Many current elite college students can't read a book

WhatInThe said:
Many current elite college students can't read a book. Most blamed on tech which has created a short attention span. Students aren't being taught how to read a book either. Problem also seen in AP English classes in high school. One teacher said AP students used to read 14 books a year now it's about 7.

Elite colleges shocked to discover students 'don't know how' to read books: 'My jaw dropped'

One student attending Columbia said she never had to read a book in high school
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All of that is shocking! And how weird that at a time when we have the worlds information of every kind at our finger tips, so many seem to be getting dumber.
 

I'm gonna guess that the !16 + student does not buy fictions B.S. and
Writers need to change the subject to what they care about. Crap is Crap.
Sure, most all Novels of the past were Fiction. not real-life stuff. So, kids
urn for needful stuff. It's a no brainer. Maybe they don't care about a tame Wolf.
Maybe they don't care about endless and useless days under the waves in a Sub.
So what! Maybe they do not care about a Tyrant and what he did 900 years ago.
We need to understand that the kids today handle a Heck of a lot more info than we did.
8 out of 10 kids slowly walking home past my place after school buses are staring at their Phone.
Sure they are into some stuff we can't accept. Yep, the future sux.
 
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January said:
It's not just college students - most people I know don't read books - as in read one from cover to cover.

I don't think this is a new thing.
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I agree, there have always been book people and non-book people.

I think it’s also a reflection of change, young people don’t learn cursive writing, how to write a check, read the daily newspaper, watch the evening news, etc…

There are many things that were relevant to our parents and grandparents that are not important to us.
 
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Actually even me,being a book reading person, does not read it from cover to cover - I read it in small increments and take a week or so to finish it.
 
My kids started reading to my grandson on the first day he arrived home after he was born. He is six now and reads books. It starts young. @gruntlabor I want to read Faulkner's 'The Old People' on your recommendation. Tried to access it online, couldn't, will try through library. Thanks!
 
For @gruntlabor
," because after all you don'thave to continue to' bear what you believe is suffering; you can always stopthat. And even suffering and grievingis better than nothing; there is nothingworse than not being alive. But youcan't be alive forever, and you alwayswear out life before you have completelyexhausted the possibilities of living"

Beautiful story, thank you so much for introducing lyrics for my morning. Nice way to start the day, with Faulkner. I want to reread this story slower, and savor it again. Have a great day.
 
WhatInThe said:
Many current elite college students can't read a book. Most blamed on tech which has created a short attention span. Students aren't being taught how to read a book either. Problem also seen in AP English classes in high school. One teacher said AP students used to read 14 books a year now it's about 7.

Elite colleges shocked to discover students 'don't know how' to read books: 'My jaw dropped'

One student attending Columbia said she never had to read a book in high school
Click to expand...


I would find that shocking if I didn’t have a friend, living at my senior apartments, who has a Masters Degree, yet I have to explain to her what some written notices from Management are about …. and she doesn’t have dementia, still works, and is about 20 yrs. younger.
Really makes me wonder!
 
A lot of students are in developmental reading, writing and mathematics in community colleges. As a former community college math instructor, I saw many recent high school graduates needing work in basic arithmetic skills like fractions, decimals, and percents. There was a time when students needed to repeat courses or grades in elementary and middle school but those days are long gone. The latest trend in community colleges is to abandon and/or replace developmental math with “college level” courses that integrate (or eliminate) just enough developmental math to make it through the course - I don’t think this is a good model as the result is college graduates slipping through the cracks without the ability to convert back in forth between fractions, decimals, and percents.

The developmental math courses in community colleges were originally in place to provide refreshers for older adult students. As such, they were a valuable asset to community college education. They were not intended to teach a recent high school grad how to correctly add 1/2 + 1/3. I would imagine a similar trend is occurring in reading and writing.
 
Debrah N. said:
All of that is shocking! And how weird that at a time when we have the worlds information of every kind at our finger tips, so many seem to be getting dumber.
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Of all the people I worked with, I was the only one that used the web for research. Most everyone else used it for entertainment and passed along BS they saw on social media, without researching it first of course.
At lunch break, the room would be quiet with 50 people in it and nobody would know who was sitting next to them because everyone would be staring at their 800.00 smart phone. When they weren't staring at their phone, they were wondering how they were going to pay their bills.
I guess I won't blame the teachers or parents in a lot of cases because we can teach the younger generation to use their brains, but we can't force them to.
 
Packerjohn said:
As a former teacher, I never did agree with the concept of contentious passing of students from grade to grade. The idea was that if the students failed they would feel BAD!

OK! You can feel good that you have a high school education but you can't read a newspaper, understand the news nor carry on an meaningful conversation. Have no fear! The smart phone was invented just for you with lots and lots of videos with great music?????
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As a college student in 4 different colleges (don't ask), I ran into profs, who thought their subject was the most important one in the Universe, especially English profs. On Tuesday, the prof would assign a 400 page book to be discussed on Thursday, as if that was the only thing a student had to do. The other 5-6 profs from other disciplines assigned similar tasks. So, I can see why students balked at reading a 400 page book on "Oedipus The King' by Sophocles.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
As a college student in 4 different colleges (don't ask), I ran into profs, who thought their subject was the most important one in the Universe, especially English profs. On Tuesday, the prof would assign a 400 page book to be discussed on Thursday, as if that was the only thing a student had to do. The other 5-6 profs from other disciplines assigned similar tasks. So, I can see why students balked at reading a 400 page book on "Oedipus The King' by Sophocles.
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So, did you graduate ? "four different colleges " ? A serious question. JIM
 
Along with reading books in general in today's electronic world one doesn't even read a newspaper all the way thru because there are fewer purchased. When young I started reading sports, entertainment along with the big news stories. When I started working on breaks especially meal breaks I'd read them cover to cover just for something to do. But I did it as boring as it was. And learned or picked up a few things along the way.

Now if one is bored at lunch they just go to a different website. And that's why this issue is as much about attention span and doing something one might not like(the paper would be the only reading material available like it or not).
 
Pepper said:
My kids started reading to my grandson on the first day he arrived home after he was born. He is six now and reads books. It starts young. @gruntlabor I want to read Faulkner's 'The Old People' on your recommendation. Tried to access it online, couldn't, will try through library. Thanks!
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Pepper, my dad started reading to me very early. I have no memory of learning to read since he taught me so young.
 
College used to only allow students who showed the ability to read and understand at higher level than most.
But now that they've lowered the bar, they act like it's surprising that people aren't really college material.
 
stretch5881 said:
Of all the people I worked with, I was the only one that used the web for research. Most everyone else used it for entertainment and passed along BS they saw on social media, without researching it first of course.
At lunch break, the room would be quiet with 50 people in it and nobody would know who was sitting next to them because everyone would be staring at their 800.00 smart phone. When they weren't staring at their phone, they were wondering how they were going to pay their bills.
I guess I won't blame the teachers or parents in a lot of cases because we can teach the younger generation to use their brains, but we can't force them to.
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I think that indicates the failings of parents as well in that they've given their kids free access to the Internet far too earlier and the result is an addiction to social media and entertainments provided on it. I have heard though that there's a growing trend to not giving youngsters smart phones but for safety, only providing young people with a real basic phone that they can use to call home or text. No internet access.
 
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