College Students Lack Key Literacy Skills

With college tuition rates at higher-than-ever levels, we can expect only the best results from students graduating from these institutions of higher learning, right?

Maybe not. According to a literacy study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, more than half of students at four-year colleges and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges lack the literacy to handle complex tasks (Associated Press Online, January 20).

These “complex” tasks include analyzing newspaper editorials and using math skills needed for checkbooks and restaurants. The study showed these skills were lacking in students no matter what their field of study.

But some good news gleaned from the literacy study was that most students at community and four-year schools possess intermediate skills, meaning they can handle moderately challenging tasks, such as “identifying a location on a map” (ibid.). Phew!

What this study really shows is how inadequate our modern education system is in producing balanced and well-educated graduates who can handle the real world. Education does not come all wrapped up and ready to be handed over when paying the tuition bill, but, as educator Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in his Autobiography, “Education comes from study—from books—from lectures—from contacts—from travel—from thinking about what you see and hear and read—and from experience.”