College kids don't read books?

[ronde]

I agree they used to cater to more legacy students than they do now, but I'm sure it still happens quite often. And some of our leaders are the ones that benefited from that type of privileged admission. Additionally, you have the pay-to-play option and that still happens quite often (a lot more than people want to admit or recognize), as witnessed by the not-so-long-ago pay-to-play college admission scandal in California.

Not having any information on what majors are or are not being chosen today by students I can only address the anecdotal evidence I have on the point. Which is, we have hundreds of kids coming out of college with a degree who can't get a decent job. Why? I believe it's because of the wrong major in studies. It begins with insisting that ALL kids need to go to college. There is a whole section of our youth who aren't suited to college and their skills lay in other areas. But with the death of unions, the apprenticeship programs they ran are also dead. Additionally, it also has to do with heading in the wrong direction with a degree. A Liberal Arts degree is good, but how many jobs call for one? It's limited so if you have a glut of Liberal Arts degrees and all the jobs that call for one are already filled, you might as well use that piece of paper to cover a hole in the wall.

At least some of the kids these days are "smarter" than past generations. Not because they are any more intelligent than past generations, but because they have access to more information and are being exposed to that information at a much younger age. I came from a generation where everything was in books. If you wanted to know something you had to go look for it. A sometimes extended and painfully exacting process. Now? Hell, all ya' gotta do is whip out your phone. There is a huge amount of information right at a person's fingertips 24 hours a day.

Comshaw

I'm from the generation when all this mess began. I was in high school when the Russians sent "Sputnik" into orbit and it scared the hell out of the US. Once that happened, every guidance counselor in the US was recommending that every student go to a 4-year college. I don't remember ever being asked what I wanted to do in life. I was just told that I should get a "scientific degree" of some sort because I had good grades in math. It wasn't long after that that "shop classes", basic English, practical math and home economics classes were discontinued. Every student was pushed into higher math and science classes. Of course, given the normal distribution of IQ in any population, maybe a fourth of these kids actually learned the material well enough to apply it.

I saw many of my classmates start college only to fail after one or two semesters because they were not suited for an academic environment. What they were suited for was some occupation involving manual labor with enough tech knowledge to get them through. It showed in industry. A tool room I once managed had seven workers aged 50 to 65 because there were no younger people with the required skills. That problem was solved by changing all the tool room equipment to CNC, but still required some basic understanding of math and how cutting tools work.

Where we are today only reflects the old law of supply and demand. There isn't much of a demand for English or Art Majors except as professors in universities. It doesn't take a degree in English literature to be a reporter and it doesn't take a degree in Art to draw greeting cards. It only takes natural talent. The same can be said for some STEM occupations. I'd rather hire a machinist with ten years experience in machining part than a fresh-out engineer. I'll get my payback quicker with the experienced machinist.

There is room for individuals with degrees, but only for the best. The rest may very well find themselves flipping hamburgers while waiting for that dream job to come along.

 

[WhiteTailDarkTip]

I think that's more than a bit simplistic. My wife and I are both voracious readers; one of our kids enjoys it, the other doesn't.

People are different. Some just aren't into the same things their families are into. The idea that everyone is a copy of their parents is... well. I'll just say it's "incorrect."

Anyone raising children at this moment understands just how many different stimuli are competing for their attention. Books remain a strong contender, but there are so many others that some kids will simply find something else they're into.

Yep, quite agree. I'm a reader, my wife isn't. I have three sons and a daughter, one of the boys and the girl both read: the others don't. In fact we often divide evenly over things. Liking Marmite for instance. Or peanut butter. My favourite example is the mis-telling of this ancient Christmas cracker joke. "My dog's got no nose." "How does he smell then?" "Awful!" Only we got it wrong. "My dog can't smell." "What's he got no nose then?" "Awful!" Three of us were in hysterics. the others looked at us as if we'd lost our minds

 

[RetroFan]

Didn't all those kids grow up reading Harry Potter and Twilight? Or Ranger's Apprentice, if they're a bit younger?

That's what I thought. I remember in the case of Harry Potter at least it seemed to produce a resurgence in reading back in the 2000s.

 

[OffNSFW]

One of my partners is a literature professor. She doesn't teach at an elite school, but her experiences line up here. The kids in her classes are coming in utterly unprepared, and she spends a lot of early classroom time on remedial skill building.

In her view, it's not the fault of gradeschool teachers. Teachers generally want to do their jobs well and see their kids achieve. But the modern classroom environment and modes of instruction have them between a rock and a hard place.