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Adolescent literacy
Jul. 18th, 2005 11:37 amI recently read an article that defined "adolescent literacy" as the ability to comprehend and make meaning of writing in a variety of mediums: internet-speak, newspapers, textbooks, email, fiction, nonfiction.
So, I have a confession to make: I am functionally illiterate. I don't follow the newspapers faithfully (Matt T had to explain what the big fuss with the Karl Rove case was), because it makes me feel helpless or angry to see the news half the time, when I don't plan on going into politics. I don't speak AOL. I can read nonfiction well enough, and comprehend it, but I don't give a damn half the time because it usually comes across as academics farting around, and, as far as I can tell, not doing much to save the world, even if they sometimes have interesting theories that may or may not work.
I think the point of the article was that adolescents have to differentiate between all the mediums they're inundated with, but that really should have taken a sentence.
Anyway. Either I'm a sad failure of the education system, or "adolescent literacy" is a meaningless term. Probably some of both -- I really should be more interested in watching the world fall apart by the seams, rather than wondering what I can do to save it, and I probably should be less disrespectful of the intelligentsia. And "adolescent literacy" is just another buzzword replacement for "secondary reading fluency and knowing how to tell academic writing from non-academic writing."
So, I have a confession to make: I am functionally illiterate. I don't follow the newspapers faithfully (Matt T had to explain what the big fuss with the Karl Rove case was), because it makes me feel helpless or angry to see the news half the time, when I don't plan on going into politics. I don't speak AOL. I can read nonfiction well enough, and comprehend it, but I don't give a damn half the time because it usually comes across as academics farting around, and, as far as I can tell, not doing much to save the world, even if they sometimes have interesting theories that may or may not work.
I think the point of the article was that adolescents have to differentiate between all the mediums they're inundated with, but that really should have taken a sentence.
Anyway. Either I'm a sad failure of the education system, or "adolescent literacy" is a meaningless term. Probably some of both -- I really should be more interested in watching the world fall apart by the seams, rather than wondering what I can do to save it, and I probably should be less disrespectful of the intelligentsia. And "adolescent literacy" is just another buzzword replacement for "secondary reading fluency and knowing how to tell academic writing from non-academic writing."
