When freshmen can’t cut it, who’s at fault?
August 14, 2009 by Geneva ReidPosted in: Academics, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
A freshman enters college and struggles right off the bat. Who should be held responsible: the college … or the high school that didn’t offer adequate preparation?
That’s the debate taking place these days among educators.
Many colleges are lending a hand to students by offering remedial courses.
Here’s how the numbers break down. Of the more than a million freshmen taking remedial classes every year:
- 60% attend two-year schools, and
- up to 30% are enrolled at four-year schools.
With such a sizeable percentage of students requiring help, it’s clear colleges can’t bear the burden alone.
So high schools have begun stepping up their efforts to prepare students for college:
- In California, students take English and math tests at the end of their junior year to determine whether they’re ready for college-level courses. If they’re not, they work on these skills in their senior year.
- West Virginia has upped its math requirements from two years to three.
Assisting in the efforts of getting high schools involved nationwide is the non-profit education reform organization Achieve.
It sprang into action in 2005, and since then has focused on helping states raise academic standards and graduation requirements. A 50-state survey they took earlier this year, shows U.S. high schools are moving in the right direction:
- Nearly half the states (23) have aligned their end of high school standards in English and math with college expectations.
- 20 states have set graduation requirements at the college level.
- During the next few years, 33 states will have assessments in place to measure the college-readiness of their students.
What do you think is the solution to getting students ready for college? Tell us in the comments section below.
HigherEdMorning delivers the latest HigherEd news once a week to the inboxes of over 200,000 HigherEd professionals.
Click here to sign up and start your FREE subscription to HigherEdMorning!
Tags: college readiness, college remedial courses, high school standards
Loading ...
August 12th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Here’s a shocker – could it be the STUDENTS fault !
The whole way this article is written is dripping with modern PC spineless bullC. It’s everyone else’s responsibility except the student themselves, who should have made sure they darn well got themselves better prepared. Nannying young people in this way is absolutely a flawed approach. Get students to take responsibility for their own fates.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:40 am
While I agree with Marko’s statement that the students should be accountable for their own performance, part of the problem is the standards that are set at the high school level. It is a proven axiom that most students will live up (or down) to the expectations we set for them. If state high school systems do not set standards that prepare the students for college level work, the schools will not teach the students what is needed. If the high school curriculum does have appropriate standards and coursework, then it is more appropriate to point to the students who are not achieving. We can’t expect students to learn what is not being taught!
August 12th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I agree, Marko. It’s becoming more and more common for people to attempt to put the blame on others when they need to step up and take responsibility for their own issues. Not only is it the students who need to work harder, but also the parents. Parenting has become something people shirk off more and more these days, lending to children not getting the positive influence from their parents that they need to. Hey, there’s that lack of responsibility rearing it’s ugly head again.
Don’t expect someone to hold your hand through life, you’ll be sadly mistaken.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Could be the student. My son scored a 32 on the ACT, but he doesn’t have the self-discipline to get to bed at a decent hour, go to class and study. High school never challenged him.
I hear lots of stories about other young, white males who have had bad freshmen years.
I don’t know what to do. It’s not a matter of intelligence for many.
Maybe, we’re not teaching them that it takes work and how to then work toward a goal.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Here, here, Marko!
I’m the person at my univesity who has to drop the hammer on students when they fail to perform academically. Regrettably, many of the parents think along the lines of the perspective this article was written from: it’s got to be SOMEone’s fault other than my son’s or daughter’s. Sigh.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Yes, students bear a great deal of responsibility, but it is also up to the high school system to set and enforce standards that are, by senior year of high school, nearing college levels. Freshman year college shouldn’t simply seem like a ‘do over’ of senior year of high school, but there should also not be a radical gap between them: what the article seems to be saying. My sense is that high schools have a much different sense of what ‘college standards’ means and should work more with colleges and universities to develop policies. High schools are so eager for their students to get into colleges that they give As away like Halloween candy, and then professors who teach Freshman get the brunt of anger when they give students reasonable grades for college-level standards. Because of course feedback forms and so forth, many college instructors simply give in to the grade inflation culture, and students never actually receive accurate grades.
