Today, I turn 22-years-old. This day marks the beginning of what I like to call my mid-midlife crisis.
I have to grudgingly face the fact that I will be embarking on a life of complete financial independence in four months. I still hold on to the belief that by next July I will not be living with my parents in their claustrophobic two-bedroom condominium.
Yet, here's my father's reasons of why I will have to stay his "little girl," which means living under his roof for at least two years after graduation: City rent, cell phone bill, car payments, car insurance, parking, gas (maybe I won't get a car after all), medical insurance, food, utility bills, social life, an expensive shopping habit, apartment furniture and so on. The man could go on for at least a good 10 minutes.
However, I recently learned I might have bigger problems. According to a Jan. 20 Associated Press article, "More than half of students at four-year colleges — and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges — lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, as a study found."
The study, funded by Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by the American Institutes of Research, also informed me that I may have difficulties balancing my checkbook, calculating restaurant tips and estimating how far I can drive before I run out of gas.
I learned basic math in elementary school. I use it all the time at my cocktail waitress job. I can make change and tip out a percentage of my total sales to the bartenders. I must be a genius. As for this gasoline situation, look if you see the gauge needle nearing or on the empty line then stop and blow at least $20 on gas. Or just wait for the warning light to turn on. This is all common sense!
Wait, I'm not done. The study also says most students only have intermediate skills, such as being able to locate places on a map. I'm not joking. However, the silver lining is that college students' average literacy is higher then the national adult average.
The study involved giving on-campus tests at 80 public and private colleges to 1,827 students nearing the end of their program. That's all the details I could currently dig up. I have to wonder if the students even took this survey seriously.
You know I might not be ready for every "real world" situation coming my way. But I have common sense. People need to stop looking for ways to inaccurately label college students as lazy and unintelligent. Don't the researchers have better things to study?
I can analyze this survey well enough to know that it completely misrepresents everyone I know at this university. I doubt any of us would be here studying how to be doctors, lawyers, businessmen, communicators, etc. if we lacked basic literacy skills. Now it's back to feeling old and devising a plan to escape going home after graduation.
