>
>
> On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 12:29 PM, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com>wrote:
>
>> Doug asks:
>>
>>
>> why don't kids today want to read?
>>>
>>
>> Given that enrollment is 2-3x today what it was in 1970, isn't it just as
>> likely that the same number of "kids like to read" but they are being
>> swamped by the, uh, <<hoi polloi>> (I kid!) ...?
>>
>> <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk>
>>
>
> http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2010/section1/indicator07.asp
>
> *From 2000 to 2008, undergraduate enrollment increased by 24 percent to
> 16.4 million students. Projections indicate that it will continue to
> increase, reaching 19.0 million students in 2019.*
> and table at
> http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2010/section1/table-hep-1.asp
>
> The thing is, we see less and less prepared students (or at least I do).
> But more and more are going to college. When the part of me that says "There
> Was No Golden Age" kicks in, it wants to know how much the "more and more"
> corresponds with the "less and less," if you see what I mean.
>
>
Sorry. I have a very bad cold and seem capable of thinking only in
fragments. In principle, everyone should have access to college educations
and all that. And I'm certainly not arguing that what's happened is that now
the unwashed masses are ruining college, although I can see it probably
sounds that way. I should probably stop before I dig a deeper hole, but
would it really be surprising if, given the business nature of colleges
these days, and the problems we seem to recognize in k-12, that we are
running more and more people into college with less and less preparation for
it, academically, intellectually, socially, emotionally? And then what will
happen?
I await my thrashing.