Russ Steele
It aways has been a mystery to me why college educated people, especially the X and Y generations, were taken in by Al Gore and his global warming hoax. Now there is some insight in a forthcoming book by New York University sociologist Richard Arum Arum was the lead author on a study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education. McClatchy has the details here.
Nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don’t make academics a priority the report shows.
Instructors tend to be more focused on their own faculty research than teaching younger students, who in turn are more tuned in to their social lives, according to the report, based on a book titled Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Findings are based on transcripts and surveys of more than 3,000 full-time traditional-age students on 29 campuses nationwide, along with their results on the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test that gauges students’ critical thinking, analytic reasoning and writing skills.
After two years in college, 45% of students showed no significant gains in learning; after four years, 36% showed little change.
Students in the survey nonetheless managed a 3.2 GPA on average according to the study’s author, which tells you most of what you need to know about grade inflation and the rigors of modern higher learning.
Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn’t determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin…
Now we know why many college graduates are taken in by Al Gore's emotional message of climate doom and gloom all wrapped in some nice political spin. They are incapable of shifting global warming facts from the opinions of a huckster, his rent seeking academic sycophants, and the uncritical journalist who parrot his message.
If these are the generations that are going to be taking care of us in our old age we are doomed. How can they lead, if they are incapable of critical thinking? Let's hope there are a few students that escaped the intellectural sausage mill with some thinking skills.
