Aestheticizing Illiteracy

[lyonspotter]

Run time: 05:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETcZK4RIwGM   Posted on YouTube: July 28, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: July 28, 2009 By DU Member: lyonspotter Views on DU: 456

 
As an instructor of art for the past 7 years, I have had the disheartening experience of encountering illiteracy at the college level with a frequency that far exceeded my expectations. Having taught at four college campuses, I decided to collect the hundreds of student essays written for my classes that were abandoned by their authors (the fact that these students did not find the retrieval of their work to be important was in many ways discouraging enough). I decided to archive these student essays as documentation of the growing illiteracy problem, for what I found in the contents therein mirrored and sometimes surpassed the following data:

http://livinnthebigtime.blogspot.com/2009/07/look-like-if-words-are-bleeding.html

[SheilaT]

1. Two thoughts here.

First is I suspect the students whose essays are quoted were under the impression an art class wouldn't require any writing.

The other is that I wonder if the students who wrote the essays speak that incoherently in their normal life.

[lyonspotter]

3. Thanks for the comment...to clarify...

The students were always verbally informed on the opening day of class - as well as in writing within the syllabus - that a course paper would be worth 10% of the entire course grade. They were informed to drop the course immediately if any of the course terms were disagreeable to them.

Also, as the video depicts, the statements were written by people of all walks of life. Surprisingly, many spoke English as a primary language.

What becomes clear is that many are passing through high school without fortified reading and writing skills. These 15 statements are only a small portion of the sort of statements one can find in an archive I compiled of over 300 student essays.

[valerief]

2. Reminds me of Non Campus Mentis

Hilarious, except when you consider the fact that these are voters.

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Campus-Mentis-Anders-Henriksson/dp/0761129790/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248795701&sr=1-1

[lyonspotter]

4. I would venture to guess many do not...

Those I asked said they never have...