Make It Easy II

I just read an interesting article on msnbc.com (What is the worth of words? by Michael Rogers) which starts:

"Educational doomsayers are again up in arms at a new adult literacy study showing that less than 5 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it.

The obsessive measurement of long-form literacy is once more being used to flail an education trend that is in fact going in just the right direction. Today’s young people are not able to read and understand long stretches of text simply because in most cases they won’t ever need to do so."

Ah, the "why do I need to learn algebra if I will never use it?" argument used by countless school-age children as they try to get out of doing math homework. Mr. Rogers goes on to describe who needs to read, who doesn't need to read, and why, but I think he misses a much larger point--America is starting to really embrace the easy path. It use to be that as a nation our motto was: "If the going gets tough, the tough get going." Today, our motto seems to be: "If the going gets tough, find an easier path." We have seen this before, this tendency to make the task easier rather then the student stronger or smarter, and I think that it is as bad an idea as any I have seen.

For the record I disagree with anyone who wants to go the routes described by Mr. Rogers and others--we must find better ways to teach our kids the fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. The rest of the world is starting to pass us by and we cannot hope to compete in the world marketplace if the majority of our population is functionally illiterate. It is our duty not to squander our God-given intelligence by giving-in to this "make it easier" trend.

We need to keep looking for a way to better teach our kids, not just make it easier.

Dolor

Tags: rant, education, literacy