I have a colleague who claimed that you only needed the answer to
one question to predict college success:
How often do you read for pleasure?
Ken
Pollak, Edward wrote:
A few weeks ago I gave an exam in animal behavior and asked a question
about "Kamikaze sperm." One student asked what species a Kamikaze was. I
then asked the next 4 students entering my office if they'd ever heard
the word , "kamikaze." The first three had never heard the word. I'm
convinced that the problem is that most students no longer read for
pleasure. This has been problematic for years but is getting worse. Try
asking your student if, as children, they ever read books (not
magazines) "just for fun." It's no wonder their general knowledge is
so pathetic. And there's a BIG difference between looking up the
definitive of a specific word on line and learning words incidentally
while reading a book. Even looking words up in a dictionary is better
because you naturally do a little browsing of other words when you look
it up. That's not as easy/common when looking up a definition on line.
The Kindly Old Curmudgeon
/
/Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D./
/Department of Psychology/
/West Chester University of Pennsylvania/
Office Hours: Mondays noon-2 and 3-4 p.m.; Tuesdays & Thursdays 8-9:00
a.m. & 12:30-1:30 p.m.
/http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm/
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
/Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and
herpetoculturist...... in approximate order of importance./
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Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Professor
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
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