Just...what.

[northwind_gale]

Quote taken from Mark Slouka's essay "Dehumanized" in...Harper's Magazine? I think that's where my teacher got it...

"...even though the inability of two thirds of our college graduates to read a text and draw rational inferences could be seen as..."

AMERICA. WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING YOUR STUDENTS? IF THEY CAN'T EVEN READ SOMETHING AND GET A BASIC IDEA OF WHAT THEY'RE SAYING...

I JUST...GOD.

B/

Comments

[digitalstarry.livejournal.com]

oh dear god

I would hate for them to try to analyze something like the Silent Hill series. They wouldn't probably be able to get about what the hell is wrong with James's head.

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Dear god is right. I just...

...ugh. I live in a country of imbeciles, apparently. I want to say that, but I'm sure someone out there is going to be offended by this.

But my faith in humanity finds itself slipping more every time I find shit like this.

...totally fucking using this quote in the essay I have to write on this.

[digitalstarry.livejournal.com]

lol

Can I see after you are done :D?

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Well, the essay isn't due until Friday, and we won't get it back until the Monday after. Meaning that I'll probably write the essay all on Thursday night/Friday morning and promptly forget about it. But yeah, go on.

If the article wasn't on Blackboard I'd link it to ya. It's an interesting essay, about how the sciences are being prioritized in the American University setting and the humanities are being left hung to dry, and what this could lead to for America. Maybe you could Google the title and author I gave you.

[digitalstarry.livejournal.com]

Awesome, I procrastinate myself XD;

I do have blackboard, but its not your blackboard D:

Ooooh sounds interesting, I'll note that~

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Yay~procrastinators!!! *high-fives all around!*

god, I hate Blackboard sometimes. I just...ugh.

It's a good read, whenever you have time. :D

[spinelsoup.livejournal.com]

Nope that pretty much sounds like your average Freshman to me.

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

I'd be fine if it said "freshman". But the quote says "graduates," which is just beyond me. If they come in with the reading comprehension of a freshman and leave with the reading comprehension of a freshman, then I'd question what the fuck was going on with their education. I don't give a damn about what improved in other shit, I want to know what the fuck happened to make you miss out on this core component.

[spinelsoup.livejournal.com]

XD I know, I know. I just couldn't resist the Frosh joke.

But yeah, the current state of the humanities and liberal arts in higher education is pretty crap in a lot of places. But then the hardest thing to teach someone is how to think, and a lot of college and high school kids just don't seems interested in learning it. Whadaya gonna do.

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

*does not know of this Frosh, fails*

And that's what the article I pulled this from is about, m'dear. I'd share it, but it's on my school's Blackboard, so, can't link it or anything. :/

[spinelsoup.livejournal.com]

Ah, Frosh = unflattering/endearing term for freshmen :P At least at my school.

What's a Blackboard?

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Ah. XD

It's kind of a school forum, where teachers and students can have discussions, chat, share documents, assignments, whatever. Colleges have their own individual Blackboard if they do have the program, so students/teachers can't interact with people outside their college. It's a closed network.

Unfortunately, it can be slow and laggy at points, and it's confusing at points, but all in all, it's convenient.

[pijsan.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Wow.

I just keep hearing more and more about how American education is the pits. :[
But I'm not surprised. D|

WE MUST DO SOMETHING.

...GO CRAZY, y/y?

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Going crazy seems like a good thing to me.

I mean, I'm a first generation American, and I feel like a danged fool next to me mom and dad, even though they don't have my big sparkly AH-MER-I-KAN ED-YU-MA-CA-SHUN. They, at least, know what the hell they're doing.

[rhodanum]

.... You know. I'm not entirely surprised by that quote. Or not as much as I probably should have been.

See, a former class-mate of mine moved to the US with her family (to Arizona, I think) and we kept in touch for a bit. Among the things she told me was the fact that she found all of her classes to be ridiculously easy and that as far as subject-matter and overall difficulty went, the kids over there were learning what we had learned here around four years earlier. I couldn't believe it at first, but she was hardly the kind to either lie or exaggerate her own intellectual capabilities -- in a sense, she appeared just as vexed as me.

I have no idea what the situation is in regards to colleges that aren't Ivy League institutions, but if what she told me about high-schools remains largely the same even in academia....

Now you've got me decidedly curious and I will have to track down this article and read it in full. Is is a recent issue of Harper's Magazine?

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my mom said that kind of things about her country's educational system too. My dad can figure things out quite well, even with his English not being perfect.

Yeah, earlier this year. I think...September's Issue?