Are reading and writing falling by the wayside due to the surge in technology, especially hand held devices?

2019-06-28T11:43:11-04:00

I have been a teacher of English, reading, and ESOL (English as a second language) for more than twenty years. When I first started teaching, we had one reading teacher for a high school of more than four thousand students. There were 20 reading teachers at that same high school when I transferred to a different school. I noticed that the increase of cell phones affected my students' writing because of the use of text messaging abbreviations and shorter choppy sentences written for speed. Reading research sources for critical thinking skills also began to suffer because students would simply look up topics on their phones without reading in depth from many different authors. I ask this question because I have heard many officers and NCOs complain about the reading and writing skills of newer recruits. Reading SOPs, regulations, Field Manuals, and Technical Manuals are essential for proficiency and promotion. Writing is a mandatory skill for soldier evaluations, debriefings and field reports, and award recommendations. Every student I teach in middle school has a phone on them (some parents insist that their child must have a phone in case they need to make contact with them). It is a struggle every day to get them to focus on the skills I am teaching rather than playing music, videos, and games. I have heard that this is even a problem in BCT, Boot Camp, and advanced training.

Response by LTC Eugene Chu made Jun 28 at 2019 11:45 AM

2019-06-28T11:45:50-04:00

I would sadly say yes. Along with choppy sentences from social media and technology, essays and formal reports are usually the means to exercise good writing. Outside of officer or NCO training courses, we often don't write extensively in many MOS or branch positions.

Response by TSgt Regina McCloud made Jun 28 at 2019 11:49 AM

2019-06-28T11:49:49-04:00

I too believe that reading and writing are being left behind due to technology. Where will we be in 20 years.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 28 at 2019 11:51 AM

2019-06-28T11:51:57-04:00

Unfortunately yes. Working in the law enforcement side of things, we have to take reports from the public fairly often. One day I had a TSgt come in to report that she had lost her wallet and ID. As I’m writing the report, I hand her my pen so she can write her statement. She was having a difficult time writing with a pen and paper because everything she does is either on her computer or text. I fear I will be seeing this come up a lot more in the future.

Response by CW5 Jack Cardwell made Jun 28 at 2019 11:53 AM

2019-06-28T11:53:00-04:00

I went to a furniture store last year, they don't sell bookcases any more ! What does that tell you !

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 28 at 2019 12:10 PM

2019-06-28T12:10:42-04:00

My experience agrees with your well-stated/accurate and front-line classroom experiences. Wife taught Special Ed for 25+ years and was able to see what was happening in the rest of the school environment (especially compared to when we came up). Sad to say sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. Although not exactly education, following Parkland the well-intentioned "Promise Program" is finally being re-examined. Good to see many (but not enough) parents (joint, single and/or guardians) still value education as well as those students that are self-motivated. Am optimistic/hopeful that things will --eventually-- self-correct.

As Coolidge said: "After all, the chief business of the American people (and everywhere else) is business." Without a good education (and the skills you mentioned) - good luck w/that. Final score: Business has defeated everything in its path (and w/business = including things military). Perhaps Mae West needs to start teaching some life lessons (clip included).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCja9HCzzH4

Mae West teaches a room of school boys in "My Little Chickadee" 1940

The world would never be the same after Mae West was born in 1892. She did things no other female actor would dare do. Even jailed once in New York for doing...

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Jun 28 at 2019 12:12 PM

2019-06-28T12:12:52-04:00

Some schools still have kids do book reports, and read certain books for s school.

Response by Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen made Jun 28 at 2019 12:13 PM

2019-06-28T12:13:15-04:00

Salvation Army wouldn't take an old bookcase I wanted to donate. It was in perfect condition but they said there isn't enough market for them to take up floor space in their stores. Did finally get Vietnam Veterans to take it, but wow, no market for bookcases!

Response by SPC Douglas Bolton made Jun 28 at 2019 12:23 PM

2019-06-28T12:23:45-04:00

SGT Private RallyPoint Member I too was a reading and English teacher. Now days, I don't see any hand written reports from kids. No misspelled word (Spell check) and horrible English. WE are getting to be a backwards country.

