WORSE---VERY shallow. Minute-task oriented, but little creativity of thought, and NO intellectual inqusitiveness. When I taught high school seniors in the early 1980s, they were much better!
Most appalling is the fact that he cannot write. He has to print everything and that is acceptable.
While the lack of knowledge is bad, what the heck does not being able to write (I'm assuming cursive) have to do with the price of tea in China? I detested cursive in early elementary school, and my refusal to learn it was going to get me held back until my mom had a meeting and laid down the law.
While I can write in cursive, its not pretty, but for damn sure everyone can read my printed field notes now while I have to have a translator for some of the chicken scratch "writing" I have to plow through.
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