75-01-B6

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3 R's

Transcript At least two of the three R's have some new champions. I'll be right back. "No one can't write hardly any time" that was the newspaper story headline. After I read the story there was little doubt in my mind. If you think your youngster is the only one in school who uses sentence run-ons, fragments, poor spelling and misplaced punctuation, there may be some consolation in knowing that this is really a nationwide problem. In a recent survey of 436 colleges, the Association of Departments of English found that quote "students are leaving high school with much less training and fundamentals than before" unquote. The survey indicates that the problems don't correlate with economic status, middle class students are affected just as much as those from low-income neighborhoods. Nearly half the entering freshman at the University of California in Berkeley last fall had to take a remedial English course called bonehead, bonehead English, because they failed a qualifying grammar and essay test. Most teachers seem to agree that the problem isn't a new one it's always been there but it's more intense and widespread than ever before. Now some of them think it's because of too much television viewing, that young people just aren't being encouraged to read either at school or at home. One educator quoted in the newspaper article summed up this idea he said students must read well to write well. If you think back to your own high school days you probably dreaded those endless grammar drills plotting out subjects, predicates and objects stuffing your head with grammar rules and exceptions to rules until you could read them all off from memory. Well, it now appears that such rigorous drills provided as compulsory courses and coupled with a well-developed and supervised reading program are really the keys to one's ability to write clearly. During the sixties the ferment in education didn't leave the English departments untouched in many states and communities required English classes were reduced in number. More of them became elective for students and for many who chose them after only one or two years of required courses, the choice was for such things as creative writing, filmmaking, mythology and detective story writing. Now these may be perfectly legitimate subjects to study but they should be offered only after a strong foundation of reading and grammatical writing has been laid down. One metropolitan curriculum director who was surveyed expressed concern that students quote "don't zero in on a real solid academic core" unquote. A representative of the Modern Language Association and Organization of College English teachers sees some hopeful new signs. She says that all over the country English professors are reporting that students are becoming goal oriented again and that they're asking for English courses that focus on essential writing skills as she puts it, "there is a shift away from the touchy feely stage the love everybody and good writing will result days" to which I can only add amen. Maybe the advocates of plain old reading and writing were correct. after all in another decade or so we may finally be turning out more students who can organize a sentence properly than can't and with plenty of nudging from both concerned parents and teachers they may begin reading again too. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 75-01-B6 Production Date 01/08/1975 Book/Page N/A Audio Yes Youtube? No
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