I commiserate with friends about the cultural void which inhabits the heads of my students. These are college-aged, if not always college-ready, graduates of our primary/secondary educational process. I've watched them in Texas and watched them in Colorado for ten years prior to this, so it isn't a local problem.
They've never seen Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, Patton or even The Untouchables. They've not heard the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Who or the Dave Brubeck Quartet. They haven't read Catch-22, any Hemingway/Faulkner/Steinbeck or Twain, or a non-fiction, non-school book in their lifetimes. They don't know who was President before George W. Bush, and some of them don't recall that far back. They can't tell you if Korea preceded the Spanish-American War or whether Vietnam was before or after WW II.
So, it isn't surprising to see this study about what students are being encouraged to read in colleges these days:
Politically Correct, Culturally Sensitive, and Definitely Socialist
When it comes to knowing how to capture the hearts and minds of a people, the modern American pedagogue could teach Westmoreland and LBJ some lessons.
3 comments:
I'm trying to be average, I really am, but my peers are apparently setting the bar so low that I'd have to hit myself in the head with a claw hammer a few times before I can qualify.
I know, Ed. I brought up Jackie Gleason during a discussion at work a few weeks ago, and the damn kids we hire nowadays are all like: "Who?"
After retirement (late 90's), I started teaching in the local HS. About a week into it, I had the opportunity to quote a line from Animal House Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?". I looked back at a room full of blank puzzled faces. Finally, one kid said, "Well, no, that's when WWII started." I knew I was OLD at that instant in time.
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