Recently I witnessed a shocking demonstration by a new,
English-speaking, college graduate. I donXt normally talk about my
writing with colleagues at work X there isnXt time X but one
intelligent youngster asked me a question that I could most easily
answer by showing him one of my essays. He could not read it. I
mean, he could sound out the words that he knew, skipping the words
he didn't know, but he could not make sense of the sentences. After
watching his ordeal for five painful minutes, I verbally gave him
the message encoded in the English language that he could not read.
He believes that he is educated, by the way, because he has a
college degree.
Via Jerry Pournelle, Literacy
All a college degree shows is that you are trainable to jump through
hoops (okay, with Yale you learn to jump through flaming hoops that impress
everyone, but you are still jumping through hoops and aren't necessarily
edumakated). And yes, the educational system here is bad.
For some reason, the fact that sheep are easily lead and wolves are not
keeps floating through my mind …
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