[Leica] declining quality of writing

[jls at runbox.com (Jeffery Smith)]

I attended UC Davis in the summer of 1971. My undergraduate education
was in San Diego. I now very much appreciate the public education I
received in California. It was normal to get ACT scores of 24 in CA,
while the average ACT score of our students in New Orleans is 16. We
have open admissions and do admit all students with a high school
degree. Regrettably, some with a high school degree cannot read or write
above the 3rd grade level. In California, if your kid was dumb, you sent
him to Catholic school where they wouldn't flunk him. Out here, they
won't flunk you in public school, so if you can, you send your kid to a
Catholic school so he'll actually learn.

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Adam
Bridge
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 3:17 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] declining quality of writing

My engineering education dates from the early 1980s, but at UC Davis
at least writing reports, GOOD reports that people could understand
and which were literate, was a part of the general engineering
curriculum that all engineers were required to take.

The University also had entrance tests to discern who could actually
write an essay in English that someone might, should they read it,
have a shot at understanding. I used to carpool with one of the
specialists who taught that course and the amount of understanding she
brought to her course was well beyond what a vast majority of the
engineering faculty had at their disposal.

Teaching writing and composition is a specialized field, just like
teaching circuit design, chemistry or any other field. It seems
natural to me to let those who studied how to do it actually do the
job they studied for.

On the other hand the demand for well-written reports and essays in
the sciences and in engineering seems even more crucial now than it
ever has. But in an era where some elementary curricula are designed
around using Power Point (shuddering) I wonder how well we're going to
be doing a decade from now.

Adam

On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 14:32:08 -0500, Jeffery Smith <jls@runbox.com>
wrote:
> 
> I have tried to push "writing across the curriculum" at three
different
> colleges, and each attempt has invoked cries of "academic freedom"
being
> violated. The invention of the scantron hasn't helped our cause
either.
> 
> Jeffery Smith
> New Orleans, LA
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