Kids Don't Write As Much Today; So What?
Q. What's
all the fuss about kids not knowing how to write more than a few words at a
time any more? Can't they express themselves even more with all the other media
they can use - video, movies, music, emails, Instant Messengering, DVDs,
CD-ROMs and so forth? So what if they don't write a lot of long term papers?
Only book authors need to be able to write anything much longer than a business
letter. Right?
No,
that's wrong. And the lack of writing ability is one of the most pressing
issues of K-12 education. Why? Because people who can't write can't think. And
that's frightening.
Ironic,
isn't it? There are so many more books and libraries available to the average
Joe now than at any time in the history of the world, and yet most people are
reading less and less every year.
And with
computers and other technology making written expression far easier than the
days of the inkwell and feather pens, the average word count produced in
assignments by a typical high school student today is minuscule compared to the
assignments of yesteryear.
In 2002,
with a grant from the Albert Shanker Institute, The Concord Review commissioned a study of the state of the history
term paper in United States high schools. According to that group's website, 95%
of the teachers interviewed said term papers were important or very important, and
yet 82% never assign a 5,000-word term paper, and 63% never assign a 3,000-word
research paper.
Instead,
the majority of high-school teachers assign very short papers, which don't
require all that much scholarship or sustained, quality writing.
Taken
together with studies that show high school students spending less than three
hours a week on homework, it seems most probable that the majority of high school
students in this country now leave the K-12 system without having done a single
serious research paper, and perhaps without having read even one quality,
challenging nonfiction book.
This is
bad news indeed, because people in all lines of work desperately need the
skills that come with serious report-writing. They include knowing how to
narrow down a broad hypothesis, choose the best evidence, organize a lot of
material, achieve perfection in the use of writing conventions, and create a
conclusion fully supported by the research.
The
reason teens today aren't getting that crucial writing training in schools is
that teachers say they do not have enough time to assign, coach and evaluate
research papers.
Of
course, if serious academic writing is not valued by the schools, teachers will
not be given the time to work on them with students.
To point
only one contrast, a local high school sophomore in a suburban high school near
Boston recently estimated that she spent 21 hours a week on swimming, counting practices
and meets, but not travel time.
Most of
the older private schools do expect their students to learn to write research
papers and teachers are given small classes so that they can work on papers
with students, and have the time to assess them.
Homework: See
The Concord Review, www.tcr.org
Copyright 2006 • Susan
Darst Williams, www.DailySusan.com, is a writer, wife and mother of four who lives at the base
of Mount Laundry, Neb.