Response by SPC Woody Bullard made Jun 28 at 2019 1:41 PM

2019-06-28T13:41:34-04:00

Cursive writing skills have almost disappeared with the computer use generation as very few
use this form of writing today. Everyone is texting on their cell phone and some still send E-Mail
on their home PC's. None of this communication requires cursive writing skill. Most of today's
generation do not even print letters on a piece of paper with a pencil. Right now I'm just striking
different letters on my keyboard with my fingers and this is called writing today. I would like to
believe that reading skills are still being used to read all those cell phone text messages. Dave,
students should not be allowed to keep a cell phone on them while they are in a classroom.
Students should have to turn their cell phones over to the teacher when they enter the classroom.
The phones should be kept on the teacher's desk during class and returned to the students at the
end of the class. That would not stop the text messages or calls from coming in on the phones so
you would still have a problem in that area but it would get those phones away from the students.
Maybe this idea has already been presented at your school and was not accepted as policy.
As for cell phones allowed in the possession of military trainees in BCT or AIT that should be
VERBOTEN ! Any emergency message from a trainee's family can go through the chain of command
to the trainee as it did with me and others at Fort Benning. The U.S. Army BCT and AIT has relaxed
the training regulations. It is not the strict Army I served in where we were not allowed to keep our
civilian clothes we arrived in as we had to mail our civvies back home. No radio or TV allowed in BCT
or AIT.

Response by PVT Mark Zehner made Jun 28 at 2019 2:12 PM

2019-06-28T14:12:19-04:00

Spelling sure has

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jun 28 at 2019 2:18 PM

2019-06-28T14:18:11-04:00

I suck at writing essays and always will.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 29 at 2019 5:56 AM

2019-06-29T05:56:02-04:00

Hmm, I feel this is something that probably requires further research than most respondents will conduct prior to answering. I guess that lends to your point.

Since I have not conducted any research to determine the causation, I can only rely on subjective correlation, as has everyone else. I subjectively think it correlates to the ever increasing parental workloads over the years, and the lack of parental involvement in the education of their children. Parents diffuse the responsibility of ensuring their children are well-educated onto the schools, as though teachers can perform magic tricks. Sure, it can be argued that taxes pay for the expectation of certain educational outcomes, but taxes don't create motivation and effort within students, that is a joint effort between the school and parents. Some are more imbalanced than others.

In my household, when we notice certain bad educational habits forming in our children, we contact the teacher and come up with a plan that we can implement in school and at home to correct it. This usually corrects the issue very quickly to both the teachers' and our delight. The teachers also seem VERY surprised that we actually care about the education of our kids. They tell us they rarely ever get parental involvement in that kind of way, aside from parents that attend the PTA/PTO meetings and mid-season update walkthroughs, just to ignore the issues presented and go back to having no involvement with their kids' education at home.

I can agree that technology creates shortcuts that deliver different outcomes of knowledge. I just don't think it's a primary issue, more so than the shifting societal views of education (thinking it's only for employment purposes) and lack of parental involvement. I've absolutely typed more in online forums, chats, and text messages than I have ever written by hand. I grew up in the online chatroom days of 1337-speak, A/S/L, and other online shorthand writing; I also haven't read a legit book since 2012 (normal books have always been too boring for me). My penmanship sucks (I grew up with cursive too) but am highly proficient in typing. I have seen many of the very things I grew up with used as correlation indicators of a lacking generation; I should be much different than I am. Yet, here I am, the only person many people know who uses correct grammar and punctuation in text messages. . .

My point is, I don't know. Maybe. Probably not.

Response by SPC Darren Koele made Jul 11 at 2019 7:57 PM

2019-07-11T19:57:35-04:00

Absolutely. To be blunt, I think technology has made people mentally lazy in the areas of reading and writing; one could even include grammar in this. Now, I am far from perfect with grammar, but I often try to correct the obvious mistakes when I make them. What bothers me is the use of "texting" type language and simple spelling errors. I'm not even talking the "their/there/they're" type of errors, but rather saying "boarders" instead of "borders" in an immigration discussion, or "bare" instead of "bear" when talking the 2nd amendment. It doesn't end there either. The amount of misspellings I see, not just on social media but also in the workplace, is nearly terrifying. To pile on to that, many of these mistakes are made by supposedly "educated" adults.