August 29, 4:17 am
How dumb have we become?
I recently received a request from Oxford University Press to take an excerpt from one of my Workplace Excellence columns and use it as springboard for discussion questions in a forthcoming college business textbook.
Normally something like this is flattering, but after reading their synopsis of my article, I was shocked to discover it misrepresented my viewpoint. To further add insult, the questions they’d assigned led the reader to conclude my points (misrepresented as they were) to be rather stupid.
They wanted me to sign off on this?
I took a bit of time and edited their synopsis to better represent my original article, and then edited two of the questions so that the students would actually have to THINK for themselves instead of being a lemming for what the editor was trying to get them to believe.
After submitting it back to them I received the following response:
Unfortunately the changes you requested would have meant that that text would be too advanced for the learners our book is aimed at.
Too advanced???
The text I submitted was at the 10th grade reading level (high school sophomore). Was that too advanced? Or was it the questions that made them THINK for themselves instead of being led to an editor-determined conclusion?
I’m not insulted they didn’t use my work, but I am curious — how dumb have we become that college students in a business class cannot be asked to think for themselves nor read at the 10th grade level?
Discussion
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