Part of the issue also lies with parents, who simply keep telling their children they are the best and it is the fault of some external source (teacher, American Idol judge, court room judge) if they have been judged as not the best. Are high schools and parents helping the youth to develop too much self-esteem without having achieved anything? Ultimately, the issue has to be tackled by whole school systems and colleges, not individual teachers giving grades, and many kids would be more successful going to vocational or trade schools, depending on their own interests and aspirations, not simply those of their parents.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am
While some students may goof off, I blame the high school when it comes to the average student, not the ones taking AP classes. The average level of high schools in this country is about one to two years behind that in France. And yet, ultimately, American students need the same level of education as French students when they come out of college to face the world, which means that there is a lot of catching up to do, especially if it includes remedial classes. I thought SAT’s determined whether a student is ready for college or not. I guess it is not the case.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I agree with Marko, we should not be nannying young adults. On the other hand as Sean mentioned, it is important to set high standards and expectations so they be successful in college and in life. However, this cannot be accomplished if as Liz said, parenting does not have the priority and importance that should have nowadays in our society, and that is a crucial factor in the matter of discusion. In conclusion, it is a combination of these three factors that need improvement and adequate attention to help our young generations to succeed.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:40 am
If a student does everything asked by it’s high school and comes out making A’s in those classes, then the student should be prepared for college. If that student goes to a university and is not able to make it because of a lack of fundamentals that should have been learned at the high school level, then of course the high school is partly to blame. If, on the other hand, the student isn’t passing courses because they are out enjoying their new found freedom, then it is not the high schools fault.
Unfortunately, I see too many students coming in from high schools with 4.0′s or 3.5′s and they have no idea how to study or take notes. That should not be happening. Combine that with a lack of dedication on the students part and it is a recipe for disaster. So while the student is responsible, the high schools (and the parents) could certainly be doing a better job of preparing students for the rigors of college life.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Require all graduating from high school to serve in the armed forces for two years before enrolling in college. To paraphrase Booz consultant in FT who paraphrased Samual Adams, “Nothing like imminent demise to focus ones attention.”
August 12th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Ultimately, it is the student’s responsibilty. However, I think that many universities have lowered their admissions standards, in an effort to boost enrollment, to include students who are not prepared for higher education. If universities are not retaining students due to grades, I think that it begs closer scrutiny of our admissions standards. Further, I think that partnering with community colleges is a step in the right direction toward developing students who are academically prepared to be successful.
August 12th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I think it is the student at fault in majority of the cases. Answer the simple question of mine and you would get the answer:
Why among the two students going to the same college, one drops out and the other goes on to become a successful scientist? It is not the college or the school that made them different from each other, it is how you treat yourself. Ask yourself often, if you have ambitions? are you on your way to pursue those? Always remember, you could be the worst enemy of yourself, nobody else !!
August 12th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
The students can only demonstrate in public (school) what they have learned at home. Parents need to take responsibility for seeing that their children do well in school. I know someone who is a teacher and she actually writes papers for her middle school son. What has he learned?
August 12th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Back in the old days (some would say “dark ages”), in the state of Oregon, in junior high AND high school we had more homework than you would believe–at least 2 1/2 to 3 hours’ worth per week night as well as more on the weekends. At the time, my family had moved from California, and noticed the intensity of classwork in Oregon schools was very high. Even though I took college prep English and other courses, by the time I got to college (I went 2 years to our local community college) I was scared to death that I would fail my college courses. When I transferred to the University of Oregon, I discovered that I may have been academically prepared for the work as a junior, but psychologically, I wasn’t ready for the intensity of the effort required. I had to re-group and change my major. Thanks to a wise academic advisor, I managed to graduate with decent grades in 4 years.
So, yes, it is the responsibility of the student if they succeed or not. I don’t believe in
spoon feeding. What I thought college was for was to prepare one’s self for the work place, and work place discipline. I wonder how the students going through college now are going to do when they have the attitude that they are entitled to a first job that earns them a 6-figure salary with no real “work.”
August 12th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Well…one more thing–The Valedictorian from my high school class didn’t do well when he first started out either. I think he had been “coasting” thanks to some of the teachers who saw his mathematical intelligence, but didn’t make him really work. He ended up transferring from Oregon State University to Southern Oregon College. Maybe he didn’t make it, and maybe he did?
August 12th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
It could be any or all of the above.
