Kemba Walker, a guard who led his team, the University of Connecticut Huskies, to victory in the NCAA men's basketball championship recently made a statement that gives a lot of credence to the notion that higher education is failing some of its recipients. In a Sports Illustrated Interview, Walker confirmed that he had just finished the one and only book he had ever (in his life) read cover to cover. Oh, and you said you were a junior at the University of Connecticut? Perhaps he was exaggerating (god I hope so).
At first I hoped that this was just an expression of the misguided priorities at UConn, however, after reading some of the comments posted on the original article…it seems that this issue extends far beyond just UConn. Here are a few:“I graduated with honors from a state university and didn't even buy the textbooks (I couldn't afford them).”
“I have never read a school book cover to cover in my entire life. I am now in law school. I am not saying this to brag in any way just to point out that reading in school (for undergrads) is nearly irrelevant.”
“I think if you are over 30, you are COMPLETELY out of touch with the reality of the education system in America. I've only read 2 books cover to cover in my entire life, which includes 4 years of college.”
Granted, a lot of reading is done electronically these days…I do seem to remember having many articles assigned that were internet based. Nevertheless, it is rather troubling to think that students are shelling out thousands of dollars just to sit in a classroom and watch a PowerPoint blaze across the screen and are not actually learning anything of substance. I hate to sound like a crusty old librarian, but there is something to be said about actually picking up a book and reading it from cover to cover.
Maybe it was because I majored in the sciences…but I remember always being required to read the material. In fact, one of my political theory classes actually tested us weekly on material from the assigned reading (usually some titillating Hobbesian, Ambien replacement).
So has this been the general experience of college students today?
I missed this bit of news and find the comments of other recent college students disturbing. To be honest, though, as the mother of a college freshman, I probably knew this but chose to ignore it.
ReplyDeleteI've learned so much more in life from reading books than sitting in a classroom - and I'm a teacher (a technology teacher but still! School should expose students to the joy of reading and what one can discover between those pages (electronic or otherwise). Reading also expands your vocabulary and helps you learn to write well. One wonders if we are really preparing these students to be successful in the future or is this the real dumbing down of our culture?
Thanks for giving YOUR readers something to think about!
It's been a few years since I completed my undergraduate and about 5 years since I went back and completed my graduate degree. I can honestly say that of the textbooks required, I did not read a single one cover to cover. I would often times use the index or for my graduate degree where we used e-books, key word searches to find the relevant material. Even after I found the material I needed, I would often skim instead of read. There are plenty of books that I read cover to cover but they were of topics I found interesting and exciting.
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I graduated undergrad 6 years ago, grad school 4 and I don't think I read a book completely cover to cover. I remember in grad school it was mostly sections of the book.
ReplyDeletePerhaps when he mentioned reading a book, he meant the way we'd read a John Grisham novel. Pleasure reading is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than the kind of reading one does in a text book; this is especially true if said text deals with a STEM subject.
ReplyDeleteIt's very understandable that one wouldn't read a textbook from cover to cover. However, what about assigned books for english, humanities, history? I remember there being quite a few mandatory enrichment courses in college that required books (non-texts). I think this is the greater concern...with sparknotes and thousands of other resources that eliminate the actual necessity to read...you have to wonder what is the point of sitting in a classroom to learn...when you can just educate yourself via internet?
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