Too many of today’s college graduates graduate without possessing “simple, everyday competence,” says Jeffrey Wallin, President of the American Academy for Liberal Education.

This organization’s aim is to move colleges away from “trendy” courses and back to more rigorous “core” subjects.

Darn it. We’d better listen to this organization’s wisdom. After all, a 1993 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics showed that half of 5,000 college graduates surveyed could not read or interpret a bus schedule.

Oh, the humanity of it all!

Damn, I always knew that taking geology and meteorology taught me the skills to read and interpret the bus schedule.

I remember that first day of geology when the professor said, “Look, I realize some of you may just be taking this class for your general education requirement. But this course will give you the logical skills to read bus schedules, go grocery shopping, and clean your apartment. Trust me.”

Yeah, I dreaded a class mockingly called “rocks for jocks” which proved I’m not the jock I thought I was in high school because I found it boring and difficult.

It was tough, but damn it, it paid off.

Give me a break. I might have learned something in geology but I don’t think a strong general education determines someone’s ability to read bus schedules and use public transportation systems.

If anything, maybe a student needs some confidence-building courses like speech.

So a college graduate can’t read or interpret a bus schedule. The question is, “What the hell are they gonna do about it?”

The right thing to do is to approach the bus driver and say, “Excuse me. I know I’ve got a college diploma but I’m basically an idiot. Could you help me better understand this bus schedule?”

Problem is, this takes someone with the testicles or ovaries to say this. I’m not sure you learn this in a general education class with 300 people.

And I sure as hell hope you don’t have to go to college to learn how to ride public transportation. That would kind of defeat the purpose of “public” transportation, wouldn’t it? You could rename it “college graduate” transportation.

Just imagine the scene. You see an old friend at the library.

“Hey Jim, how have you been? Just think, man, after you get done with your general education classes you can ride the bus with me, dude! Keep studying. You’ll know how to read the schedule when you’re done.”

A Roper survey conducted this year showed that 84 percent of college seniors couldn’t say who was U.S. president at the start of the Korean War (Harry S. Truman), and only eight percent knew the source of “government of the people, by the people and for the people” (Abraham Lincoln).

But do we only take classes for knowledge of facts and figures?

I mean, so I don’t know off the top of my head who was U.S. president at the start of the Korean War.

Now, if I don’t know where to quickly go and get that information, there’s a problem.

Also, is education merely an indoctrination? Are schools factories? Are teachers tools? Are students products?

I hope not.

I’m no expert on higher education. Maybe changes in courses need to be made. Maybe there is evidence showing that too many college graduates “can’t add, don’t know much about history, and can’t write clearly and forcefully,” as Wallin puts it.

But do bus incompetence and historical ignorance really measure this?

RECEPTION MEMORIES

Corey Moss wrote in his “Moss Pit” column on Monday about the emerging popularity of the “Macarena” at wedding receptions.

“Macarena” is a dorky song to begin with, but have you ever noticed how wedding receptions can ruin a good song?

Take the song “Takin’ Care of Business,” for example. You used to look forward to hearing that good ole’ blue-collar song.

But you hear that song on the radio now and all you can think about is that ghastly sight of Uncle Larry and Aunt Maud trying to shake it, shuck it, and jive it at every wedding reception you’ve ever been to. Not a pretty sight to be sure.

I can only imagine the freaky sight of my relatives doing the “Macarena.” A horrifying thought indeed.

But maybe that’s just me.

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Drew Chebuhar is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Muscatine.