Many current elite college students can't read a book

HoneyNut said:
Considering how much they spend on textbooks, hope they are at least reading them...

On average, students typically spend around $1,200 per year on textbooks and supplies, according to the College Board. Depending on your major, the average per book can be anywhere from $50 to $200.​
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Of course it has been a very long time, but I didn’t buy books, just spent a lot of time in the library. What is worse is the countless kids who graduate from high school unable to read.
 
I found this from a Google search, not sure of validity of source, but throwing it into the thread anyway. Apparently it is us old people who read the fewest books o_O

Book readers in the U.S. 2019-2021, by age group​

Published by
Oct 25, 2023
During a survey held in early 2021, it was found that 83 percent of adults aged between 18 and 29 years old had read a book in any format in the previous year, up by two percent from the share who said the same in 2019. The survey results showed that adults within this age category were more likely than older respondents to have read a book within the last twelve months.

Book readers in the U.S.​

While it is mostly believed that book reading is a vanishing pastime, particularly among Millennials, surveys among consumers in the U.S. have shown the opposite. The share of book readers in the U.S. has varied from 72 percent to 79 percent between 2011 and 2016.

In regards to age of book readers in the country, a 2016 survey shows about 80 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 to 29 had read at least one book in the previous 12 months, the highest share amongst all age groups.

About 73 percent of the respondents aged between 30 to 49 years old said they read at least one book in the last 12 months.

The share among respondents between 50 and 64 years old stood at 70 percent, whereas 67 percent of respondents aged 65 plus stated reading book during the time measured.

In terms of education level, book readers in the U.S. are more likely to have a college degree, or at least some college education – 86 percent and 81 percent respectively. Women in the U.S. read slightly more than men; 68 percent of male respondents started reading at least one book in the previous 12 months, against 77 percent of female respondents that said the same.

Despite the rise of digital platforms and the rising popularity of e-reading devices such as Kindle, Kobo and others, printed books still remain the most popular book format in the U.S., as 65 percent of Americans stated preference for printed books in 2016. E-books were consumed by 28 percent of respondents in 2016, whereas audio books were listened by 14 percent of the respondents. Millennials accounted for the largest share of printed book readers in the U.S. – 72 percent as of 2016.​
 

Muskrat said:
I could point out that parents and society push a bunch of kids into colleges that have absolutely no business being there. Used to be a tad more selective. That said…i knew a girl in my high school who really could not actually read. She graduated.
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I think a lot of kids come out of college dumber than they were when they went in. Four years of smoking pot and listening to Marxist professors drone on would rot anybody's brain. Good thing it only costs $80,000 per year.
 
During my brief and unhappy tenure in front of the classroom, I had 8th grade students who could not read at a 3rd grade level, yet I was expected to teach them Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Even prior to the advent of cell phones and social media, there were vast numbers of students who expected school to be an entirely passive process, and wanted to be entertained, not educated.

“Why do I have to do this?” was a common complaint. I think the turning point for me was when they started to light fires in their desks…
 
I went to junior high school with a kid that couldn’t read anything other than simple words like: the, and, so, be, etc. Any words with multiple letters he couldn’t read, but then his parents found out that he had some kind of retinal disease, which I can’t remember the name of it. He told us that it was some type of genetic disorder.
 
I'd be interested in knowing how many words a day are read by current college students compared to twenty five years ago. Aren't they reading while looking at their devises? Aren't they studying online instead of opening text books? Just because they're not reading physical books doesn't mean they're becoming illiterate.
 
For what it's worth, about 30 years ago, my town's jr. high school was transformed into a middle school. It was a time when the "middle school concept" was being pushed nationwide. This involved a great deal of curriculum change to accommodate the middle school philosophy, among other large changes as well. As a result, the daily reading class was eliminated from the curriculum in grades 6, 7, and 8. No one seemed to object, but I often wondered about the wisdom of that. It was never discussed. It just came down from above, and reading as an actual subject was eliminated. I figured some group of experts decided it wasn't necessary.
 
