Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Counselor's Desk

By Donald Crane

Some years ago, I received a letter from a professor at one of our state colleges.

It was a handwritten letter inviting our students to an academic seminar at that institution.

The professor's writing was terrible, the spelling atrocious, and his sentences were so fragmented that one needed a

very liberal imagination to comprehend it. This man has his PHD, and I quickly learned that higher education does not necessarily mean one is a proficient writer.

When the infamous "teacher test" was given a few years ago, the part which caused most problems was the writing test. Some people who are very proficient in English grammar cannot write. I have always argued writing is an inborn talent much like music, art, or foreign languages. I think math is too, and I hereby certify that I received no talent for mathematics at birth.

In our file room are cumulative records which date back many years. At one time, the first project assigned to a student in ninth grade English class was to write his autobiography. This provided information about the student and was kept in his cumulative file. After reading some of those old autobiographies a few years back, I decided it would be a good idea to try again. I gave the freshman English teacher an outline of what I wanted, and she put the students to work.

I was never so disappointed in an assignment. Taken as a whole, there was absolutely no comparison to those earlier autobiographies. Many of those which were even legible were a disappointment. At that time, the inability of students to communicate through the written word was just beginning to gain national attention. Today, writing is strongly emphasized, but the problem persists.

It has been my observation that the better writers are those who like to read. Students who like to read are getting scarce. TV used to get the major part of the blame. Nowadays, I suppose we can blame computers. True, one does have to read information from a computer screen and one can send letters by E-mail; however, it's not the same as composing a short story or an essay. It's not personally revealing.

The point I'm trying to make is that whether or not a student is proficient in writing, he's still going to be held accountable by those who develop the standardized tests used in state-wide testing and college entrance testing programs. The much publicized "exit test" has a long written section, and I have just received information from The College Board that next year's National Merit Test (PSAT/NMSQT) will contain a new writing skills section.

I don't think educators have the answer to student writing disabilities. Modern technologies are whipping us. The more we stress the basics, the more advancements are made which completely eliminate the basics. Math teachers have continually complained of that since the invention of the calculator. It is now possible for one to do high-level mathematics and never learn the multiplication tables. What next?

In spite of the criticism, low scores on tests, and obvious lack of written communication skills, there is a positive note. Much progress has been made. When I was growing up, I encountered many who could neither read or write. It has been a long time since I've seen someone sign his name with an "X."