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

[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?