Why Johnny Can't Write

Over the past four days I graded 100+ student essays. As might be expected, I experienced my this-happens-every-semester disappointment. Students who can write a complete sentence, much less a coherent paragraph, have become an endangered species. Two examples: (there were more, but somehow they disappeared in the midst of Blogger's 'upgrade.')

the english is not my first lenguage.

Microsoft is launching a new tool that is going to revolt the market.

(One might argue that the above is in fact a complete and coherent statement, but trust me, the student who wrote it is incapable of sarcasm and nuance.)

I am so tired of teaching 13th and 14th grade, instead of college. I also harbor great concerns over the future of commerce, politics, and even basic communication in this country if we keep going down this same track.

I'm not alone. One of my favorite commentators, T.R. Fehrenbach, wrote the following column last week.

T.R. is a Texas boy who was educated at Princeton. He's a Korean War combat vet, historian, book author, and social commentator. He's one of my favorite commentators because (1) he's curmudgeonly, (2) he makes me think, and (3) he usually takes the same position on issues that I do.

... human beings think in language. If you haven't mastered words you'll never be able to impart your ideas to other people. If they aren't educated, they won't understand them. This is why I believe the U.S. is taking a great risk by downplaying the mastery of language in grade school. This is what the argument concerning K-12 is all about.

Educated people think in terms of concepts, or at least know how to handle them ... The Ionian Greeks of Miletus could not have invented philosophy (circa 585 B.C.) without the marvelous Greek language; rational thought developed hand-in-hand with writing, which is the life blood of serious thought and science. Illiterate people can speak well, learn skills, and acquire wisdom — but they cannot create a continuous civilization.

I believe, strongly, that we should never let our young emerge effectively illiterate from the first six grades as we now do. I think that every kid should be forced to read — and write. I don't mean novels or essays upon philosophy, but ordinary communication: memos, letters, instruction books, etc. This is not impossible; the rising Asian nations all do it. They concentrate on the first six grades and assure that every child is capable of holding a job for which literacy is required.

This fact is just beginning to be understood publicly as a problem damaging a splendid university system. Any honest educator will tell you that today the first two years of college tends to be remedial work — teaching what students once learned in school.

Boy howdy, he's speaking the truth! Not just writing skills, but basic understanding of math and civics as well. Not to mention reading comprehension.

Even the Ivy League (for policy reasons) admits a significant number of freshmen who cannot write a comprehensible line. When I was in seventh grade, I had to diagram 40 sentences as homework, and in school, write an essay in English class every week. I rarely saw a true-false or multiple-choice test. Today students can arrive at college without writing a sentence, meaning their thinking is probably undeveloped.

This has led to a Sahara of the intellect that has made the august New York Times dumb down regularly since 1941, and the adoption of texting in lieu of written communication. To me, this is like substituting Irish limericks for Shakespeare.

I couldn't have said it better.