Spunky Homeschool

Pomp and Stupidity

Jan. 19, 2006 at 3:38 PM

Homeschooling

It's not just the students in public school that are being left behind but also our college graduates.  According to a new study many college grads can't handle many complex but common tasks associated with everyday life.

That means they could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

The results cut across three types of literacy: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents and having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips.

"It is kind of disturbing that a lot of folks are graduating with a degree and they're not going to be able to do those things," said Stephane Baldi, the study's director
at the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization.

In order to get a "higher education" it is assumed that they had the basics in their previous schooling. Apparently that's not a valid assumption any more. Of course the remedy for this lapse in learning is more government monitoring and oversight. At least that's the opinion of Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education,
"This sends a message that we should be monitoring this as a nation, and we don't do it," Finney said. "States have no idea about the knowledge and skills of their college graduates."
So now we'll have national testing for college grads. The state needs to make sure they we can balance a check book and price compare at the grocery store. They have only had 13 years to educate the general population (K-12) and they still don't know what they know!? And these are the people who want to teach my kids! I don't think so.

Hat tip: Spunky Jr.

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3 Comments and Trackbacks

posted by drewsfamilytx on Jan. 19, 2006 at 4:08 PM

Whether you go to public, private or home school...THAT is the job of parents!!!

Too bad it doesn't surprise me, though.

posted by spunkyhomeschool on Jan. 19, 2006 at 5:24 PM

Oh let's not complicate this by bringing in the parents. What do they have to do with their children knowing anything???? Isn't that what the schools are for? (extreme sarcasm in my voice.)

spunky

posted by iluvtheland on Jan. 19, 2006 at 10:18 PM

the colleges were when I helped tutor and proofread papers for students who went to college with my oldest son. Their writing skills were TERRIBLE!!! I am certain that I wrote better than that in about 4th or 5th grade, along with most of my classmates. I couldn't believe it.
Also found out that most could not do laundry, iron, cook, balance a check book, understand that the amount the bank said was in your account that day was not the same as your checkbook current balance (this one got tons of his friends in serious trouble), and so many other things that I can't even imagine my kids leaving home without knowing how to do....
Oh, my.... And the government thinks they can test for this better than they can test for academics? I think not...

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