Do things change over time? Today's article was originally published in November 2015 at Intellectual Takeout by Annie Holmquest. So 6+ years later and has anything changed? Should it have? Why not? What will you do about it? Last week the Nation’s Report Card announced that no more than 40% of America’s 4th and 8th graders are proficient in reading and math. Those are scary numbers, but the numbers for writing are even more frightening: only 27% of American 8th and 12th graders attained proficiency. Why are American students such terrible writers? Several answers to this question dawned on me while reading through an 1897 text by Dr. Edwin Lewis. Entitled A First Book in Writing … [Read more...]