High School Research Papers: A Dying Breed
In a new book titled Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell, the sociologist and popular writer, claims that the best way to achieve expertise is to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills. The idea is not new. It has been captured for ages in the old proverb of "practice makes perfect."
Unfortunately, in American education, the move seems to be in the opposite direction. Writing is one of the most important skills that schools can teach. Yet, high schools are going to shorter and shorter assignments, often to the point of requiring no papers at all.
As Jay Mathews reports in the Washington Post, :
"We are beginning to see, in the howls of exasperation from college introductory course professors and their students, how high a price we are paying for this. It isn’t just college students who are hurt. Studies show research skills are vital for high school graduates looking for good jobs or trade school slots.
The leading U.S. proponent of more research work for the nation’s teens is Will Fitzhugh, who has been publishing high school student papers in his Concord Review journal since 1987. In 2002, he persuaded the Albert Shanker Institute to fund a study of research paper writing by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut. The results were ... bleak .... Sixty-two percent of the 400 high school history teachers surveyed never assigned a paper as long as 3,000 words, and 27.percent never assigned anything as long as 2,000 words.
They had no time to assign, monitor, correct and grade such papers, they said. If they assigned long projects, they could not insist on the many revisions needed to teach students the meaning of college-level work. So most new undergraduates check into their freshman courses unclear on the form and language required for academic research.
The colleges aren’t great at filling the gap. A new book by Seton Hall University scholar Rebecca D. Cox, “The College Fear Factor,” painfully exposes students wallowing in ignorance, and professors not understanding why. Only about half survive this torture and graduate."
Despite the talk of higher standards, almost all the focus in on the early primary grades. Little thought or effort goes into developing the more advanced skills in the later school years. So, regardless of how desirable, it is not realistic to expect much change in schools in the near future.
Given this situation, what can committed parents do to overcome the problems? As with many issues, it requires taking matters into one's own hands. It may be surprising but there is an option that can do a lot--and happily at the same time, foster family interaction. It is THOUGHTFUL DISCUSSION. The key is to set regular times for conversations about key issues--in the family, in the nation, in the world. The demands of such conversation are not identical with writing--but they have important similarities. And rules can be put into place that offer the advantages of research. For example, once a mutually agreed upon topic is determined, each person agrees to read at least three articles on the topic. That way, when the conversation takes place, they are prepared and ready to back up the points they raise. Admittedly, this type of discussion is currently fairly rare, but that does not mean, the situation cannot change. The potential gains in family communication, self-expression, and world knowledge are enormous. So with a little effort and no cost, amazing things can be accomplished.