Too many students have gotten good grades just sitting in class in high school. This leads them to believe that is the only effort they need. They should be challenged- no one should be able to get 100 % all the time. Parents need to let the student be responsible for his/her work at an early age, and the schools need to have standards to meet.
Students need to understand learning takes work- it isn’t an inborn ability to just listen and understand.
Colleges need to have higher admission standards and be able to turn down students who aren’t ready for college. It does no good to bring on most unprepared students and expect them to do well, even with help. The need to encourage groups who haven’t traditionally gone to college shouldn’t get caught in the trap of bringing unprepared students- no matter how smart they are. Many won’t be able to make it and that doesn’t encourage the next person to try. They will need to get up to speed first.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
My child passed the Calif exit exam (high school) in the 9th grade with absolutely no effort and was ticked off to find out that that did not make one eligible to go straight into college. (To say the Kid was bored in school would be an understatement.) Unfortunately, because a huge percentage of the students in the state did not pass in their final years of school, they postponed implementation of the exit exam as a requirement for that (and possibly future) years. Those facts are pretty scary on their own, all around.
[You'll have to excuse my sanitizing the following for name and gender. I don't want my child identified. And I apologize in advance for the length, but I want to hit all the points.]
My child went through a series of schools where expectations were extremely low. “Peers” in, for example, junior year classes would tell the kiddo to “not use such big words, Einstein” when Kiddo was trying to give a presentation. The teachers certainly had to “dumb down” the curriculum or half the students would fail. (Having a high failure rate is pretty much a bobsled-to-unemployment, so it was understandable – although vile.) Having no other referents around all day, every day, how was the Kiddo supposed to know what was expected at the college level, nevermind develop the appropriate skills set?
As a mom, I shoved Kiddo along through the school system and did my own “enrichment” teaching in non-school hours. (Kiddo was reading at the 4th grade level on day 1 of Kindergarten, but was made to sit still during “can you tell me this color?” and “these are your ABCs” lessons. There was no advanced option available. So I broadened things out rather than focusing on progress forward to save Kiddo the misery.) As a single parent working/commuting 12 hours a day, that didn’t leave much time, but I did what I could. I do have a college degree in education. (I wouldn’t go into the public teaching profession for all the tea in China after seeing both sides of it.) What do parents who are uneducated do to navigate the system? Who helps them? (I believe the answer is “nobody is available, too bad for you.”) It seems to be the clueless leading the clueless to a mediocre end, generally.
Kiddo tested spectacularly on the ACT and SAT, but was not in any way prepared for college. Not at all. Not emotionally, not socially, not intellectually. Kiddo had no idea how to study, how to take notes, and had never had a reason to develop the discipline (I assume) needed to get through a freshman college year. Kiddo was immature and clueless at 18. I guess not everyone develops on cue, right? Kids are not widgets you put on an assembly line, shove into the black box, and expect have them coming out tap-dancing at the other side, right? (Or are they?)
I sent Kiddo to a local community college to “ripen” for a few years, and it did a lot of good. Our current problem is that the Kid’s having hell finding a really good school (in the field of interest) that will allow transfer admits. If Kiddo had just gone to a 4 year school as a frosh, at least the kid would have gotten in. (Probably would have flunked out and/or had a breakdown, but a space would have been alotted.) Now we’re both out waving in the breeze, although kid has continued to read via the local university library.
I studied systems dysfunctions in grad school. You’d have to be blind to not see this one. The public education system is designed to crunch kids in, standardize ‘em to meed the lowest common denominator (it seems), and to shove out a consuming, marginally literate product at the other end. Since the powers that be pretty much eliminated any sort of serious vocational education in the school system in favor of “let’s have everyone go to college” mentality, those who are either not suited or not ready to go are left as my Kiddo is, flapping in the breeze with only enough skills to do minimum wage jobs. If that.
