[Leica] declining quality now why are these illiterates

[lea at whinydogpress.com (lea)]

I'm not suprised people can't write well; have you ever listened to some
of the radio call-in shows? Many people can't SPEAK well.

Lea

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Stoesz" <mstoesz@wyoming.com>
To: <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 7:49 AM
Subject: RE: [Leica] declining quality now why are these illiterates


> 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
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