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

[unforth.livejournal.com]

I hadn't fully thought of it that way...I'll concede the point. I was partially joking on that count anyway; I find it tragic that people aren't well enough educated to be able to do something which, to me, is ridiculously simple. I dunno. And it is certainly the case that too often, doctors and nurses are too busy to be able to help everyone as much as they might need (not to imply anything disparaging on the doctors and nurses - quite the contrary, they are very overworked from what little I've seen in my visits to hospitals and the like...)