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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The key terms are “regional Kansas universities.”[/quote]

There are a lot of kids at regional universities, in Kansas or elsewhere. And these are definitely not the worst group of students moving through higher ed -- 74th percentile or thereabouts is nothing to sneeze at.

The paper also pairs nicely with stories from Harvard et al about students unable or unwilling to read. Would be interesting to replicate, and see to what extent the more selective schools have also been selecting on the basis of ability to process complex text.

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I agree with this, and also with the critique that the study is not well-designed to establish what is claimed. I was taught to read Beowulf (in public school!) but I would not have been able to do that without guidance, and using the opening of “Bleak House” for this exercise is almost as intentionally obscurantist today as using “Beowulf” with no notice would have been 30 years ago.[/quote]

In some ways: yes. But that is the shocking thing, that Bleak House is as inaccessible as Beowulf now to most English majors, because they have not been scaffolded through how to read a moderately difficult book by an author who one would have expected to be ubiquitous in English literature courses those 30 years ago.

Incidentally, 30 years ago was when I read Bleak House.  It was one of the assigned texts, freshman year of high school.

[/quote]

Beowulf was inaccessible in HS English classes 30 years ago.  Kids were just forced to read and struggle through it and provided some scaffolded.  But most hated it.  And, many schools focused almost solely on the "classics" meaning many students had little to no concept of diverse writing and cultures outside of a geography/history class.[/quote]

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