Earlier in the year, we read an article called "Too Dumb for Complex Texts?" which essentially argued that the current (and future) generations of high school students do not have the ability nor attention capacity to read scholarly texts required in college courses. The article raises some interesting points- I agree that we are shifting more as a society towards "skimming" while in-depth reading is falling by the wayside. We (as in students) are taking in a far greater quantity of information at a far more rapid pace than in generations past, and consequently, we quickly lose interest or simply skim for important points in longer, more complicated texts. Is this attributable to social media? Are we all just Twitter junkies who can't stay focused for more than a few seconds? Personally, I don't think so- in my opinion, it's a simple matter of cost/benefit analysis; why invest a large amount of attention and energy learning about one particular topic when that energy could be spent learning about 10 different things in the same time span? There's so much interesting and engaging information on the Internet, and I don't think our generation is any "dumber" than those in the past, we are simply curious individuals, and would much rather get the main idea of something and move on rather than become experts on a topic we don't particularly care for.
Unless you are extremely interested in a given topic, complex scholarly texts like those mentioned in the article are inherently boring, no matter how old you are. I wrote a research paper my sophomore year at TCU on England's economy during the Hundred Years' War- I poured over old books and research on the subject, spending hours in the library trying to find the information I needed. It was a challenge for me to stay focused while doing all the reading I did, and while the article would suggest it's because my brain functions differently than my parents' do, I think the real reason is that I just didn't care about the topic and I didn't find it relevant at all to what I want to learn in college and pursue in my post-grad career. I had to do the reading, and I did, but in the back of my mind was the constant question: "Why?"
What I'm getting at here is that there's no going back to the old ways now- whether or not students are getting "dumber" because they can't read complex texts is irrelevant, because that trend is not going to revert back any time soon. If anything, what I think needs to change is the organization of college courses. Unless the student is in a major-specific course they are actually interested in pursing, I think it's inadvisable for professors to assign complex texts that the student will inevitably just skim for key points. English majors don't sign up for upper-division Engineering classes, Biology majors don't sign up for upper-division Economics classes, so why should incoming students be expected to read complex texts if they are not necessarily interested/skilled in the subject in question?
Graham,
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up some very valid points and I certainly agree that college students are not all "dumb" in regards to our reading of complex texts. I do, however, think it's unfair to group the entirety of a college student body into a sort of skimming generation. The argument to me goes even deeper because while it seems the amount of information we take in as college students in 21st century America is greater than that our parents were imbued with, it all seems sort of relative to me. Generations past were not constantly immersed in the amount of information we gorge on today. But is that a good thing or a bad thing? It seems to me that you'd argue the former. You examined the probability of a student wanting to learn much about one "irrelevant" thing versus little about many things and contended that it was close to nil. I'd say that seems likely in most cases but also it's interesting to look at the amount of "irrelevant" (however interesting) information we end up mindlessly exploring (so that one day we may spout out the names of people/dentists who shamelessly hunt animals or express our dismay/approval of the outbreak of confidence in the transgender community, etc.?). So is it better to skim and be a jack of all trades or is it better to know many things (four years worth of information, in most cases) deeply? The question could be raised reversely: "Too Smart for Complex Texts?" This seems like just as valid of an argument. But I would venture to say that neither of those questions are inherently relevant. My question to you and the rest of the college community would be instead, what do you think the purpose is? Why do professors assign these lengthy and often garrulous texts filled with ideas we "don't care about"? Do you learn things you didn't know before? Because I always do. And if I ever skim because of a time crunch, I typically go back and read after the fact. My astronomy course might have been irrelevant to my English major but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I learned a great deal of fascinating things about the sky and our universe that I had no idea about before. I will not go into any profession that involves astronomical findings, but if ever I find myself in a situation with several astronomy geniuses, I can hold a fair enough conversation; or if I am on a romantic date with a guy who happens to love stars and we are looking up at the sky, I can point out Vega, the bright star that anchors the Lyra constellation, and he would be more than impressed I presume. In short, I agree that students aren't dumber for wanting to skim texts that may seem less than relevant to their future career paths; though I also argue in favor of opening our minds, as scholars, to great findings in psychology or poetry--even if your area of study happens to be just the opposite--rather than succumbing to the stereotype that we are all "Twitter junkies" by hashtagging our youth away. #UrsaMajor(lyMulitfaceted)
Graham, reading your post actually made a lot of sense. As someone who enjoys reading, there is certainly a difference between reading texts I am interested in and reading texts that I'm obligated to look over. With the former I can consumes hundreds of pages worth of material a day and retain a great deal. With the latter, I am constantly having to reread sections as it eventually occurs to me that I zoned out ten pages ago. I also don't see skimming texts as lazy or dumb, but as a way of making the most of one's limited amount of time. Students these days are being pulled in every direction and constantly acquiring new responsibilities, which pulls time away from other things. In this day and age, less time is afforded to reading complex texts as students attempt to tackle the growing mess that is their nightly homework assignments.
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