Something’s got to give. I don’t know how to fix it, but it’s definitely malfunctioning.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I am Ph.D. English faculty at a four-year university, and I see more utterly unprepared freshmen than I care to recall. Many incoming freshman read at a ninth-grade level, and write at the middle-school level. This is because high school graduation only requires that they be proficient at what someone decided was a ninth-grade level. In some school districts, being an “A” student just means that the kid never brought in an AK-47 to mow down the lunchroom. It is easy just to blame the kids, but the kids were not the ones who set these low requirements. In fact, the students are often quite stunned and embarrassed to discover how far below level college they are. Some buckle down to play catch-up (i.e., they do take responsibility for their work), but some throw in the towel because they are immature or because the gap between where they are and where they need to be is just to great to leap on their own. This problem begins in K-12 education, and needs to be solved there.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Student should get as much preparation as possible in high school. If they do not test into college level math and English they should not be admitted to the university – go to community college. Universities should not be teaching high school (remedial) math and english classes – it is too costly and these student take up the space of a more qualified student. But here in PC California many minorities who are not prepared for college level work are admitted to the CSU system simply because they are minorities. Big waste of money because these students take 5 to 6 years to gaduate instead of 4 years. The CSU is subsidized by tax money for the 2/3 of the cost and the students 1/3 – very cheap but excellent value.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
When I get first time college students in my reading classes, at a local community college, they are upset that they are placed in the class. I cite the ‘exit exams’ they took from our state high schools and passed where the grade level to pass in reading is an 8th grade level! The readability levels for many college textbooks are written at the 14th to graduate levels. Students with 8th grade reading skills have much difficulty navigating the complexities of critical thinking and reading necessary for many college courses. The biggest problem I see is the lack of inferential comprehension skills. I live in a state where the education system ranks 49/50 according to various sources. So where does the responsibility lie? We all need to take up that cross—teachers, students, parents, school boards, staff, administrators. We should ask—’What is best for the student’—that should be our mantra. At the college level, the student is the captain of their educational journey however they are given limited skills to help themselves steer the vessel!
August 12th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
High school is mandatory up to a certain age. Last I heard, college isn’t. Unless admission is “provisional”, admission to a college or university should mean that the institution judges the applicant capable of doing the work if s/he works diligently. If large numbers of students are truly incapable, as opposed to not taking college seriously, I would look to the admissions office or to the courses themselves.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
(As always, my statements are generalizations to reflexct the greatest swath of persons, so don’t shoot this messenger with a “but SOME students”…)
As a community college instructor who ends up seeing many of these remedial students, I find the bigger problem to be not that high schools don’t have college-equivalent standards, it’s that the barest college standards are the HIGHEST level the high schools set for the top students.
Let’s be honest: there are always those who work hard, but most students in high school often have a “good enough” mentality when it comes to their work, so when only the highest levels of achievement equate to college level work, you have a problem.
High schools need to shoot for standards that are equivalent to the END of the freshman year of college. Since most students will easily slip from those standards anyway, it means that a greater percentage will at least have the minimum skills necessary to start college.
Aim high, but expect mediocrity in the high school graduates. I’m not a cynic, just a realist who deals with this every day.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
While many of you have made good points, the point of $$$ has been left out of the equation. I have had many students who have told me that they never learned how to study. I have had several students tell me that they went through high school without opening a book and graduated with a 3.5-3.9 grade point average. When asked how that could be, I was told that they only needed to pass the SOLs (standards of learning) exams. Students are taught to the tests under pressure from administration. When the school demonstrates successful achievement they get more state and federal $$$. When the students get to college they are unprepared and expect the same easy ride. Where I work we are under pressure from administration to appease our students and to pass them because the loss of a student is loss of $$$. Wake up people, today education is more about $$$ than learning. Look at the government’s answer to increasing student success-lets throw more $$$ at the problem. Until people realize that education starts at home, that students are required to take responsibility for their learning, and education is not tied to how much $$$ schools can get from the taxpayers to promote their own interests the problems will continue.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I have found that, for the most part, incoming college students have the skills but not the practice. They can read and write but have very little idea of the amount of reading (80 pages or more per class) and writing required in college. Often they do not come to class prepared so the content is lost or they are used to being spoon fed a text so lectures based on the text or running parallel to the text are a new experience. The text and the lecture are both required. Many rely on memory rather than notes — here they may not have had the experience but good note taking skills are vital. They need to be involved in the learning experience and not afraid to ask for help. Colleges/Universities want the students to learn, many of the students need to invested in the process so it becomes a win win experience.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I agree with HerMom as far as the educational system in the USA goes. My experience was pretty much the same as “Kiddo.” At that time, there were no options for very creative students. We were expected to stop talking, stop getting out of our seats, stop thinking outside the box. Not too time much later on, there were these so-called “gifted” programs, but what they turned out to be form my viewpoint) was more of the same work at the same level, nothing that would stretch or even reach our creativity levels.
