this will only take a second....

And it's a good thing too. An article on MSNBC last week reports that there has been a decline in reading proficiency among college graduates over the past ten years. The article cites a report that indicates that only 31% of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate information from it.

Before I go any further with this, I would like to digress for a moment and point to the ever-increasing cost of a college education and apparently the ever decreasing value of said, and observe that perhaps a good vo-tech certification really is as good as gold.

Why, one might ask, are we falling behind in this very significant regard. First, I would ask if there is a demographic breakdown of the results of this study. Students from around the world come to the U.S. to pursue a higher education, I wonder if a sampling of foreign students was included in this study and how they generally fared as compared to domestic metriculators. That may seem trivial, but it might point to the root cause or causes of this situation. The deficiencies of American public education are well documented, though it is usually from a partisan perspective. If foreign graduates are performing at a significantly higher or lower level, a closer examination of their preperatory education might help in diagnosing any faults in our own system.

I wonder how much the growth o the internet and other popular media may have contributed to this development. At no other time in human history could a person get a briefing on as wide an array of subjects as one can today on Google's new page. But that is all one gets, a briefing, pretty much the equivelent of a commercial on some topic. We may know what is important, but we probably don't know why they are important, or what factors influence that level of importance. In addition to this, we are bombarded with information from all fronts, and we are also being queried for information from quite a few sources, (can you say 'spyware', 'data-mining', identity theft and 'homeland security'?). Even our entertainment often seeks to slant our views and thinking. By themselves, most of those things are not bad, but in combination, it is hard to keep ones mental footing on something real.

So, lets look at one popular conception of the college experience:






Are things coming together now?

Now, people of my general demographic will grin, as it was us that actually defined this era and gave rise and legitimacy to the image that is projected here. I can attest that during my first attempt at college, (and this was before the movie came out), the consumption of all manner of propellents was given priority above nearly all other pursuits, (the exceptions usually involving encounters with the opposite sex). We thought that we were entitled to sow our wild oats while we could, for a lot of reasons, and in doing so, many of us did only what was required to get by. Others, such as myself, were not as industrious, (hence my reference to a first attempt).

Let's fast forward a few years to the twenty-first century and check in with the best and brightest that are running the country now.

Are things falling into place now?

Apparently, our government, (actually, our bureaucracy), is moving to eliminate in some cases, and 'dumb down' in others, those reports that seem to cause some anxiety in our bureaucracy when assembled data does not match today's illusion of reality. The Daily Kos sees this from a conspiratorial angle, (and there is probably some truth there), but I have to wonder if it is because our leadership (and many of the rest of us) simply cannot digest large amounts of data, follow the drift of the reports and draw logical conclusions. After all, these are the good ol' boys (and girls) from the Animal House era. This really deserves some thought. As we attempt to shape the lives of our progeny, we really do need to evaluate things in terms of what will directly benefit them, and the society that they will live in.

Right now, I am going to watch a some more cartoons.