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Reading incomprehension
May. 28th, 2008 09:08 amI've come to a conclusion.
The major problem with education in this country (the USA, with nods and looks of "pity us" towards the rest of the industrialized world) rests squarely on reading comprehension.
(facepalm)
For anyone who hasn't been following the Saga Of My Life (that is, everyone up to and including my parents), I work at a community college as a sort of distance learning help desk person. (Read my profile for a longer but probably more incoherent explanation.) In short, my job is to deal with students who are having computer issues and figure out 1) what's wrong and 2) how to fix it. A major factor in what makes this difficult is computer illiteracy. It's just easier to handle someone who says "when I try to log in to [website], it gives me [X] error message" than someone who says "I can't get in". I understand this and try to extend some sort of compassion, or at least a reasonable level of non-exasperation. We have a lot of older students and people who are taking classes for reasons other than for a degree. A lot of things online assume some sort of basic knowledge. Other things require you to intuit the next step. I have to start out assuming people know nothing. I'm often proved correct.
Of course, there's a "but" coming. See, I can understand and expect people to have issues with technology. When people start calling me because they can't read/understand the instructions their teacher posted, that's when I start ranting.
( Commence ranting. )
I don't know what to say. I mean... Education is a big issue for me, politically and emotionally—and not just because I work at a community college. I hate that my petty little AA isn't going to get me anywhere unless I can somehow come up with five digits of dollars to make it a BA. I'm disgusted that my little cousin Tommy (age 13ish) was forced to use a calculator in his 5th grade math class. It's long division! If you can't do it by hand, then you can't do it! For that matter, I'm upset that in 5th grade he was just getting started on long division. Art and music classes are being canceled left and right due to funding, and while I can't quote any research I think it says something that all of the educated-seeming (that is, smart and capable regardless of their degree) people I know were somehow involved in one or the other as kids.
I don't think this is a recent thing either. The people I'm getting calls from range from my age group (20s) to my grandfather's (80s). I can only assume that at least most of them had convention educations for their age group. (My own, btw, wasn't conventional, so I'm leery of using myself as a measuring stick for this.) This just... it worries me insanely, but I don't see anything I can do about it. It's not a major factor of the Presidential race, so I haven't heard any concrete plans from either of my main candidates. Hell's bells, as long as I can remember, improving education has been listed on every candidate's agenda, and nothing has actually ever been done. (Sorry, but No Child Left Behind left a fucking lot of children behind, and if I could kick GWB right in the balls for that I would.) I honestly think that the system just can't be salvaged. It's going to have to be rebuilt from the ground up... and with the economy and the war and global warming... I don't think it's going to be high priority on anyone's list.
The major problem with education in this country (the USA, with nods and looks of "pity us" towards the rest of the industrialized world) rests squarely on reading comprehension.
(facepalm)
For anyone who hasn't been following the Saga Of My Life (that is, everyone up to and including my parents), I work at a community college as a sort of distance learning help desk person. (Read my profile for a longer but probably more incoherent explanation.) In short, my job is to deal with students who are having computer issues and figure out 1) what's wrong and 2) how to fix it. A major factor in what makes this difficult is computer illiteracy. It's just easier to handle someone who says "when I try to log in to [website], it gives me [X] error message" than someone who says "I can't get in". I understand this and try to extend some sort of compassion, or at least a reasonable level of non-exasperation. We have a lot of older students and people who are taking classes for reasons other than for a degree. A lot of things online assume some sort of basic knowledge. Other things require you to intuit the next step. I have to start out assuming people know nothing. I'm often proved correct.
Of course, there's a "but" coming. See, I can understand and expect people to have issues with technology. When people start calling me because they can't read/understand the instructions their teacher posted, that's when I start ranting.
( Commence ranting. )
I don't know what to say. I mean... Education is a big issue for me, politically and emotionally—and not just because I work at a community college. I hate that my petty little AA isn't going to get me anywhere unless I can somehow come up with five digits of dollars to make it a BA. I'm disgusted that my little cousin Tommy (age 13ish) was forced to use a calculator in his 5th grade math class. It's long division! If you can't do it by hand, then you can't do it! For that matter, I'm upset that in 5th grade he was just getting started on long division. Art and music classes are being canceled left and right due to funding, and while I can't quote any research I think it says something that all of the educated-seeming (that is, smart and capable regardless of their degree) people I know were somehow involved in one or the other as kids.
I don't think this is a recent thing either. The people I'm getting calls from range from my age group (20s) to my grandfather's (80s). I can only assume that at least most of them had convention educations for their age group. (My own, btw, wasn't conventional, so I'm leery of using myself as a measuring stick for this.) This just... it worries me insanely, but I don't see anything I can do about it. It's not a major factor of the Presidential race, so I haven't heard any concrete plans from either of my main candidates. Hell's bells, as long as I can remember, improving education has been listed on every candidate's agenda, and nothing has actually ever been done. (Sorry, but No Child Left Behind left a fucking lot of children behind, and if I could kick GWB right in the balls for that I would.) I honestly think that the system just can't be salvaged. It's going to have to be rebuilt from the ground up... and with the economy and the war and global warming... I don't think it's going to be high priority on anyone's list.
