Illiterate Youth?

Question

Are the youth of today coming out of school with lower reading and comprehension skills, or is their poor spelling and grammar on the internet simply a product of the new medium?

If their skills are lower, is it part of a gradual decline or a jump down?

What role do schools, television, and new technology play? Is it true, as it seems, that many people in schools today cannot read and understand a book, and much less would ever do it for pleasure? When I was in high school, class of 2002, it was already obvious that many students couldn't read and understand anything longer than a page without help... and to get through reading assignments, the teachers would read aloud in class, and have the students do the same, and they couldn't even pronounce the words.

Please state your age when answering. Mine, 23.

If grades mean anything, then I am retarded. I did horribly in school because I thought it was such a disaster, and then later when I started taking more interesting classes, I refused to do any schoolwork which I didn't consider important to my education. So I think I got a good education in the end, and I took advantage of it in my way, but as for grades... well, I didn't play for points, just for exercise, let's say

Answer 1

I think a lot of it has to do with lower standards in school, the teachers getting much younger, school systems putting way too much focus on standardized testing, rather than what the students are truly learning in the classroom and the fact that a lot of students go home to parents that don't care and are even less literate than they are, so they don't use correct grammar at home.

my stepdad has been teaching the 5th grade for more than 30 years and last year over half of the kids in his classroom either currently had or at one point had a parent in jail. about 75% of their parents were divorced, and most of their parents were in their 20's, which means they had their kids when they were still kids themselves. my stepdad can drill correct grammar and literacy into these kids in the classroom, but it just doesn't mean squat when they go home to parents that have no desire to help their kids with their homework or CAN'T help them b/c they're so illiterate themselves.

I'm 27 and I had my stepdad for a 5th grade teacher 16 years ago. When I was in school, a large portion of our class was very gifted and many of my peers went on to become Doctors, Lawyers, etc. The young minds of today aren't going to get much further than the McDonald's drive-thru, unfortunately. While I think my stepdad is an amazing teacher, there won't be any teachers like him left when I decide to have kids of my own. That's why my kids won't be attending public schools.

Answer 2

I am 17, so whatever lack of proper grammar there is in schools has been noticed by me nearly everyday of my life. I don't think it has much to do with technology, rather psychology. Most of the people I reproach for bad writing really don't care if their sentences resemble "OMG diD u c wat KeLLy war!!1!11!!eleventy-one"

In addition, to those of us who are paying attention the assignments don't teach you anything. I can remember before I was elegible for AP classes, we used to have to review nouns and adjectives every year and never got past this. The worksheets were simple, and I never learned anything, gave up, and lowered my GPA because of it.

Thirdly, parents, a lot of the time, blame the teacher for the student's grade and deny their responsibility to emphasize education.

Answer 3

this seems to be the problem of students almost all over the world and i think modern gadgets like computers, gameboys, mobilephones, calculators, television, etc. are contributing to the decline of their intelligence. all these gadgets have made it too easy for kids that they just download their assignments from the internet and submit them without even reading them. its just too easy with these modern tools that kids don't get to use their brains anymore. math problems? they just punch them on calculators. walla, they have the answer. computer games and television occupies too much of their time which they could have spent doing homeworks and studying.

couple it with the decline in the educational system and educational standard. and also due to the bad economy, both parents have to work to raise their family. so both are just so tired when they come home to still be able to attend to their kid's homeworks.

and with all the junk foods available, kid's nutrition are so bad that the brain and body does not get enough nutrients needed to help them cope with everyday mental and physical activities.