Sunday, August 28, 2005

The latest campus craze? Freshman reading

CNN (AP) -- As the freshman class arrives at Philadelphia's Temple University, they will learn about campus rules, meet with their academic advisers and, hopefully, read a book: "West of Kabul, East of New York," Tamim Ansary's memoir of life in Afghanistan and the United States.
Thousands of first-year students throughout the United States will have similar assignments. At West Texas A&M University, freshmen are encouraged to read "A Hope in the Unseen," Ron Suskind's nonfiction chronicle of a black teenager. At the University of South Carolina, the chosen work is Mark Haddon's comic novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."
Three incoming students, backed by a conservative Christian group, sued over the reading program's mandatory nature; while their lawsuit failed, the university changed its policy to make the program optional. Many schools strongly encourage participation, but don't penalize students for not doing so.

Last term at Lane community college, the instructor mentioned that there is going to be a new program called "reading together" in which students would be required to read to each other in class.

I do not have any further details on this or when they plan to implement it, but I got to thinking that we are college students that are being treated like grade school students.

Of course, I'm still trying to figure out how being forced to take three terms of PE will make me a better network administrator.

No comments: