Anonymous wrote:I am curious how many of the parents lamenting the easy As handed out in high schools would actually freak out if their kids came home with Bs and Cs.

Anonymous wrote:I am curious how many of the parents lamenting the easy As handed out in high schools would actually freak out if their kids came home with Bs and Cs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

Students at elite universities such as Columbia are showing up to campus unable to read books. They've only read excerpts their entire school career. Many also struggle to write effectively. In response, many Columbia teachers have to water down the curriculum.

No surprise, it is one of the reasons Gen Z can’t keep a job. Sure they have punched all the right tickets to get into top schools who have dumbed down the education and passed them off to employers with high GPAs by just giving out As. Clearly Columbia and all of the other “prestigious” schools could not have admitted anyone who wasn’t the best of the best.

Get back to teaching core subjects in K-12, have kids do homework, go back to a grading scale where C is average. Bust the teachers unions and bring discipline back to the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

Students at elite universities such as Columbia are showing up to campus unable to read books. They've only read excerpts their entire school career. Many also struggle to write effectively. In response, many Columbia teachers have to water down the curriculum.

No surprise, it is one of the reasons Gen Z can’t keep a job. Sure they have punched all the right tickets to get into top schools who have dumbed down the education and passed them off to employers with high GPAs by just giving out As. Clearly Columbia and all of the other “prestigious” schools could not have admitted anyone who wasn’t the best of the best.

Get back to teaching core subjects in K-12, have kids do homework, go back to a grading scale where C is average. Bust the teachers unions and bring discipline back to the classroom.

How is it that the unemployment rate is 4.1% yet GenZ can’t keep a job? GenZ is 27% of the workforce…so clearly a large %age seem to keep a job.

No to mention nearly 60% of 18 year olds don’t ever go to college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. Despite its length, W&P is much easier than M&M. Tolstoy uses fairly simple vocabulary and sentence structure.

M&M?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

Students at elite universities such as Columbia are showing up to campus unable to read books. They've only read excerpts their entire school career. Many also struggle to write effectively. In response, many Columbia teachers have to water down the curriculum.

No surprise, it is one of the reasons Gen Z can’t keep a job. Sure they have punched all the right tickets to get into top schools who have dumbed down the education and passed them off to employers with high GPAs by just giving out As. Clearly Columbia and all of the other “prestigious” schools could not have admitted anyone who wasn’t the best of the best.

Get back to teaching core subjects in K-12, have kids do homework, go back to a grading scale where C is average. Bust the teachers unions and bring discipline back to the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

Students at elite universities such as Columbia are showing up to campus unable to read books. They've only read excerpts their entire school career. Many also struggle to write effectively. In response, many Columbia teachers have to water down the curriculum.

No surprise, it is one of the reasons Gen Z can’t keep a job. Sure they have punched all the right tickets to get into top schools who have dumbed down the education and passed them off to employers with high GPAs by just giving out As. Clearly Columbia and all of the other “prestigious” schools could not have admitted anyone who wasn’t the best of the best.

Get back to teaching core subjects in K-12, have kids do homework, go back to a grading scale where C is average. Bust the teachers unions and bring discipline back to the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:PP. Despite its length, W&P is much easier than M&M. Tolstoy uses fairly simple vocabulary and sentence structure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in MCPS. They do definitely read at least a few full books on English class. I wish it was more — it seems like it’s one full book per quarter plus then poems and short stories built around that. This quarter my 10tj grader is reading Circe. Last year he read Life of Pi as the last book but I can’t remember what else. I think they are decent books but I do wish they were reading more like 6-8 books a year and mixing in some older ones — maybe 1 19th century and a couple 20th century. It does seem like there is a preference for stuff that came out in the 21st century.

I think the colleges are getting what they asked for. They want kids that have endless extracurriculars, travel teams, competitive clubs that do regional/national competitions, kids that do tons of volunteer work or internships. Exactly when do they think kids are gojng to have time to just read novels? I read tons of novels growing up because my only extracurriculars were a couple clubs that met occasionally and did 1-2 events a year.

PP makes a great point about kids not having time for reading.

They don't have time because their parents make them do all of these ridiculous activities. Your kid can get into a ton of schools without all of that bit parents are so nervous that they just do what everyone else does. If I tell you my kid only did a once a month activity and worked in the summer and got in everywhere, people will say that's a lie. It isn't but you've all bought into the lie that your kid won't get in anywhere without all of these activities. Why are you so insecure?

Anonymous wrote:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

Students at elite universities such as Columbia are showing up to campus unable to read books. They've only read excerpts their entire school career. Many also struggle to write effectively. In response, many Columbia teachers have to water down the curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:Agree that club sports and other time-consuming but mindless extracurriculars are what's pushing out actual college prep activities like reading & analyzing multiple difficult several hundred page novels and more deriving of mathematical proofs and immersive academic activities like independent studies.

Our current grind culture (team sports and checking off all these boxes) is crushing imagination and critical thinking to dust.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in MCPS. They do definitely read at least a few full books on English class. I wish it was more — it seems like it’s one full book per quarter plus then poems and short stories built around that. This quarter my 10tj grader is reading Circe. Last year he read Life of Pi as the last book but I can’t remember what else. I think they are decent books but I do wish they were reading more like 6-8 books a year and mixing in some older ones — maybe 1 19th century and a couple 20th century. It does seem like there is a preference for stuff that came out in the 21st century.

I think the colleges are getting what they asked for. They want kids that have endless extracurriculars, travel teams, competitive clubs that do regional/national competitions, kids that do tons of volunteer work or internships. Exactly when do they think kids are gojng to have time to just read novels? I read tons of novels growing up because my only extracurriculars were a couple clubs that met occasionally and did 1-2 events a year.

PP makes a great point about kids not having time for reading.

They don't have time because their parents make them do all of these ridiculous activities. Your kid can get into a ton of schools without all of that bit parents are so nervous that they just do what everyone else does. If I tell you my kid only did a once a month activity and worked in the summer and got in everywhere, people will say that's a lie. It isn't but you've all bought into the lie that your kid won't get in anywhere without all of these activities. Why are you so insecure?