215 minutes and 21 seconds later, I finally hung up the phone with my dear friend W. She is quite intelligent, which makes our conversations meaty and satisfying. She is challenging and encouraging and admonishing and inspiring all at once. Of course, talking the entire night away helps.

I enjoyed being able to talk all the news stories that have piqued my interest while camping out on the couch. One I did not get around to rehashing was this satirical piece about literacy. It reminds me of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, and yet at the same time it strikes a bit of fear in my heart as to the future of literacy.

My friend was talking about her graduate students in social work. She teaches one class a semester in addition to serving as a counselor to distressed families in the system down south. We were discussing standards of construction and presentation. For example, if a student cannot be bothered to spell check a paper, I believe that it should be docked a grade before the cover page is even turned. Were it possible, I would hand it right back and say, "If you care not enough to spell check your paper, I care not enough to grade it."

Anyhow, she was saying how her class was not one filled with English majors and therefore well-written compositions were not her goal. Yet, given that, as she came to put it, the writing of these students would have higher stakes than an English essay, perhaps that thought process did not hold true. The reports, the documentation, her students would be writing would directly affect the lives of their subject matter, with abused children, that could actually be a life-or-death situation. So, perhaps how they write might actually be important. I coached her on my favorite three C's. Coherent (makes sense), Cohesive (the content sticks together from beginning to end), and Clean (spelling, grammar, and construction mistakes free). You need not be a Faulkner or a Angelou or a Shakepeare in my book to earn that A. You just need the three C's.

I am an absolute fanatic in my belief that it is vital that people be able to clearly convey their messages. Students need to be able to demonstrate that they have garnered knowledge, have internalized it, and can manipulate it to their purposes. If they can do this, then they have learned. This translates to the business place because employees also need to be able to clearly convey their messages...emails, letters, reports, presentations, etc.

Yet, while I fervently hope that this article is satirical in nature, a part of me fears that it is not. Why do students need to read after all? They can get what is necessary to their lives in multi-media format. Oh, how shortsighted and empty a message. Perish the thought!