Can't read, can't write, can't use punctuation, can't communicate with those around them, can't count change, can't tell time on an analog clock, and can't figure out their finances. Many don't even think like us.
Not all are like that of course. But watching the kids today, I'm surprised more don't walk into a post.
The method of doing simple math seems to change every generation. A parent can't even help their 3rd grade child with their math homework.
Those are our future leaders.
Todays leaders would like microchip factories built here so we don't have to suffer another chip shortage. The countries that have the chip factories say that Americans are too stupid to work in chip factories.
 
stretch5881 said:
Todays leaders would like microchip factories built here so we don't have to suffer another chip shortage. The countries that have the chip factories say that Americans are too stupid to work in chip factories.
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Yeh, this is the day and age where many can't even change a flat tire on a car.

The most telling was that AP high school students reading is about half of what it was decades ago.

Years ago when I saw people reading books on a tablet like they're cool or something I knew we were in trouble because if one needs the incentive of more expensive tech to simply read they don't care about reading.
 
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fuzzybuddy said:
Is the Atlantic article filled with data, numbers, graphs, or is just a couple of profs voicing opinions?
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I really don’t know. I don’t read any political propaganda. I use other sources to get my information from before I make my choices to vote. I watch very little TV. Maybe part of a baseball or football game and a WNBA game that Caitlin Clark is playing in. She is amazing. Better than a lot of men in the NBA. Look at some of her games on YouTube.
 
Tersely..the US could still support chip factories as they originally dominated the rest of the world doing for several decades. The problem is, Wall Street and financial bean counters types became very envious of how tech industries supplanted all the old industry powers.

So increasingly moved into Silicon Valley themselves taking over corps and putting their Ivy League elites into HR departments.

These late comers that didn't create that tech, off shored, outsourced, and technology transferred our tech to highest bidders in the rest of the world, screwing all those who created it and the prosperous American public.

Originally, the foreign offshore corps Wall Street sold our tech to, used lower wages to unfairly compete but as soon as their US competition crumbled, jacked up costs. In the process, we lost control of much manufacturing engineering and with it ability to work with technology.

Much of our manufacturing closed while Wall Street fat cat types became rich. With money chasing those wealthy, inflation followed them creating the wage gap to the level, tech domestic corps could no longer hire workers at pay levels to compete.

Our universities taught myriad wealthy foreigners how to do what we used to do further screwing the American public. Wall Street outsourced to Asia much of our high paying computer software jobs that experts had for decades encouraged young people to get into. A huge lie. American young folks no longer had incentive to go into technology careers.
 
I have seen and heard, and read of teachers covered in tattoos, teachers speaking passionately of their political ideologies, and teachers stalking and harassing politicians they disapprove of. They no longer like the word 'teacher' very much, they prefer 'educator'.
 
AnnieA said:
You can always tell the bias blinder people when a source is made the focus instead of content.
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I think when a headline or comment involves sweeping generalizations is where my radar bings. Sensational generalizations are a way to get clicks. The bias blinder comes from all perspectives, even the arguments against the bias become bias, with sweeping generalizations. Are we aware of that?
 
In Germany this is not a new problem. Shortly after the year 2000 I was working as a freelancer for a local newspaper. I interviewed a headmaster of a high school. He told me that he knows quite a few students who were "functional analphabets", as he named them, only capable to read pictograms. I think that he exxagerated this a bit, but approximately he could have been right.

Mobiles teach students nothing, only maybe how to use some emoticons.
The German brain scientist Manfred Spitzer wrote a book "Digitale Demenz" (digital dementia). He stated that the increased use of digital media causes mental deficits. Children and young people who use digital media early and frequently do not achieve the IQ that other children attain.

As I was a young child, often my father was reading Grimm's fairytales at my bed before I had go to sleep. As soon as I could read I read them by myself and of course other children's books. I doubt that most children of today get accustomed to books.
 
I find this hard to believe, considering the number of new authors trying their hand at writing novels. The book store in my town can hardly keep the shelves stocked.
 
Paco Dennis said:
I think when a headline or comment involves sweeping generalizations is where my radar bings. Sensational generalizations are a way to get clicks. The bias blinder comes from all perspectives, even the arguments against the bias become bias, with sweeping generalizations. Are we aware of that?
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All dogs like rib steaks, preferably raw, but I'm just kidding, Paco.
 

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