Literacy Matters

[akashiver]

Y'know, every so often I get annoyed by the "we don't have a problem with declining literacy" brigade. Fact is that literacy - at least on the college level at IU - is way below where it should be. I'm not talking about misplaced commas, here, but about a substantial portion of students not knowing sentence structure or the meanings of words. Worse, no matter how clear a sentence is, some of them just can't follow its meaning once it gets beyond a single phrase. (I was watching _Good Night and Good Luck_ last night and wondering how many Americans today would be able to follow the debate style of the 1950s.)

I've heard this blamed on the education system, on the rise of non-literate technologies, and on students in general. I don't know what the cause is. But reading and being able to interpret sentences accurately is not just an academic exercise. Witness the problems people have with Prescription Bottles".

Comments

[arcana-mundi.livejournal.com]

Gee, maybe if the composition courses taught students how to read and write instead of focusing on the loftier critical goals that might improve? You know. Just a thought. As university educators we can't control what happens before students get here and just go blaming everything on high schools. As much as it might be true that students ought to be better equipped before they get here, I'm equally appalled by the fact that college composition courses at IU don't teach the rudiments of writing (or correct assiduously for grammar and spelling), even when it's flamingly obvious that's what's needed in that class. Of course, you've heard me say all that before.

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

IU *could* always choose to make the grammar course the dept offers mandatory instead of (or in addition to) the research skills, essay organization and source-use course. It's not like there aren't courses out there that teach those skills - it's just that the students aren't required to take them.

[arcana-mundi.livejournal.com]

My mistake - I thought that W131 was "Elementary Composition."