[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday waffle...
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 12:40:29 -0400
Sadly, we can no longer take for granted that our students understand
the many cultural references (most obviously the Bible and Shakespeare)
that generations of past students were expected to have at their
fingertips. I had a student once who wrote, in a final exam, a sentence
about Noa Zark. (I shudder to think how this story reflects on my
teaching, of course.) Perhaps they learn too much of their language
through their ears, and too little through their eyes. More proof: the
legions who don't differentiate between 'past' and 'passed.'
It's tempting as we get on in years, to imagine some distant 'golden
age' when students were more prepared (and men were men and women were
quiet?...). Perhaps a truer answer lies in who goes to college these
days. If public policy encourages everyone to attend (keeps them out
of the job market and off the streets, after all), perhaps the lowering
of expectations and standards is inevitable but not really indicative of
worse teaching or learning.
Ursula
North Bay
Steven G. Cameron wrote:
>we rely enormously on our cultural myths as instructional underpinnings:
>Tanach, Edith Hamilton, Robin Hood, etc.
>
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