If I were going to grade school, junior high or high school today, I would probably be put on Ritalin or worse.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Excuse the rambling of a retired old professor but this is a subject that I’ve dealt with for over 40 years….and it is very near and dear to the ol’ cardiac pump. Over the years I’ve watched folks attempt to assign blame for this phenomena. And I am now certain that the problem is a physiological one! How can that be? Simple…ask a student/parent/administrator/faculty member to physically point to the person(s) or programs that are at fault for the reason “Johnny” didn’t make it in the first year of college. Those fingers will be flipping and pointing everywhere EXCEPT at themselves…it is very difficult to get your wrist joint to bend in that direction! I blame faculty for not taking the time to get to know their advisees sufficiently to make sure they are in the courses (remedial or otherwise) that is suited for the students abilities but yet still challenge them. I also blame them for not holding their standards and let the consequences happen. Some schools pressure faculty to NOT flunk the students – it gives a “bad image”….imagine the consequences when that young person finally makes it out the door into the real world? I blame the parents – a.) who says everyone has to go to college? Why? Just because YOU think it’s a good idea? b.) if your son or daughter does flunk out that first semester or that first year why are you pushing to have him/her reinstated – the stats are amazing in terms of success of flunked students who are waived rather than remain out (a very few actually do better the following semester the majority repeat the same problems within one semester or two). As stated earlier…I am a firm believer in having students going out and work for a year before even attending college. They need it. They are to blame for believing that the world is only about them and their needs; that twittering/texting is something that is vital in their world view (they will tell you it is a “need” not a “want” – obviously not understanding the difference). I would prefer that the year between high school and college be spent in national service…peace corp, vista, military…something where the introspection and time will make them realize that “foolin’ around” is not going to get them through life. I’ve actually had a parent ask me what they were supposed to do with their son if he stayed at home (after flunking out). I replied that another semester of flunking out would only reinforce his working knowledge of how to fail rather than help him figure out what he wanted out of life. I blame the administrators of the various schools who have been and continue to pressure faculty to “redesign” their curriculums so that a student needs fewer credit hours to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree as well as pressuring faculty to not flunk so many students. Back in Neolithic times…when I was an undergrad…you had to have 146 credits (semester credits…the quarter system didn’t exist). Has the amount we need to know decreased in all those years? Many schools now impose financial penalties for students registering for more than 16 credit hours in any one semester!!!! This is but a very small list of a series of things that need to be addressed (and have needed to be addressed for many, many years). Unfortunately I highly doubt there is sufficient wrist-mobility to allow the various parties to figure out their role in all of this.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I have taught at the junior high, high school, and college levels. And while I agree that individuals are ultimately responsible for their own learning, many students “fail” college while they are still in grade school.
In an effort to make everyone, including parents, feel good about themselves–under the misapplied guise of self-esteem–students are not learning the practical lessons of hard work, perseverance, self-reliance, and accountablility. Instead, many are learning that the “world owes them” and that someone else is always the cause of “bad things” in their lives. Parents, teachers and administrators don’t want to enforce high educational standards because it means inconvenience; the system is not designed to handle students who don’t “progress” at the same rate as everyone else.
Additionally, we have created a social climate that “excuses” parents from actively taking reponsibility for their children’s learning–the public school system may openly express that they invite parent involvement, but the reality is that many teachers and administrators believe only they can “teach” and that parents just get in the way. So the system continues to pass kids along, prepared or not, and generally with “A” and “B” grades because everyone is “above average.”
Teachers who try to enforce higher standards are met with resistance from students, parents, other teachers, and administrators. I remember being called “to the principal’s office” during my first year of teaching and being told that I was giving too many bad grades and that I should rethink my method of evaluating student performance. On another occasion a parent asked me what was wrong with me because her daughter was getting a “B” in my class and she was an “A” student. The mother ranted about how her daughter needed a 4.0 GPA so that she could get scholarships to the most elite univesities. I reminded her that scholarships were supposed to be for students that earned them. I also explained to her that her daughter was doing “B” work and that part of the reason might be because she was experiencing relationship problems with her boyfriend. Mom quickly had her daughter removed from my class and put with a better (i.e., easier) teacher where she once again became an “A” student–boy, she proved how “bad” a teacher I was!
