Education background: colege graduete
But can he write?
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By Jane Willson
9M«ia
I nside most university closets dangles a common
skeleton — the graduate who cannot write
Packaged in black robes and tassled hats, the
products of higher education are distributed annually to
the nation's job market holding what used to be a
guarantee of excellence — the university degree
But in the eyes of many personnel recruiters and
employers, its a scholastic honor that is becoming
meaningless
"It's a shame,’’ remarks a personnel recruiter in
response to the growing number of college graduates
who are unable to write
"We offer a spot on our application where ap
plicants can respond in their own words with additional
information Many can't perform (in writing) even on a
simple conversational level It gives you the feeling the
person's overall skill is reflected in that writing "
Employers hired these people because they had
college degrees and "they thought that meant some
thing," says Kathleen Dubs, composition director in the
University English department "They found out it didn't
mean anything at all "
The dilemma brings up the nagging question —
Why"? Looking for answers brings up even more nag
ging questions High school, the university, the overall
education system, parents and television all have faced
the finger of blame
B ut high schools top off the hit list
"Every secondary school in the nation will say that
they have a writing problem, but they're not doing a
whole hell of a lot about it," says Rick Goad, a doctoral
student and GTF with the University’s secondary
education department
"Students don't seem to be improving," says Goad,
who has evaluated writing curriculums in a number of
Oregon schools Weaknesses run the whole gamut —
penmanship, spelling, grammar, punctuation
"They ve got to recognize that students just aren't
getting what they need," he says
College students don't blissfully ignore writing
problems, Dubs says Rather, they criticize their high
school education
"They have a sense of frustration, a sense of anger
and a realization that they’ve wasted a lot of time If I had
a dollar for every student who said to me that high
school was a waste of time, I could probably retire, " she
says
High school students write book reports and occa
sionally term papers, but those assignments hardly give
good writing experience, says Susan Lessick of the
University's Learning Resources Center.
The problem starts with dividing education into
separate departments, such as "math,'' “P E." and
"English,'' Goad says
The idea that teaching writing is just for the writing
teacher is self-defeating, he notes
At the University, the story sounds similiar, Dubs
says. “Teaching students to write falls on the shoulders
of the English department "
Concern among educators over the national
writing problem has instigated a revival of the "writing
across-the-curriculum” movement, Dubs says The
movement prompts professors in all subject areas to
demand that their students write literate prose
While college faculty, students and parents rail at
the inadequacies of high schools, those in the high
school camp contend their hands are tied
Wayne Hill, assistant principal of South Eugene
High School, says schools are reflective of society
Public schools are expected to respond to the whims of
the larger society, he says, and school districts often
are forced into curriculums that stray from teaching
basic writing
Federally mandated roadblocks — such as budget
cutbacks — also have made teaching writing more
difficult
"Most of the educational emphasis in the public
schools these last few years has not been on student
performance — it has been on minimum competencies
and equal opportunity,'' Hill says
“There’s only so much energy to go around."
Although schools accept some of the blame, they
also point accusingly to parents and their homes as
suspects
“The school system is pretty much set up on the
assumption that the kids are squared away (emotional
ly) and it's our job to teach them," Hill says
"That's not a good assumption anymore.
'You've got to do a whole lot of support work these
days — comforting, playing half social worker — and all
that takes away from academic skills "
And then there's TV
According to one researcher, the constant viewing
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Photo by Mark Pynes
of TV could have a direct effect on a student’s writing
ability, especially if it precludes reading from the
student s life
In Edgar Oayle's “hierarchical cone of learning,”
reading — the translation of written symbols into verbal
symbolic meaning — is the most strenuous form of
learning. TV, lower down on the cone, is a passive or
vicarious type of learning
Dubs agrees on the negative effects of TV, and she
says parents don’t understand those effects.
Watching TV instead of reading ultimately hurts
writing skills, she says.
"If you’re not reading good prose, you’re not going
to be able to write good prose "
But pointing fingers and blaming institutions goes
only so far Soon the question of responsibility returns
to the students themselves
“For many students, education becomes learning
to survive in the system, rather than learning," Dubs
says
It’s not hard for students to graduate from the
University without having to write much if they chose
the right major, Lessick observes
And the increasing number of students who
manage to slip through the cracks of the university
system without learning to write is painfully evident to
employers It shows from the moment a graduate fills
out an application, they say
“It’s apparent that a number of applicants just
aren’t taking the time necessary to fill out the applica
tion and plan what they are doing,” says one local
personnel recruiter. "They’ll start out printing and end
up writing — and the writing is illegible
"Let’s face it, when there are 200 applicants for a
position and you have to weed it down to 10, spelling,
punctuation, grammar and neatness all count.’’
Goad says many people get through the education
system without learning that writing is a struggle
Writing is something you never really “learn,” he says
Dubs agrees "Many people are looking for the
key' to writing, so that once you have it you can forget
about doing any work," she says
"There is no key Writing is a constant struggle ”
Jane Willson earned a master's degree here in
instructional technology and has seven years teaching
experience from the elementary to college levels.
J
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