The Generation Gap on DU is real

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

173. COVID is not the only factor in kids being behind

Most people here have not been in uni both in the "old days" and recently.

I have.

I saw the papers of my mid-2010s classmates, because one of the "new" things in uni education is to have students do the work of English profs--er, "peer review" each other's drafts for English classes, or to work in "groups" (bane of my existence) in other ones. That's why I know how few of them can write a simple sentence. The vast majority of my classmates were all but clueless about the basics of grammar and mechanics. I had to explain what a dangling participle was--to an honors high school graduate! Bloody hell, she didn't know what a participle was in the first place, never mind that it could dangle!

By the way that was in a "regular" English class. I have to make that distinction these days, because now many colleges have other than regular classes. At the local community college system where I live, I saw an article that close to half of all their students need at least one remedial class in English or maths (or both) before they can attend the regular classes. What I found the most appalling? That these colleges teach ***three*** levels of remedial classes for English and maths. Now if what I saw in a "regular" English class was appalling, imagine what a level 1 remedial class's proficiency looks like.

Call me old, but I remember when K-12 school was the "remedial" learning. You couldn't gain admission even to community colleges in the 70s without having English and maths proficiency enough to know how to capitalize a bloody sentence at the beginning.

That so many of my peers didn't know even rudimentary grammar and mechanics, that close to half of all students in my local community college system need at least one remedial class for English or math (or both) before they can attend regular survey courses in those subjects?

That's the sign of a K-12 education system in shambles...and that was the case, long before COVID.