And then there is the belief that if one doesn’t do well they can somehow compensate by doing “extra credit.” What is extra credit? Who came up with this bogus idea that if one didn’t make the standard that somehow they could do something else–often totally unrelated to the standard–to succeed. Students, especially my college students, thought I was cruel for not offering extra-credit assignments. When does life offer extra credit? If I produce a product that does not meet the specifications that the buyer ordered, is the buyer going to say, “Oh that’s ok because you’ve included a nice historical blurb or a cute design on the package instead?” I believe “extra credit” was developed as just another means to allow teachers and administrators a way not to hold themselves and students accountable.
By the time a child makes it to high school, deeply entrenched patterns of beliefs and behaviors, virtually unbreakable for many, have taken hold. Therefore, if we wait until high school to start preparing individuals for college (or for life in general), it will be too late for many of them.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I taught at the high school level for many years. The top half of every junior class was capable of doing college work and taking on college-level responsibilities, but they were trapped in a mickey mouse, sports-and-social-activities-first environment. They spent the next two years learning incredibly bad habits. In addition, a segment of the class was already labelled as drop-out material, and socialized to be failures. High schools have some wonderful teachers, but we need to rethink the system. In many parts of the country, high school is more about socialization (and socializing) than about excelling academically. Culturally, we give lip service to the importance of education, but we don’t really want our children to be rated as anything but the best, or ‘A’ students, and we won’t hand them responsibility for themselves because of in loco parentis laws.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I agree with John. Follow the money. Schools, administrators and faculty get paid for “butts in chairs”. However, where I teach, the money is the same if you fail students or pass them. The only time the money is lost is if a student leaves to attend a college somewhere else. I teach a 100 level course which means mostly freshman and I tell them right off the bat that the course will require 10 -12 hours of outside class time to succeed. I grade based on the following scale: A is excellent. All work complete, all answers correct. Student exceeded expectations. B is good. All work complete, most answers correct. Student matched expectations. C is average. Most work complete, some answers incorrect. Student attempted to match expectations. D is below average. Most work incomplete, lack of understanding of material. F is failure. Once the students realize that I am not giving out A’s, that they must be earned, they usually step up their efforts and only the lazy, unfocussed and ill-prepared students fail or drop. These standards should be implemented from 1st grade on. Then Johnny will not have an inflated sense of intelligence and entitlement as seen in many students in my classes.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I consider myself a smart person. I was a Physics and Math major from college. I, however, was a horrible student. I didn’t learn how to be a student until the last semester of my Senior year in College. My grades had suffered, and straight A’s on my last Report Card certainly didn’t get me any cords for graduation.
So the question is who do I blame? The answer is all of the above. I blame myself. I didn’t realize, as a high school or college student, that I needed to apply myself–look for other learning opportunities. I do that now–but I’ve grown up. HOWEVER, I also blame my High School and college. I averaged maybe 30 minutes of homework a night in High School. And when I didn’t do it, I easily talked my teachers into extensions and extra credit. I wasn’t challenged. I didn’t look for a challenge. I was just fine doing bare minimum to stay on the Soccer Team. I didn’t take school seriously, and my school let me slack off. I needed my teachers to be less accommodating to me. Yes, it’s my fault, but I also needed others to invest in me to help me learn, to help me realize I needed to challenge myself…
School isn’t just about teaching people how to add, it also about developing the student to succeed. Not just in their homework or grades, but in life as well. I didn’t have that, and it took me too long to realize that myself.
My Senior year in college what what finally brought me around. I had a professor, who failed me. I was thankful that it was an “extra” class–to add credits to my transcript–not a major class. This professor, however, sat me down, explained that I failed, and that he wanted me to retake the class. “But it’s not offered again before I graduate.” We set it up as an independent study, and I got to pick the topics of the class that I wanted to focus on. (Within reason of what the course was to teach, obviously.) By golly, I learned that learning was fun. I was motivated to prove my ability, I was motivated to prove that to myself too! I was interested, engaged, and learned how to be a student.
This professor cared for me. This professor taught me how to succeed beyond the class. My mentality changed, and I learned to be a student. I wish an educator would have pushed me sooner–then again, would I have cared? I owe this professor my job, my masters degree, and much more.
