'47 percent of Detroiters are "functionally illiterate”'

Depressing.  The CIA and the United Nations put the United States national literacy rate at 99%, which is probably too high.  Apparently, there are some methodology issues with measuring literacy.

Jonathan Kozol, in his book Illiterate America, suggests that the very high figures of literacy may be due to poor methodology.^[7] The Census Bureau reported literacy rates of 86% based on personal interviews of a relatively small portion of the population and on written responses to Census Bureau mailings. They also considered individuals literate if they simply stated that they could read and write, and made the assumption that anyone with a fifth grade education had at least an 80% chance of being literate. Kozol notes that, in addition to these weaknesses, the reliance on written forms would have obviously excluded many individuals who did not have a literate family member to fill out the form for them. Finally, he suggests that because illiterate people are likely to be unemployed and may not have telephones or permanent addresses, the census bureau would have been unlikely to find them (and that if they did, these people might be especially reluctant to talk to a stranger who might be a bill collector, tax auditor, or salesperson).

This just in - college junior reads his first book ever!

I guess NCAA champion college basketball players like Kemba Walker don't have to read books in college, or ever.  But  the other 99% of students unlikley to land generoous NBA contracts should be reading more books, and writing.papers.  Sometimes I do wonder.

Before the Final Four, Crump suggested that Rhoden’s book would be the first that Walker had ever made it through cover-to-cover. After the win over Kentucky, Walker confirmed this. “That’s true,” he said. “You can write that. It is the first book I’ve ever read.”

UConn Star Guard Reads First Book

College application essay camps

After finding this CollegeConfidential thread, I read a little more about college application camps.  Here are a few examples.

StorySudio College Application Essay Camp

A fun, invigorating, and productive week for high school juniors and those getting ready to apply to college….

Over the course of the week, you'll brainstorm topics and ideas, write first drafts and incorporate feedback to write a second or third draft. By Friday, you'll have met the challenge of writing your essays, leaving you and your family to concentrate on other college decisions. Craft these pieces this summer and avoid first-semester anxiety as admissions deadlines loom.

Location:  Chicago
Course Fee: $1250.00

Overland’s College Essay Program offers rising seniors the chance to spend a week and a half on the Williams College campus producing the essay needed for their college applications. Each of our students will have the time to create, revise and polish his or her essay while enjoying the natural beauty of the surrounding Berkshires.
Location: Williamstown, Massachusetts
Cost: $1995 (airfare not included)

College Prep for the Arts - Writing the Personal Essay at UCLA

Mornings and some evenings will be spent researching colleges, small group discussions of the merits and myths of various programs, individual consulting time, reviewing application procedures for your colleges and department choices, developing an individual timeline calendar and writing and editing the initial drafts of your essays -- all under the guidance of our consultants. Afternoons will be spent touring college theater, dance and film and digital media departments in the Southern California area. A Q&A will be held with each department we tour.

Location:  Los Angeles
Tuition:  $2812

YWC: The College Admission & Application Essay

Description:  High school seniors and community college transfer students will have the opportunity to develop thoughtful, personal, powerful admission and application essays for colleges, universities, and other post-secondary programs.

La Jolla, CA

Fee of $300

"average U.S. teen sends 3,339 texts a month"

Kids write more, gain ease with language, through texting is the story's headline.  I question if the quality of their writing improves.

The Nielsen Company recently found that the average U.S. teen sends 3,339 texts a month — more than six during every waking hour. Teen females lead the way with 4,050 texts per month....

I would agree that texting helps develop certain language skills:

"Adolescents may not consider their writing to be writing, but it takes skill and creativity in order to manipulate language so you can be understood by your peers," Turner said. "They can experiment with language, have a unique voice and be part of a community."...
Many educators have quickly concluded they need to understand how kids communicate and, rather than scoffing at texting, actively help students switch between different modes of writing."If students know that you understand their text language, they listen to you," said Maureen Lindell, an English teacher at Eastchester High School. "Then we can say, 'This is the language you use with your friends, and this is the language you use in school,' " she said.

And then there's this problem:

Westlake Middle School teacher Christine Silidigan said that some students definitely acquire bad habits from texting, like skipping capital letters and commas and using the wrong forms of words."So instead of discussing important aspects to help a writer grow, we're spending our time undoing all the bad habits formed with texting," she said.

This is hard to believe.

"The research has shown that the best texters are the best spellers and that texting actually improves literacy skills," he wrote.

In fact, I did not find anything specific in this article that shows improved literacy skills were caused by more texting.  Perhaps it is simply a correlation with no causation.  Higher income children are more likely to own mobile phones and computers, so they are more likely to be heavy texters.  And higher income generally correlates with higher literacy skills.

Among the young, blogging is in decline because . . . writing is just too hard

Kim Hou, a high school senior in San Francisco, said she quit blogging months ago, but acknowledged that she continued to post fashion photos on Tumblr. “It’s different from blogging because it’s easier to use,” she said. “With blogging you have to write, and this is just images. Some people write some phrases or some quotes, but that’s it.”

Here are some numbers.

The Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center found that from 2006 to 2009, blogging among children ages 12 to 17 fell by half; now 14 percent of children those ages who use the Internet have blogs. Among 18-to-33-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped two percentage points in 2010 from two years earlier...
While the younger generation is losing interest in blogging, people approaching middle age and older are sticking with it. Among 34-to-45-year-olds who use the Internet, the percentage who blog increased six points, to 16 percent, in 2010 from two years earlier, the Pew survey found. Blogging by 46-to-55-year-olds increased five percentage points, to 11 percent, while blogging among 65-to-73-year-olds rose two percentage points, to 8 percent.

I feel like a dinosaur.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/technology/internet/21blog.html?src=me&ref=general