Re: The troubles

["Richard W. Tarara" <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

Reading comprehension seems to be on the decline.  This is reported by
educators across disciplines and across schools.  I don't know what the
formal studies show, but the anecdotal evidence sure supports this.  The
kids aren't any less intelligent, so why don't they read well?  One (yes
simplistic) answer is that they don't read as much  (on average) as was
once the case.  This would not be surprising in light of the competition
for time from various avenues.  When we old codgers were growing up I doubt
that many of us were in EVERY athletic, artistic, and social activity known
to mankind, certainly didn't have computers, VCRs, our own phones, few had
cars at 16, our own TVs (with cable), etc.   Couple these time hogs with
lower reading expectations (in terms of objectively assessed
comprehension*) evidenced by many of my colleagues in their children's
pre-college work.  TV is, I firmly, believe a piece of this puzzle because
most people have been 'trained' to watch the box with their minds in
neutral.  I see this constantly in my courses where students have a very
difficult time watching a 50-60 minute program and pulling from it even the
main points.  While some people can use the video media as a very powerful
learning tool, the majority seem to be lacking this skill.

I use myself to judge that there is simply less time for reading.  I used
to do a lot of different things while sitting in front of the TV.  The
level of attention needed for all but the 'educational' programs was
minimal so one could do two or three things at once.  Now however, my
viewing is either video tapes which have no breaks and require somewhat
more attention, or I sit and channel surf which again requires more
attention.  I now spend at least an hour a night at the computer both
working and playing and  many who surf the net spend much more time than
this.  I have no children at home to transport to various activities, but
even so I seem to have only about an hour a night for concentrated reading.
 I've forced myself in the past five years to read more, I do enjoy it, but
previously I read even less.  However, in my college and graduate school
days I read much, much more!  

I don't disagree that we have to deal with the students as we get them, but
it can help to understand student's habits and abilities in the areas we
would like to use as learning tools.

*This is probably more important than the time issue.  Students are not
being trained  to read for comprehension at the same skill levels as at
previous times.  Try it in your classroom.  Have them open their textbook
to one of the gratuitous essays on some topic or other, read it, close the
book, then write a paragraph about what they just read.  

----------
> From: Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>
> To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu
> Subject: The troubles
> Date: Tuesday, October 07, 1997 2:04 PM
>
> > Reading has fallen on hard times at least in quality if not in quantity,
> > and getting students to work with a text in light of  competition from
TV,
> > computers, radio, and other printed media is no mean feat.
>
> I'm getting tired of this particular item of received knowledge. It just
> isn't so that TV is responsible for the sorry tastes of our students. We
> have many students who can appreciate a good book, good music, etc. They
> should not all be categorized as vidiots. The quality of reading that is
> available today surely can't be less than it was fifty years ago because
> all the literature which existed then still exists! Samuel Clemens is
> dead, but Mark Twain still lives.
>
> I don't know how it happened, but we raised four Gegenbeispielen in our
> home. I watch more TV than any other member of our family ever did, so
> TV was definitely available in our home. The only censoring we did was
> to forbid the children to watch game shows ("The Price is Right", etc.),
> and they didn't. Evelyn and all four children were hooked on books from
> the time they learned to read. I wish I could tell you how that happened;
> I can't, but I'm glad it did.
>
> We've got to get over attributing our teaching problems to TV and video
> games. More constructive approaches must be taken. In my view the
> quality of the students has, indeed, declined. To attribute this to the
> causes mentioned is to commit the logical error of *post hoc ergo
> propter hoc*, the attribution of causality solely based upon the time
> order of two events. Lots more has changed in our society (and these
> students' social environments) than just TV. There was TV in my parents'
> home since I turned twelve, back in 1947. This is not even a recent
> phenomenon. Moreover, finding the cause of our difficulties will not
> help alleviate them (unless by some miracle we can, by identifying them,
> convince others in the society to attack these problems). I'm afraid we
> must learn to teach them as we get them.
>
> Leigh