I'm not surprised by the poor writing and critical thinking skills he's suggesting. However, that performance has nothing to do with trophies or their parent's

I'm not surprised by the poor writing and critical thinking skills he's suggesting. However, that performance has nothing to do with trophies or their parent's praise. The English curriculum at public schools deemphasizes writing composition to focus on reading scores, which are tied directly to funding. As a result, many students receive very little instructions on how to organize an argument on paper, and generally aren't exposed to well-written essays until their freshman year of college. These two factors create a brew of ignorance that makes students oblivious to college writing standards. This is made worse by the fact that larger colleges have their mandatory writing comp classes filled to the brim with all the grading done by over-worked TA's who, due to volume, cannot give detailed feedback on each paper.