The Canadian press recently picked up the story again about the poor preparation of a sizable proportion of university students. In this case, the story is about an increasing proportion of students admitted to the University of Waterloo who are not able to pass English language proficiency exam at a minimum level. Some 30% of new students now fail this test, up from 25% a few years ago. Even students with very high grades in high school English are being caught in this net.
We discussed this problem in Ivory Tower Blues, noting that it is widespread, and I re-visited it in a couple of my posts last year. The existence of the problem of university students not having an adequate command of their native language should be alarming to educators regardless of whether it is a growing trend, just as it should be alarming to every Canadian citizen. There are too many reasons to enumerate here regarding why we should all be concerned, but I must comment on the denial of the problem by one person cited in the above-cited newspaper article.
The person in question is James Turk, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. In this article, the reporter tells us that Turk “takes all the complaints about student literacy with a grain of salt.” He is quoted as claiming that “There’s a notion of a golden age in the past that students were wonderful, unlike now. I’m not sure that golden age ever existed … You can go back and read Plato and see Socrates talking about the allegations that this generation isn’t as not as good as previous ones.”
In previous posts I discussed a variety of preemptory gambits that people use to avoid dealing with ‘inconvenient truths’ like widespread student unreadiness, including the Golden Age and old fogey gambits, so I need not describe them here (see ‘You are just imagining a non-existent Golden Age’, 2009/09/25, and ‘You are just an old fogey’, 2009/09/11). What is remarkable is how Turk combines two of them, perhaps from his arsenal of knee-jerk reactions.
But, what is striking as a matter of logic is how Turk produces a non sequitor. There is no logical connection between the two gambits: the claim that a golden age never existed is somehow connected in his mind with Plato and Socrates supposed thinking that generations previous to them were not as good as their generation. Hmmm. Did Socrates and Plato also think that a golden age preceded them? But hold it, weren’t they part of a golden age, as some would have it? I’m confused. Are you?
Forget this knee jerk word play, and focus on the fact that as an Executive Director of the CAUT Turk has a responsibility to its members (of which I am one, along with 1000s of other professors across Canada). Student unreadiness is a union issue because it directly affects the workplace and the ability of professors to do their job in an unencumbered and non-stressful manner. I don’t follow everything he says to the press, but he seems to be obsessed with saying that the only problem universities face is under funding, and that is what he told a reporter when asked what he thought about the messages in Ivory Tower Blues.
Well Mr. Turk, I think it is time for you to make an effort to educate yourself on the issues and try to understand what the members of your association need from you. It is not having you dismiss their concerns in the media and it is not denying that your membership faces serious workplace problems. More money to universities will not fix the problem of student unreadiness. If you have plan for how it will, we are all ears.
Mr. Turk, your comments on this blog are welcome.
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