The New York Times today published an article about the significant decline of literacy among college graduates over the past 10 years. How depressing is that?
First thing that comes to mind is, how is that at all possible - college graduates, illiterate? And what exactly does that mean? Well, the report - put together by the Department of Education based on the outcome of their National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - gauges the ability of those graduates to read "lengthy, complex English texts and draw complicated inferences".
For the sake of fairness, I decided to check this test on my own. Who knows, maybe they are using something out of James Joyce for text analysis and that could explain why the average college graduate could not really excel at reading comprehension (although I would love them to, in my obvious naïveté). So here is what I found: a sample question from the 1992 NAAL test which basically asked those tested to identify three food sources, named in the text below, that contain vitamin E:
Very sad indeed that a fairly high percentage of college graduates in this country were not be able to get that one right...
But can't say that I am surprised - everyday at work and elsewhere I am confronted with the sheer inability of people to spell, form accurate sentences, talk, comprehend text and follow conversation of any variety. And I wonder if the problem goes deeper than literacy itself: it seems to me that what's lacking here is some basic grasp of logical reasoning and interest in learning and knowledge in general. After all, it is a tough competition - between TV reality shows, video games and MTV, young Americans have little time for reading. And reading is the basis for literacy.
And yet another scary thought: college graduates with poor-to-average literacy becoming teachers one day, leading more young people into the vicious cycle of mediocrity.
The article also points out that a very harsh decline was observed for Hispanics, which could be attributed to the shift in immigration patterns during the last decade. It appears that these immigrants are arriving at a later age than the group previously tested, and since their numbers grew so much over the years, they also remain enclosed in Spanish-speaking areas and speak English only when absolutely necessary.
In contrast, the black population seems to be emerging from its underdog status in educational terms, and Asians also showed significant improvement in their literacy levels. However, Hispanics face different obstacles - for starters, language and cultural barrier, and legality issues. And unless the Hispanic community, the Deparment of Education and the American government work together to address these issues and more, chances are literacy among college graduates in another 10 years will be even lower than it is right now.
3 comments:
so what i say let them stay stupid
I think this is attributable to the fall of phonics in reading education. If you know what sounds letters and combinations of letters make you can usually spell. Most people from my generation (boomer) on were taught word recognition and spelling by rote. Once you forget the memorized spelling it is difficult to reconstruct it. In addition it is difficult to deal with unfamiliar words.
You might be interested in John Taylor Gatto’s work. Since I’m HTML illiterate the link in spelling is: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
Chefranden -
Thanks for the comment and the visit, I appreciate any contribution to my little blog here... I will check John Taylor Gatto's website out as well.
As far as the fall of phonics, that surely is part of it. But frankly, it all begins with reading. If quality reading is not a part of someone's life, then chances are that person will be at a disadvantage in terms of vocabulary.
And think about it - even if you don't know a particular word but at the same time your vocabulary is solid and extensive, you can always use good judgment. You associate this word with others that share the same root and so forth. Again, without reading, not a chance.
Hope to see you here again!
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