We frequently talk about how the standards for college education and expectations we have of college-level students have both dropped drastically, even in the past few years.
Maybe the public school system I went through was just especially good, but by the end of middle school, I emerged knowing more than a number of students I had in the course I taught this summer.
In this student-as-customer “service industry” that more and more universities are espousing, what will the consequences be when all these sub-par snowflakes enter the work force?
The fact is, it translates. I worked at a mental health facility between undergrad and grad school. There, I saw reports written by Master’s-level clinicians that were rife with spelling errors, misuse of words, and grammatical slop. How deep must the flaws in our educational system be when an individual with no less than 6 years of post-high school education can’t form a cogent patient report?
During grad school, I’ve had the opportunity to work (well, volunteer is more like it) in a professional business setting. As part of this work, I also have to read reports written by these professionals—college grads who have gone to an additional three years of training. Again, basic errors in spelling and punctuation abound. Incomplete sentences that a simple proofreading should have detected.
As I read these reports, I wonder How the hell did these people get through undergrad, let alone graduate/professional school?
Then, the other day, I had a disturbing thought. Maybe other people don’t even notice that the work is poor. Because when you begin allowing more and more students to graduate with educational standards this low, pretty soon there won’t be many people left who know what good, decent work is supposed to look like.
I am so right there with you. For years and years, I've been saying that my students write at the 7th grade level. Then I found out that our state standards for graduating from high school are that you write at the 7th grade level (so a middle school teacher told me).
ReplyDeleteWhen did Kindergarten become first grade, but high school became middle school?
And there are still people writing articles claiming that most jobs only need a high school diploma (no college), yet most contemporary HS grads are incapable of HS-level work!
ReplyDeleteThis phenomenon should also explain why the educated and intelligent (not the same) are derided in the US -- for a decade or two, anyone could get through the gate, capture jobs in the expanding market for degreed individuals, and then completely devalue the criteria that were actually needed for the job.
For evidence, look to college administration and the plethora of MBAs in high-ranking positions. Where are the serious scholars at most schools? Not in admin, that's for sure.
Also, look to school districts, secondary and primary schools headed by EdDs, diploma mill grads, and people who have barely taught a class in their lives. They are some of the most anti-intellectual, anti-education people I have ever seen. Yet they are in charge of making sure the next generation isn't full of complete dumb-asses. Too late!
The trends are clear for the knowledgeable to see.
Eventually, there will be so many lazy, illiterate people that proper spelling and grammar are ridiculed as being incorrect.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the problem is made worse by certain attitudes by those working in the system.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was an undergrad in engineering in the mid-1970s, we were expected to adhere to certain standards. Part of that was to teach us discipline and neatness but it also gave us an idea what we might encounter in industry. After all, there's no point in getting the right answer to a problem when someone else can't figure it out because it's illegible.
By the time I returned to grad school a few years later, I already noticed that sloppiness was considered acceptable by some profs as standards I had become accustomed to weren't being enforced.
The situation had become hopeless by the time I began my Ph. D. residency about a dozen years ago. I was a TA for profs who couldn't be bothered to impose any standards whatsoever. The quality of the work I had to grade was, simply, embarrassing.
One prof told me, "If they haven't had any of that by now, I'm not about to start." Another was more concerned that if she did, she'd get bad student evaluations.
Neither of them had ever worked in industry. They could get away with that because they had the magic letters behind their names at the time and I didn't, so I guess they weren't going to take the advice from someone who outranked them professionally.
Still, that's no excuse.
Maybe other people don’t even notice that the work is poor.
ReplyDeleteThis seems obvious: part of incompetence is not knowing that you're incompetent.
This is backed up by studies (of which I have read popular accounts) that truly incompetent people rate their own skills higher than semi-competent people rate their own skills.
"Incomplete sentences that a simple proofreading should have detected." is an incomplete sentence.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll forgive you.
Having graded "college-level" writing--at an elite school, no less--I'm equally blown away by lack of basic skills. More than half the class doesn't know the difference between "its" and "it's"? Um, we learned that in third grade. Are they not learning that in third grade now?
I always assumed that grammatical knowledge was cumulative. They told us about "they're" and "their" and "there" in elementary school, and then we didn't confuse the three afterwards. But I guess some people needed to be told, year after year, the difference--and no amount of practice would embed these things in their minds.
What I can't figure out is if this is a generational thing (Interwebs = OMG!!1) or something that's always been going on, and this is the first time I'm seeing it.
Then again, growing up, I never found grammatical/spelling/proofreading errors in, say, nationally published books. Now I see them often. Maybe it is getting worse.
My baby's first book will be Strunk & White.
Ruby said, "Then again, growing up, I never found grammatical/spelling/proofreading errors in, say, nationally published books. Now I see them often. Maybe it is getting worse."
ReplyDeleteIt's getting worse because publishers and journalism outlets used to actually hire proofreaders whose sole job was to make sure everything looked was professional and correct.
Now it's a job of an already overworked editor. And the only proofreaders jobs I have seen pay ~$10 an hour. These used to be typical first jobs for English majors and other college grads with good writing skills.
As said a few times above, people got in charge who thought this wasn't a necessary job, the job wasn't valued, and now we're surrounded by functional illiteracy. Welcum 2 teh fyoocher -- The other day I saw a commercial for a national brand with it's/its wrong.
The other day I saw a commercial for a national brand with it's/its wrong.
ReplyDeleteI can beat that. I saw a professionally-painted sign for <business name> that said, and I quote, "You just past <business name>." Somebody painted that, somebody let it go out the door, and somebody from <business name> allowed it to be set up in public.
Eventually it was fixed, but damn...
"Eventually, there will be so many lazy, illiterate people that proper spelling and grammar are ridiculed as being incorrect."
ReplyDeleteUh, Ben ... we're already there!
Just visit any current event bulletin board or comment section for a newspaper.
The incoherent drivel that many people post is bad enough. But if anyone has the temerity to point out that, say, government has an "N" in it or "there" and "their" are do NOT mean the same thing ... THAT person is often set upon by the group as an elitist who KNOWS what the illiterate poster meant.
Pre-dating all this, I was criticized by co-workers as sounding too much like "Frasier" because of my grammatically correct speech and vast and varied vocabulary.
Where was I working?
At a small health publisher!
"Incomplete sentences that a simple proofreading should have detected." is an incomplete sentence.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll forgive you.
Ruby, when I wrote an incomplete sentence about incomplete sentences, I was being ironic.
A local business went under after a squabble between the joint owners over finances. Once it was closed, one of the owners spray painted a message over the business placard: "WE DON'T PAY ARE TAXES!"
ReplyDeleteThe really scary thing is that most people I complained to about this (it REALLY bothered me) in town had not noticed the error.
Ruby from Richmond:
ReplyDeleteAmen to everything you said...except for the last reference. From parent to future parent, please do not risk misleading your child with the parochial, anachronistic rubbish that is Strunk and White. The Elements of Style does work, but only as a beverage coaster.
I once saw an ad on television that went through four separate iterations before they actually got it right.
ReplyDelete