Whining about our students

[Richard Robin]

"E. Boyle" wrote:

> So I suggest we stop moaning about the sorry state of American culture (an
> opinion I don't share), stop whining about how "kids today" are completely
> uncultured (they are not)

I completely agree with Eloise. Each successive generation complains about the
sorry state of "kids today." And sure, I have my stock of horror stories of
kids who can't define an adverb or can't name the capital of Poland. But for
each horror story, there are many more success stories. I find that contrary
to 20 years ago, I can rely on having students who can say intelligible things
at the end of a basic sequence in Russian. Some of that is because we teach
differently than we did back then. But students' ability to acquire some sort
of useful proficiency testifies to the fact that their language learning
skills overall have not gone into the sort of tailspin that many others see.

As for the larger global issues of literacy, literature, and culture: sure,
I'm concerned that we may arrive at a time when students don't read more than
a screen at a time and that for them research amounts to doing key word
searches and cut-pasting the appropriate quotes. But then I think back to my
own Russian teacher who theatrically expressed his dismay that we came to
Russian without a previous background in Latin.

E. D. Hirsch aside, the syllabus of cultural literacy syllabus with
generations and technology. No one in 1930 would have dreamed that film could
be a part of a part of cultural literacy. The fluidity of what counts as
cultural literacy comes through very nicely in "Tarzan's New York Adventure"
(1942), in which the Johnny Weissmuller character finds himself being
cross-examined in a New York courtroom (I'm quoting from childhood memory):

Plaintiff's attorney:    Can you read?
Tarzan:    Read?
Plaintiff's attorney:    Yes, you know, read a book...
Tarzan:    Can lawyer read trail in jungle?

- R. Robin

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