Well, Which Is It?

Canadian teens, which is to say high school graduates, are once again scrutinized and found wanting. A new academic survey of professors and librarians measuring the literary/academic maturity of secondary students appears to discover that alas, they are immature. Incapable of thinking deeply, of stirring themselves to develop a much-needed discipline of investigatory skills to achieve laudable research papers, reflective of intelligent thought and synthesizing ability.

They are, unfortunately, said to be incapable of resourcefulness, of independent action, seeking out the easy way rather than overly troublling themselves. Unwilling to make the effort, they yet anticipate that all good will come to them. Thus saith the survey mounted by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. "...it appears that secondary students are not receiving the requisite skills that they need to be successful in university studies."

What an astounding revelation. They're too lazily reliant on the Internet for source materials, specifically dependent on sites like Wikipedia whose data tends not to be completely reliable, since its an open-source data-house of individual (albeit informed) input, inadequately edited and policed, it would appear. Wow! it doesn't seem all that long ago that universities bemoaned the fact that secondary schools were passing along students incapable of reading.

We've somehow managed to produce graduates who can read now, but who are not literate; disinterested in acquiring very basic investigative skills for research purposes. At least that's an advance and a definite advantage over what was highlighted a mere decade earlier, if memory serves. Still, there isn't quite total agreement on the intellectual laziness of secondary graduates, since 27% of respondents felt students were adequately prepared.

Or at least, in their judgement, as capable as the cohorts that had preceded them. And it's also interesting that 15% of respondents had no opinion on the matter. Likely little interest, as well, since it may seem a piddling matter that university instructors, doing their mentoring thing, might readily be capable of turning around, impressing on their first-year students the imperatives of adequate research.

"There's a lot of cut-and-pasting and students who don't cross-reference. They see what's on the Internet and they just run with it", according to Brian Brown, president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. Given cut-backs in the education portfolios of late, and less attention given to the need to acquire an adequate number of books in-house, with school libraries taking third place to other student needs, and often lacking librarians as well, little wonder.

The focus in most schools now, from elementary to secondary, is to bring students up to grade on computer use and Internet familiarity to a certain degree. With that focus, isn't it little wonder, given the ubiquity of computers at home and in the workplace that it's seen as a sturdy, reliable tool, time-saving and data-producing to the satisfaction of unenthusiastic students? Might part of the problem be teachers' inability to enthuse?

Well, on the plus side, another survey has discovered some pretty nifty realities about today's teens. They're becoming increasingly socially and civilly virtuous, and that's saying a whole lot. Eschewing smoking, drinking and drugs - even sex! At least to the degree that was formerly in fashion. Today's teens appear more amenable to being well behaved, listening to their parents' admonitions.

Now that's cause for celebration...right?