A recent headline on the front page of the local Herald Palladium noted that experts do not understand why college graduates are more illiterate than ever. The article didn’t say what the experts were expert at studying, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with a list of reasons why students are becoming more and more illiterate.
I offer the following possibilities.
I believe television and now the Internet proliferate the idea that knowledge is dispensed in five to ten minute intervals, which are broken by commercials or pop-ups. This is distracting, to say the least. It also reduces the attention span of the audience, who now thinks that studying something for half an hour is an interminable length of time.
In addition, there is an attitude that learning has to be “fun.” The truth is learning is painful. It is repetitive and boring; and it challenges the most ardent student. As such, it is not Sesame Street. While I credit that program with introducing language and math concepts to a young audience, I believe the staccato tempo of the program could contribute to attention deficit disorder. And I feel for the kindergarten teacher who has to follow in those footsteps. He or she must be entertaining, quick, funny, and clever.
Then there is technology. A recent houseguest of ours, age 26, noted that she never attended a math class without a calculator. What happened to memorizing the multiplication table? I see a manifestation of this at the supermarket, when I can make change in my head faster than the check out clerk can do on a machine. So if the world’s electrical power is turned off, who has the greater chance of surviving?
More theories?
English grammar is not valued any more. When the majority of the population says “Him and me is going to the movies” or “Mom gave cookies to her and I” we’ve lost the battle against speaking correctly. Maybe some would say, “So what, as long as we understand what each other is saying.” Well, I prefer to think that intelligent people everywhere are distinguished by the language they use, which – in turn – suggests the knowledge they have. Which – in turn – supports their ability to govern themselves.
In the long run, if our college graduates’ skills are dumbed down, then it means our society at large will experience the same thing.
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