Wednesday, September 06, 2006

"Novels"

Querencia (the book) is not one, for instance (it's a memoir) even though a reviewer implies it is ON THE DUST JACKET.

Reflection prompted by this Washington Post essay by Michael Skube on reading in which we learn that (A) students don't read, and (B) they think all books are "novels".

"...And my favorite: "Novel," as in new and as a literary form. College students nowadays call any book, fact or fiction, a novel. I have no idea why this is, but I first became acquainted with the peculiarity when a senior at one of the country's better state universities wrote a paper in which she referred to "The Prince" as "Machiavelli's novel."

As freshmen start showing up for classes this month, colleges will have a new influx of high school graduates with gilded GPAs, and it won't be long before one professor whispers to another: Did no one teach these kids basic English? The unhappy truth is that many students are hard-pressed to string together coherent sentences, to tell a pronoun from a preposition, even to distinguish between "then" and "than." Yet they got A's."

(Snip)

"Exit exams have become almost a necessity because the GPA is not to be trusted. In my experience, a high SAT score is far more reliable than a high GPA -- more indicative of quickness and acuity, and more reflective of familiarity with language and ideas. College admissions specialists are of a different view and are apt to label the student with high SAT scores but mediocre grades unmotivated, even lazy.

"I'll take that student any day. I've known such students. They may have been bored in high school but they read widely and without prodding from a parent. And they could have nominated a few favorite writers besides Dan Brown -- even if they thoroughly enjoyed "The DaVinci Code."

"I suspect they would have understood the point I tried unsuccessfully to make once when I quoted Joseph Pulitzer to my students. It is journalism's job, he said, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Too obvious, you think? I might have thought so myself -- if the words "afflicted" and "afflict" hadn't stumped the whole class."

RTWT.

Comments, Mary? Heidi? I think things may be different in England, Pluvialis, but why?

1 comment:

Heidi the Hick said...

Well Steve, this week in particular I'm feeling very nasty towards the school system...

I'm generally appalled at how little kids know and how poorly they read. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to know that there are different forms of reading material in every room of this house (even the furnace/laundry room!) and that my kids read like demons. (If demons read). They know the difference between a novel and a biography! They better know it!

Maybe i'd best not talk about school this week. GRRRR!

Two more things:
-Thank you for asking my opinion along with Prairie Mary and Pluvialis, because I admire them both. I'm also honoured that you asked for my opinion!

-I hope you and Reid and Matt don't mind that I have purloined the term ASS-HAT and am using it vigorously. I really like it. Still not sure precisely what it means. But I like the sound of it!