“Employer beware – this Nova Scotia Grade 12 graduate is illiterate”
I am absolutely floored. How could a school let a kid graduate without being able to read? What has the school system been doing? What were those kids doing all these years? And how did they make it to 12th grade without this basic academic skill?
Mind’s too boogled to come up with decent insults or expletives.
That’s how they made it that far.
C’mon now - be fair. The kid maintained a heartbeat and respiration all those years - unaided, even! That’s gotta be worth something. It’s not like just anybody can, er, um, yeah…
Good to know they care:
…And why is that?
Would you hire anyone from a school that graduated illiterates? Me neither.
You know what the best part is? We can laugh at and mock and make fun of these graduates to our heart’s content.
What are they going to do? How will they find out?
This is hardly illiterate. Ohio doesn’t require you to pass the final test, either- in fact, they’re phasing it out this year. I can’t speak for other US states, but in Ohio, you only have to pass a 9th grade reading test (though it’s being adjusted to 10th grade). The 12th grade test was mainly for college-bound seniors, and measured a higher level of literacy than that expected for seniors heading straight to work.
If you can pass the 9th grade test, you’re a bit more than functionally literate. In fact, it’s tough enough that it might be amusing to have President Bush take it…
I think this story is more than a little bit biased.
Drat. The second half of the quote got cut off, where it says that graduates must pass the 6th and 9th grade tests but not the 12th grade test.
Preview? What’s that?
I understand not having the results of the test influence graduation, but you’d think that the reason behind failing the test (not being able to read) would have some impact on the grades of these students? An impact great enough that it in and of itself would prevent graduation?
How do these kids get through school at all? If they can’t read, they can’t do reading assignments, they can’t write reports, they can’t take tests, they can’t take notes. . . How is this school system rigged so that it’s possible that these students have anything more than an F in every class (except stuff like PE)?
Psst, that should be “our hearts’ content”.
[sub]what a rube[/sub]
Because mentally retarded persons are guarenteed an education under both Canadian and American law. Two or three percent of the population born with severe enough cognitive problems to render them illiterate? Yeah, that sounds about right.
FOAF’s cousin here in Virginia graduated from high school and can’t read. And AFAIK he isn’t mentally disabled or anything like that … he just can’t read.
Wasn’t there a rash fo discoveries like 5-10 years ago that a lot of athletes were going through “social promotion”, as I think they ended up calling it, where they didn’t learn the material and got bumped up to the next grade because of their athletic prowess? I remember hearing about several athletes who couldn’t read and finally came out in public and started to be education advocates.
I dont wanna sound like … well I dont know how i’m gonna sound ( but i’m sure i’l insult somebody, I always seem to)
but I just dont even if they get passed up in high school and stuff.A good athlete cant pass second grade or the rest of elementary school. I mean in grade school since the teachers only have one class a day, you think they might pick up on that.
I mean I couldnt do fractions and they called my mom, how can a kid get away with not reading?
Nary did I mispeak, dear sir. For it is quite evident to me that you have no heart. Thus, the singular.
That could be true… .if it is, this article would be skewed. I would assume that special needs class stats would be excluded from this report.
Remember, kids, high school is no longer about learning anything. That’s what your bachelor’s degree is for now.
Hello, everyone.
Teaming Millions: Hello, Astroboy!
My name is Astroboy, and I am illiterate.
And, um, I’m an English teacher! The horror! The HORROR!
Runs away sobbing hysterically…
C’mon, you teach at a Korean university, so it dSesn’t matter to your Starcraft-addled charges if you’re literate. 'sides, they cheat on their tests so much and spend so much time at demos in Chongno it wouldn’t matter if you were Henry Watson Fowler his own bad self.
OK, point taken.
But still: Runs away sobbing hysterically!
Coming from a large high school that graduated a fair number of functional illiterates, I’m not that surprised. (And I’m now finishing a PhD in genetics at a world-class university, thank you very much.)
There weren’t any standardized tests of reading in my state, and people who had trouble with reading could find classes that had few, if any, written in-class tests. Some such classes were easy (typing, arts, shop) but some were quite challenging (conversational German, current-events polisci). Homework, reports, and such could be dealt with by copying from other people or “study groups”. This was easier for attractive girls, unsurprisingly. Not all of these people were idiots, and virtually none of them would admit that they couldn’t read… probably not even to themselves.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that otherwise intelligent people who fail to learn to read have varied and often creative ways of hiding that deficit. The only way to identify them is with specific reading tests.
mischievous