I’m going to be using Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You next semester in my MANAGEMENT class. Students today are confused about their job prospects in this dismal economy. My message, reinforced by Cal Newport, is to master a skill set in order to survive in these trying times. Technology continues to erode middle-class, traditional jobs. Once upon a time, a high school drop-out could go work for General Motors and make $100,000 a year. Those times are over. In order to find a “good” job, my students are going to have to convince skeptical employers they have mastered the skills today’s job market needs. Somehow American education has lost its way. Reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic: the 3 R’s; few of my students have mastered these basic skills let alone computer skills. I’m amazed each semester at the number of students I have who can’t type! What are they doing in K-12? So Good They Can’t Ignore You presents a blueprint to young people on how to function in a skills-driven employment market. If you have a son or daughter or friend struggling to find work, give them this book. GRADE: B+
All the teachers we know are amazed at the number of students that lack a basic sense of US history and US government. Any cultural references go right over their head. They cannot write a paper. They don’t seem to feel they need to know about almost anything that came before them. What are they teaching in high schools?
I know exactly what you mean, Patti. Last week I made a reference to the book I was reading: Anne Applebaum’s IRON CURTAIN. You guessed it, no one in my class knew what the Iron Curtain was!
Excellent point, George. My junior high school typing class has served me in good stead ever since. When I was in college they had just started “open enrollment” and had to add a lot of remedial classes because kids were entering college without the basic skills they needed to make it there. It’s only gotten worse, and as you well know with the internet out there who needs to do any real research these days when you can just Google the answer and copy it? They must think teachers were born yesterday.
At my College, 40% of incoming students need to take remedial classes, Jeff. Some never make it to the “real” classes because their reading and writing and math skills are so poor.
I put this on reserve a few weeks ago. Should be showing up any day now.
History has long been a favorite field of mine, which was fortunate, since the high schools I attended had little interest in teaching the subject. I wasn’t taught how to write a paper, either, so when I started college I went to the library and grabbed a how-to book on the topic.
Sometimes the self-taught method is the best, Drongo. My College does not require any history courses. When I attended Marquette University in the Sixties, ALL students were required to take two semesters of History. Those gifted History teachers ignited a love in me for reading history books and historical fiction. My history-illiterate students don’t know what wonders they’re missing…
I learned to type in 9th grade–I always say it was the most valuable course I took. The first “real” job I ever got was based on my ability to type faster than the other applicants even though I did have a college degree.
As for public schools: I could write a book–standardized testing, lack of parental concern, kids glued to their cell phones 24/7, anti-public education administrations forcing through “educational reforms” that are nothing but giveaways of public funds to the charter industry, etc.
My handwriting was so bad (and still is) that my Fifth Grade teacher suggested I take Typing in Summer School. It turned out to be one of the best pieces of advice ever! I’ve been typing ever since. There aren’t many consequences to a Bad Education in K-12, but when they reach College, students suddenly discover they’ve been cheated.
David McCullough has talked and talked about this lamentable problem for a decade or two, but of course no one listens, because funding trumps learning anymore. Like the rest here, I had to have the basic skills in order to advance each year of high school and graduate. Without that graduation, no college and a gas attendant’s career…
With electric cars, even the gas attendant job will disappear, Rick. Work in the 21st Century is mostly going to be skilled work. And those who don’t have the skills are doomed.
I never learned to type, but after all these years I’ve gotten pretty fast using my two-finger method. My typos-per-minute speed is impressive, I thinj.
I think Art Scott is a two-finger typist, too, Bob. I hate to think of all the two-finger typing you did writing those books of yours!
All the gas stations around here are pump-your-own. Oregon has attendants because of some silly law, and you can’t pump your own.
Typing MDM with two fingers was a chore, but in the later years I was getting some e-mails or discs so it became slightly less grueling.
Bob, New Jersey is another state where you can’t pump your own gas, I think. I appreciated all those MDMs! Classics!