We frequently hear critics argue that U.S. students can’t write well and that there is a “literacy crisis” in the U.S. What is the origin of these discourses? What do they have to do with immigration, national security, and economics? How does the notion that Americans can’t write drive the national push to test writing? Here we explore the history of writing and testing in the U.S., the “science” and technology of testing approaches, and how the rhetoric of assessment impacts the lives of Americans today.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Human Tetris

I think a problem with higher education these days can be associated to college and universities trying to maintain demographics instead of better students. In another English class I have, a student raised concern on her recent application to law school. She indicated that she was unsure whether or not to put down that she was Hispanic or Caucasian. She didn't want to be lumped into a collective and obtain acceptance because she filled a key demographic for the school. I didn't have to realization until she explained her situation that most colleges and universities do this. For example, I've worked several jobs within the university. I've seen first-hand the university hire people of certain ethnicity or race because they were trying to file a quota. Ultimately, this has led to under-qualified people obtaining jobs that they should not have had to begin with. Because of this, the university has jeopardized the integrity of programs and jobs on-campus. Therefore, I am willing to say that if this is the mentality given to jobs within Penn State, more than likely this is the mentality of those in-control educationally.

I understand completely the university's stance on diversity. I mean, honestly businesses and institutions around the whole country have the same mindset. But I think my main problem is the fact that we're failing to educate or to teach people sufficiently to begin with. And due to that, we are setting people up for failure later in life. If we simply acknowledge and give people certain opportunities based on ethnicity and race, than we are continually going to have issues. Especially if we are willing to accept or hire a person to fulfill a statistic and not because they are the best and brightest.

I know that this is somewhat of a sensitive subject, but has anyone seen this where they work or even here at PSU?
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2 comments:

Conor Hall said...

Although I have seen this at our university in my ENG 15 class- where I had to peer review a paper that I could barely read from typos and fragment sentences and incomplete thoughts- we still have to look at this through the university as a whole. For arguments sake I am just going to use African-Americans. If every single African-American got into Penn State to fill a quota and did not meet the standards set for other students that would still only be 4% of the student body. I don't know any exact statistics on meeting quotas or affirmative action at Penn State, but to be generous lets say 20% of students got into Penn State for that exact reason. I don't think one can be too upset about a "more qualified" student not getting in, because in actuality they still couldn't beat out 80% of the rest of the students in the university. To me it is almost like saying you didn't make the basketball team because the coaches kid got the last spot. Although this is not really fair, and may be a wrong, you still weren't better than anyone else.

In theory things like affirmative action, well fair, and social security are good, but they do have flaws when put into practice I don't know if they should be given up on because of that.

Oh and the kid in my English class was a White offensive lineman on the football team.

March 29, 2011 at 1:37 AM
Shawn Inglima said...

This blog reminded me of the New York Times internship application. I took a glance at it even though I knew my resume was not impressive enough to be accepted out of thousands for the New York Times but they portrayed the internship program as an opportunity for bright lower SES students. And not only lower SES students, but ethnic SES students. They had a list of the type of ethnic groups they would accept, from black to Hispanic and so on. Intending to be viewed as a good thing to give this type of opportunity for students who cannot afford to buy their way into a Ivy League school, the part where white students could not have this type of opportunity as well is off for me. If it was intended for all SES students, it would be a great program. But since they're looking for specific ethnic groups, it seems the New York Times is trying to improve their image by showing how generous they are, like rich white people feeding starving children in Africa.

March 29, 2011 at 10:19 AM

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