Literacy Gaps in College Graduates

I just read about a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The study looked at the skills of graduating students and found that

more than half of students at four-year colleges - and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges - lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers. . .

Three types of literacy were studied: (1) analyzing news stories and other prose, (2) understanding documents and (3) having math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips.

Without "proficient" skills, or those needed to perform more complex tasks, students fall behind. They cannot interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

"It is kind of disturbing that a lot of folks are graduating with a degree and they're not going to be able to do those things," said Stephane Baldi, the study's director at the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization. . .

Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.

Other posts on the topic: EducationWonks has other links.
Dr. Sanity discusses it, too.
Inside Higher Ed has a post about the study.

Hollywood - Pope John Paul II, and Mehmet Ali Agca

An Instanbul jail released the guy who shot Pope John Paul II back in 1981 , and now the would-be assassin is receiving mega-bucks ($8 million) to STAR in a Hollywood movie about the attack. He was unable to appear for his check-in with authorities after being released from jail because he was in seclusion working on the negotiations for the movie. Hmmmm - he can't follow the conditions of his release because he is on his way to being a movie star. Par for the course in Hollywood. He already feels above the law because of his soon-to-be status as a move star.

While it is shocking that a movie company would stoop so low, it's not surprising. In a post entitled "THE CULTURAL ELITE - DEDICATED TO DARKNESS" Dr. Sanity talks about Hollywood's general lack of producing anything without a political or social agenda. Forget entertainment. I wonder what the agenda is for this movie. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

Agca shot a man who is undoubtedly one of the most humble and godly men of our era, leaving him fighting for his life. Pope John Paul II never fully recovered from the attack. And less than a year after the Pope's death, his attacker is released from prison and is promised $8 million to star in a movie about the attack.

This is wrong on every level I can imagine.

Most Stupid Thing I've Read In A Long Time

This is from a post on Demoncratic Underground. (Oops! Misspelled the D-word, but it fits, so I'll leave it). From someone with the name "TallahasseeGrannie." Incredible!

(Speaking of Osama Bin Laden and the recent videotape) - and how it was probably a fake orchestrated by President Bush to swing public opinion his way)

Actually, I don't think he ever existed. I think he is a muppet. But if he IS real and IS willing to stop in Iraq and Afghanistan, that would be good news. Not that I want attacks here, but we can absorb them a lot lot better than those poor people. If it is real (and I hear you about the orchestrated element) it seems rather promising? Or am I drinking the Kool-aid. I really like the orange flavor.

Yes, you are drinking the Kool-Aid that the whole Demoncratic party - liberal wing is serving.
If it weren't so dangerous, it would be humorous. Oh sure, Bin Laden will stop in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everything he has said up to this point was a lie. He really doesn't want to kill Americans. Forget 9-11. Absorb that. Forget the beheadings. Absorb those. He's offering up an olive branch - Can't we all just get along?

The Best Line I've Heard In A Long Time

Larry at Blame Bush! has come through again with this gem:

Bush continues to deny that he has done anything wrong and insists that he will only eavesdrop on the telephone conversations of people who are “a threat to national security”. But that could describe just about any liberal Democrat in Congress.

Don't you just love it?

My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Tells It Like It Is

My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has one of the best posts I've read lately. I agree with every single word of it, and after watching and hearing all the dangerous idiocy from the left lately, I'm getting to the point of feeling as strongly.

Oldie but Goodie

How to Stay Married

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoebox and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.

When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $25,000. He asked her about the contents.

"When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll."

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness. "Honey," he said, "that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?"

"Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the dolls."

A Pause - A Vacation - A Hiatus

THE MEDIAN SIB is on hiatus for awhile - not sure how long. As of today, this blog is four months old -- averaging about 3 posts each day during that time. It's time for a break. Posting will resume someday possibly.