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November 20, 2007 [LINK / comment]
Reading is so-o 20th Century
With all the emphasis on "reading is FUNdamental" and "standards of learning" over the past decade or two, you would think that most high school graduates would have well developed reading skills. You would be wrong. Actually, most elementary school students are doing well in reading, according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts, but as today's Washington Post reports, "once they enter adolescence, they fall victim to a general culture which does not encourage or reinforce reading." The study focused on reading literature for enjoyment, but the same trend is observed for reading in general.
That NEA study confirms my general impression of many college students these days, sad to say. Many of them do not seem to be able to grasp the main point of text passages they are assigned, getting lost in the minutiae of sundry isolated facts. Reading newspapers is hopelessly out of style for most of them, and not many of them even bother to read news stories on the Internet. The result is that a huge proportion of young adults today are simply unable to keep abreast with important public issues. They are "civic dropouts," you might say.
Can our precious democratic republic survive for long without a strong majority of reasonably well-informed citizens?
Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 20 Nov 2007, 11: 27 PM
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Category archives:
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This (or that) year's
blog highlights
January 4, 2007 ~ 110th Congress: open for business
January 24, 2007 ~ The State of the Union, 2007
March 28, 2007 ~ Mark Steyn's America Alone
April 19, 2007 ~ Senator Hanger comes to Staunton
April 30, 2007 ~
Sen. Hanger's campaign kick-off
June 1, 2007 ~
Stars shine for Senator Hanger
June 12, 2007 ~
Republicans In Name Only? You be the judge!
June 13, 2007 ~
How sweet: Reason prevails
June 24, 2007 ~
SWAC bloggers air dirty laundry
August 13, 2007 ~ Hasta la vista, Karl Rove
August 21, 2007 ~
Fading dreams of democracy
August 6, 2007 ~
Nats sweep World Champion Cards!
September 23, 2007 ~ Au revoir, RFK Stadium
October 18, 2007 ~ Nationals 2007: Year in review
October 25, 2007 ~
Augusta County Campaign 2007
October 29, 2007 ~ Red Sox sweep Rockies; Dynasty?
November 7, 2007 ~ Democrats win Virginia Senate
December 14, 2007 ~ The Mitchell Report is released
December 29, 2007 ~
The death of Benazir Bhutto
December 31, 2007 ~ Baseball 2007: Year in Review
NOTE: Thus far, only blog posts related to politics and baseball are included in this list.
Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.
Explanation
The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made:
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Also see: My blog practices.
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