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 Education
Opens Our Eyes to Enlightenment
Nancy Salvato
May 10, 2004 |
I recently received a letter from an
extremely high ranking official in the Bush administration thanking me for a
great article on literacy. I was so pleased by the event that I decided to
get in touch with a former history professor, whose class I was fortunate to
have enrolled in during my undergraduate years while I attended Loyola
University. I wrote to thank him for taking the time to sit down with me one
day and teach me how to write an extended answer for questions on a history
exam. At that time, he had sensed that I studied pretty hard for his test
but he realized I was having trouble expressing my knowledge in written
form. It didn’t take but half an hour for him to explain what I needed to do
to improve my overall prose.
He was pleased to hear from me, but expressed great dissatisfaction with the
turn of events in the History program at my alma mater. He said that the
department was no longer as committed to holding students to high writing
standards. It is something that many of the professors are unhappy about. I
decided to question him further about this situation. I wondered if today’s
college curriculums are as rigorous as they were 25 years ago or if they’ve
changed? Although I was disappointed, I wasn’t surprised when he told me
that the degree programs are not as difficult.
Several factors have led to their decline; however he couldn’t describe a
sequence of events or determine precisely the cause-effect relationship
between them. His opinion is that "the students certainly resist a
"rigorous” program and this resistance may be due to their lack of
preparedness for any kind of demanding courses. Secondly, faculty members
have given up on their students – they cannot teach their discipline at the
level they feel it should be taught. Thirdly, their college or university
does not place a high priority on "rigor.” The institution of higher
learning gets more mileage out of courses that study current fads rather
than traditional fields of learning. Fourth, there is a greater emphasis on
publication and this takes the focus away from teaching. And lastly, "rigor”
does not generate revenue.
Loyola has been particularly focused on this last subject (losing revenue)
because they could not afford to lose students. Unfortunately, this
sometimes occurs when students upon entering college, are shocked at their
workload and end up switching majors because of the varied expectations of
different degree programs. He believes, "some 20 to 30% of freshmen switch
their major during or immediately after their freshman year.” It is his
understanding that this is a common occurrence at most colleges.
In an article entitled, Study Finds High School Diploma Is Largely
Meaningless, it was determined that when today’s employers consider high
school diplomas, they are viewed solely as proof that 18-year-olds attended
school. They have adopted this outlook probably because according to a
two-year review of education in five states, more than half of high school
graduates need remedial classes in college. Furthermore, most who attend
college never obtain a four-year degree. When asked to rate their ability,
high school graduates earned "fair" or "poor" on basic skills by their
employers. Clearly they are not mastering spelling and grammar,
communications skills, writing, research and logic. Their diplomas no longer
guarantee their ability to read and interpret documents with technical
material, to view the media critically and to understand and analyze
literature.
I asked my former professor if it could be argued that because elementary
and high school teachers are told to meet the needs of the student and
accommodate their multiple intelligences, it contributes to them being
unable to comply with traditional learning tasks such as reading and writing
independently or being self motivated when they enter college or the job
market. Not only did he agree with this idea, he said that the shock,
intellectually speaking is tremendous and that some never make the
transition.
Students who eventually graduate do not necessarily read and write at a
level that will permit them to function in society. They enter the college
without these skills and accommodations and are allowed to leave college
without the ability to express themselves formally in the written and oral
language.
Will Fitzhugh, editor of the Concord Review, http://www.tcr.org/ discovered
that very few high schools require their students to write research papers
in history. Some excuses for this state of affairs are that there is a
greater focus on creative writing. Also, teachers experience a large amount
plagiarism and perceive this problem as getting larger as the number of
pages assigned increases. The focus on technology has led many teachers to
encourage or accept PowerPoint presentations in lieu of term papers.
Finally, there is a considerable lack of time available when it comes to
meeting with students to plan papers or to read them carefully when they are
completed.
Mr. Fitzhugh has noticed a notable absence of concern for term papers in
virtually all the work on state standards. This produces a situation in
which far too many high school students never get the chance to do the
reading or the writing that a serious history paper requires. As a result,
students enter college with no experience in writing papers, to the
continual frustration of their professors. Employers who hire them after
college – "the Ford Motor Co., for example – have had to institute writing
classes to ensure that they can produce readable reports, memos, and the
like.”
I find it very disheartening that at Loyola, many of today's history majors
are not well versed in the basics of U.S. History. They do not necessarily
leave school with an appreciation for the sacrifices the founders made to
form this country. They do not necessarily understand the Judeo/Christian
philosophy on which the framers based our constitution. Most are unaware of
how the current emphasis on multiculturalism and political correctness
affects their education.
I take issue with the idea that, according to my former professor, except
the most curious student, history majors do not relate their knowledge of
the past to current events. They did concern themselves with these things
when there was a compulsory draft and they might be a party to some of these
events. They do not wholly understand that our society is the beneficiary of
freedom guaranteed by a republican style government and a capitalist
economy. It is inconceivable that some or all of the following words are not
in their vocabulary: "republican,” "capitalist,” "socialism,” or
"oligarchy.” He concedes that they might know these terms if they were
majoring in political science or international relations.
The framers of our Constitution understood the necessity of educating our
citizenry so that they can participate in the politics of our country. In
today’s current political climate we must understand the consequences that
we will be likely to face if we accept the appeasement policies of Western
Europe and certain factions in our own country, in contrast to supporting
the war on terror being waged by our elected government and allies.
The job of the student is to learn and it is the responsibility of the
schools to assure that generations of Americans can understand and defend
the principles on which our country was founded. Regardless of their
politics, every citizen needs to be able to make informed decisions
regarding our country. They must be able to communicate their reasons. They
cannot do either if they do not receive a proper education.
Study Finds High School Diploma Is Largely
Meaningless
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2004/apr04/diploma.html
The State of the Term Paper: Will Standards Framers’ Neglect Be A Factor In
Its Demise?
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2004/apr04/term-paper.html
Nancy Salvato is a middle school teacher in Illinois and an independent
contractor for Prism Educational Consulting. She is the Educational Liaison
to IL Sen. Ray Soden and she works with national and local organizations
furthering the cause of Civic Education. She is a columnist for American
Daily, The Common Voice, GOP-USA, OpinionEditorials and The New Media Journal.us. Her
writing has been recognized by the US Secretary of Education. She has been published in
The Washington Times, The Washington Dispatch,
Iconoclast, Free Republic Network & Townhall.com., as well as other
nationally and internationally published media outlets.
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