Every generation is worse than the one before it. At least, according to every educational article ever. Either Americans are getting worse at every subject, or the rest of the world is pulling themselves out from below a country trying too hard to please everyone. The big hero fails and the small countries of the world rise.
However, what if it is the culture of America that is actually holding the nation back. Stuck in a rut and pushing a system down the throats of uninterested and disconnected youth, American culture won’t admit that it is the poor expectations that are causing the problems instead of the youth themselves. Scapegoat appears! Television, technology, ideology, minorities, spell check, educational failure, and parents can all share the blame for this poor performance depending on the author’s views. Strong literacy skills aren’t needed anymore, and the gears of the government spitting out the call for literacy are simply coated in old residue.
Johnny can write, not well, but Johnny can do more than write. He can think. In a world dominated by ingenuity, Johnny just jumped to the front of the career line. High ceilings. Writing isn’t as important anymore, our youth don’t have to be poets showing masterful command of the English language because they produce matter and not art. Strong writing command, the real careers don’t require it, some careers can work around it, and the minimum wage careers don’t need it. Literacy shouldn’t be measured by reading ability or writing ability. Literacy should be measured by depth of thought, that, and the ability to string together a sentence so that the average reader can pull the gist of it from the ugly sentence Johnny just threw together Frankenstein style.
First, LOL…”At least, according to every educational article ever,” and “Literacy should be measured by […] the ability to string together a sentence so that the average reader can pull the gist of it from the ugly sentence Johnny just threw together Frankenstein style.” Second, I absolutely love the point you are making and I completely agree. It is something that I actually never really considered, but you bring up something really interesting. Authors are constantly so critical about our literacy levels, and they are so quick to place the blame on the educators, the education system or the learners themselves. As you are saying, people need to take a step back and realize that maybe, just possibly, it is our culture that is encouraging youth to not try. The learning youth realize that they have every resource available to them at the click of a button, any button, and they will have the answers they need without even needing to put forth effort. Therefore, reading and writing doesn’t necessarily take effort, and literacy shouldn’t be measured by this ability, as you state. I agree. Literacy needs to be more than that because understand and comprehension is so much more than reading and writing, actually reading and writing could be completely irrelevant to understanding and comprehension. Just because someone can read and write doesn’t mean they are learning a single thing.
Kristie Teorsky
I think you bring up a really interesting point about how literacy should be a measure of depth of thought and ability to convey ideas instead of simply being a measure of how much one can read and/ or write. Critical thinking and transmitting and understanding ideas are definitely emphasized more in our society, but I feel like all of these concepts already take writing and reading as a given. It is assumed that everyone can read and write to levels that correspond to the extent of their education, so that people who graduated college are considered to have greater literacy when compared to those who graduated only from high school. I agree with you about how the education system and especially technology are used as a scapegoat to explain failing grades. This article, however, seems to be describing a situation that doesn’t seem quite as prevalent anymore. While literacy expectations have increased, like previously discussed, literacy levels in students have also increased. These expectations now include comprehension like you and kristieteorsky mention. While it may seem that this takes precedence over reading and writing, I can’t agree that it is no longer important or necessary. I think that it is more important now than it was in the past because of the stringent standards that society and employers judge potential candidates.
I’m really stuck on this topic of measuring literacy. The more we read in this class, the more I want to get rid of all literacy tests. I just can’t figure out why we have them if every year the amount of people able to pass them decreases. I don’t even think I would be able to pass the test, and I’ve been reading and writing for ever. My aim was to go into education, but now it all feels hopeless. I’m apparently not going to be able to teach kids anything anyway.
And when they question how college graduates can have the same skills as previous high school graduates, I have to question whether it is necessary to make a college degree mandatory? If we can teach the same skills in high school, because we have, then why are we making people spend thousands of dollars to get a “better” education if it’s not actually better?
I really like the idea you bring up with saying that it’s the depth of thought that matters. As you may have heard me complain in class, I am a very big fan of talking to people face-to-face vs. writing to someone. I feel like with writing it’s so much harder to get a point across because you’re missing out on all the non-verbal cues. However, as much as it might bug me, I believe that writing is still very important and people do deserve some judgement based on it. While I know that I could probably nail an interview if I got one, I would never get the chance if my resume looked like a second grader put it together. It’s a shame that writing, for some, has become this wall between their true selves, but in this day and age there’s simply no way around it.
While I agree that Literacy has changed and must be adapted to our societal views on what is the “standard”, I’m not sure I fully understand the “matter and not art” opinion you discuss. Yes, plenty of careers require little insight or thought, it is those other careers, the ones who require the best and most inventive styles that further develop our societies. Being able to express beautifully composed ideas and insights is what leaders desire to impact the world. While it is not possible for everyone in a society to attain these positions (like telling every child they will become president one day) it is still important to facilitate those who will. I think it is an interesting time in our society right now. For many years before our generation it seemed that jobs followed a “cookie-cutter” style, where expectations ruled, and everyone followed what was put in front of them. I would like to say that we have developed a little further and began to question, and deviate from the standard to make our own rules in the development of our literacy. It may be a failure due to immaturity, but it could possible define a new era of literacy. One thing is for certain however: we cannot be judged by the old rules anymore.
“Matter not art” — Relates to a famous Shakespeare line. Essentially what it means is that you can spend the time beating around the bush, describing the emotions that are flowing though your veins and the cold air brushing against your ears causing your hair to whip about almost like a mane. Only to be flanked by the thought, that all you needed to say was “It was windy”. Short, sweet and to the point. When the expectations are only “did the writer get the facts down”, instead of “how did he go about using his command of writing to reciprocate the facts?” then it is clear where this phrase takes place.
It doesn’t indicate low levels of thought, it simply gets from point A to point B in a quick fashion. Everyday writing doesn’t have to be poster worthy.