Is there a clear evolution happening, or is it just the same all over again?
The first thing I thought is how fertile women can be. My grandmother had a dozen siblings, but Americans just don't seem to like big families anymore. Maybe because some prefer divorce or single motherhood. Will you have more?
I'm 46 so the biological clock should be starting to wind down, I can't say the answer is no, but just as we weren't seeking to have a large family, we wouldn't be afraid to welcome any others that we are blessed to receive.
Practicing Catholics. If you want the funny version of this, I have my one and only attempt at stand up at the Erma Bombeck conference in 2008 on youtube. On a more serious note, it is no sacrifice to be surrounded by people that love you.
Well, judging from the young adolescents who arrive as freshmen in universities and colleges, they certainly can't write, spell, or think critically the way university students were expected to in the past. They are definitely noticeably different from the classmates I remember. The lack of basic literacy skills in today's so-called high school graduates is shocking. I fear for the future of universities.
So how would one go about educating the incoming Freshman on how to write? How do we get them to think? How do we get them to read, to think critically, to analyze, to spell check and then proof? To take notes? To understand that writing illustrates thinking and often leads us to think deeper than we would otherwise.
Many universities have writing centers and remedial student services where students need to be taught to read, write, spell, and compose coherent sentences. The number of writing centers is growing as universities now have to teach students basic literacy skills that should have been taught in elementary school and high school.
It's not compulsory for a student to attend a writing center, so we still get plenty of really terribly written essays and assignments, and the only recourse then is for the professor to fail the student on the assignment or sometimes on the whole course. But because the universities are eager for funding, many profs feel pressured not to fail students, with the result that students who are very mediocre and careless are ending up with university degrees. If the student who hasn't bothered to become proficient with writing, spelling, etc. decides to take his/her mediocre degree studies further to pursue a master's or doctoral program, that's when the poop will hit the fan for them. MA and PhD programs usually assure most students of getting some funding to cover their tuition, etc. So since it's the post-grad program that is paying out tuition support for the students and not the other way around as with the undergrad, post-grad programs can usually make incompetent students leave the post-grad program.
I'm happy to say, though, that in many universities the writing centers are gaining in popularity as increasing numbers of students are realizing where their linguistic and written deficits are and they do then go to the writing center for help. Oftentimes the students themselves say that they feel cheated because they didn't learn the skills in high school...many say that the high schools did a terrible job of preparing students for university-level writing. That may be true, but it's also the case that some in the video game/phone texting generation seem to have less interest in gaining true literacy and are lazy about it.
As a clarification to my posting above re the lack of language competency in young university students, I was not referring to students who have an identified reading deficit due to dyslexia or attention deficit disorders, but rather I was referring to students who have "normal" language development and reading ability but have not had these abilities developed due to the overemphasis on texting, video gaming, Ipod, Ipad, etc. and who thus do not know how to spell or construct a sentence.
Interestingly, students with dyslexia and other disorders very often do extremely well in university, because knowing their language and reading deficit, they readily avail themselves of the writing centers and of student services with the result that they develop into really good readers and writers, having learned excellent strategies to cope with or bypass their reading/writing impairment. Some of the best essays I have ever read and marked have been authored by dyslexic students. Indeed, these students, when motivated, put the average "normal" student's abilities to shame.
Sharon, I think I can personally vouch for what you say above. Not being able to read or write nearly as well your peers can put an extra fire in the belly to over-compensate for whatever the impairments might be. The human brain can be trained to use other areas when the usual areas aren't working right. As an aside, it might be possible to train seemingly dormant parts of the brain to be more intuitive or even psychic.
Jeff, you are a role model for all others who have had to deal with reading impairments and have overcome them. Not only did you learn to write and communicate effectively, you have involved yourself successfully in an industry that's all about writing and communication, and thus you've helped lots of writers achieve their dreams. In addition, you have developed wisdom along the way.
You are very right about other parts of the brain being able to be trained, and for those who have the "fire in the belly" to do this, the rewards are great in terms of accomplishments and quality of life.