Joanne Jacobs writes about a sad trend: Students can’t tie their own shoes:
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In recent years, college students have lost the ability to tie their own shoes, writes Jerry Weinberger, a Michigan State political science professor, on City Journal. Without their helicopter parents, students lose syllabi, break appointments and can’t find the final exam. They don’t buy the right books — and as many as 20 percent don’t read the books, Weinberger believes.
Before 2004, his final exams would pose essay questions like “Compare Hobbes and Nietzsche on the question of religion” and “What is the difference between Marx and Locke on the origins of private property?” That’s impossible now. Too many would flunk.
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I've heard that in general most colleges find homeschoolers are responsible and serious about higher education.
4 comments:
*shrug*
My autistic children have a great deal of difficulty with tying shoes and managing/organizing papers. It isn't necessarily a public school thing vs. homeschool thing though I DO REMEMBER as a kid in the 70's, they did teach you IN SCHOOL how to tie your shoes in first grade. It was a big deal and we all asked each other, "Can you yet?" Really I guess that's not a status thing now, huh.
They are to busy to teach it now, everyone has velcro.
Much sadder is that they are making college easier to pass students who don't do the work. Maybe if they all flunked people would realize they were going to have to grow up and work.
I went and read that entire article. Very informative and sobering. From what I gather by reading the whole thing, the tying of shoes is an intellectual metaphor...."they cannot tie their intellectual shoes..." These kids do not have the basic study skills that were expected just 10 years ago to succeed. Is it any wonder America is low man on the totem pole when it comes to education and common sense?
Thank you for the link!
I think part of the problem is while the government has pushed to improve public schools the truth is fewer students are really learning. This is evident in several areas, both in with academics as our test scores have dropped over the last couple decades, and in the area of basic competency like being able to take care of yourself.
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