[Leica] declining quality now why are these illiterates

[mstoesz at wyoming.com (Mike Stoesz)]

Good morning;

I was discussing this issue with my spouse and she has kindly offered 
to help (for a fee) those students who need writing or editing help or 
instruction.  Jeny has a PHD in Fine Arts Education, Masters in 
Curriculum & Inst. and BA in Psychology.  She has taught arts and 
writing to students from K-12 through graduate school, and tutored 
athletes who are at the university with less than an adequate 
prepatory education. 

Jeny is strongly against open admissions policies at colleges and 
universities and feels admitted students should have a basic and 
competent knowledge of language and writing to be admitted.  It should 
not be the responsibility of professors/teachers in specialities to 
provide a gounding in basic reading/writing/math/science skills to 
students at college level. She related it to trying to teach 
commercial photography to someone who has never picked up or used a 
camera.  She does workshops in integrating the arts (art, music, 
theatre, dance) in classrooms to teachers who have never experienced 
an art form! (She also knows how to document a situation with 
photography/video).

Jeny Stoesz can be reached via email at: jstoesz at wyoming.com




Don said:

Sorry for the rant, but if these 18 year olds are being admitted to
university; shouldn't they be able to string a few words together
coherently?

Perhaps it wouldn't be too much to require basic communication 
abilities
before admission. My mother taught at the graduate level and every
semester flunked out a few who couldn't/wouldn't write the required
papers in the format provided the first session. I can still hear her
on the phone to the Provost explaining that if a student could not
follow a basic style requirement at the graduate level she saw no 
reason
to provide a passing grade, and explaining it again, and again.

Don
dorysrus@mindspring.com

Adam said:

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

Jeffery said:
  
> 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
_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group