So, what about my parents? Yes, they knew I wasn’t being challenged–they enrolled me in summer school programs, encouraged me to take AP classes (where I could) but even that is only as good as my ability to want to learn, and my own ability to apply myself…
The question is, how do we teach our students to want to learn? NOT, how do we teach our students so they get a passing grade?
August 12th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
While I agree with Marko, I was just fired for evaluations that said my courses were too hard and that I gave too much work. Of course, I was an adjunct and disposable, but one thing that universities have in common with high schools is that the numbers are more important than the content of the course or the quality of the teaching.
Retention is to the colleges as graduation is to the high schools. Everyone seems to genuflect to U.S. News and World Report. Meanwhile, college instructors learn quickly–or risk my fate–that if they will only cowtow to every student’s problems and issues and just plain laziness, they will usually get good evaluations, and get to keep their jobs.
Only later will it become apparent that these students can’t read or write at a professional level. Then they really will have someone to blame.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
We all know that when parents are directly involved in and supportive of their children’s education, that’s a major plus. Neighborhood schools, whether public or parochial, with parents and teachers in close proximity were the rule for the first century and half of our history
Several signficant changes in the past 50-75 years should be considered in any hard look at deterioration in basic skills:
1. The victory of education departments / education degrees over degrees in subject disciplines as the pre-requisite for teaching.
2. The consolidation of schools into much larger units, often distant from a student’s residence.
3. The involvement of the federal government in all aspects of education, from Head Start to college.
4. The inclusion of a great deal of social content in the curriculum, along with a focus on self-esteem and self-expression, often at the expense of learning basic skills. (Children memorize well at an early age, and if that ability — an important tool for building a storehouse of knowledge — is under-used, the storehouse of knowledge will be under-filled.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Simply put parents (read taxpayers) need to demand a return to teaching children Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. There is so much chaff in a public education it’s a miracle there is time to teach the basics. Marko, Sean and Liz all make valid points. Until parents hold both “the system” and their children to a higher standard and students themselves recognize that there is no free lunch in life, performance will continue to decline. Last point, society though well intentioned, needs to recognize the social experiment of the last 30 years of bestowing a positive self image on children vs. having to earn it, has failed us. Instead of dumbing the curriculum down so as not to debilitate a child’s self-esteem we should celebrate excellence and move the bar ever higher for “all” children.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
In response to Dave’s reamrk about inspiring students to love to learn brought to my mind the old saying: “lead a horse to water, but can’t make them drink.” It wasn’t until I was a professional librarian, taking undergraduate courses for a 2nd B.A. (at age 29) that I grokked the concept of “getting the most out of my classes.” After listening to other classmate undergrads constantly whining and moaning about what was required for them to do for the class, they thought that the instructor was unreasonable. All of a sudden I realized (there was almost a literal mental *click*) that I was responsible for how much I got out of the class, that *I* could go for the “added value.” that it was up to me how well I performed and what the outcome was.
Some days I have this feeling that “youth is wasted on the young.”
August 12th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I would like to add one more thing to my statement. (To make it even longer!) My “story.” Perhaps it will help someone.
I was a gifted student. Literally. My mother never went to high school, so I was not getting any guidance other than “shut up, sit down, and do your homework” every evening. Even Fridays. And weekends. Otehr kids were outside playing and I was doing sheets of long-division and diagramming sentences. (Neither of which actually did me any good in the long run.) My mother wouldn’t have known if I’d done it right or not, but as a young child there was hell to pay if I brought home a bad (a “C”) grade. I did so. Once. In religion. From a Catholic school. Oops. I can still hear her and have a definite twinge of a memory of a strap on my backside. {wince}
I was fortunate to be in relatively academically rigorous schools for my educational career (pre-college). When I transferred to a public school for Junior High I was several years ahead of my peers in some subjects. I had to learn to slow down, as there was no accommodation for me. When I got to high school I’d slowed down enough to be pretty much on track with the other kids, although I studied other subjects on my own outside of school for the sheer love of learning. By the time I got to high school it was not “cool” to be smart, it made a girl a freak. If you think that has changed in the general culture, you might want to look again.
In high school I definitely developed the overall “it’s good enough” mentality. Ah, to be a teenager again…. There was no payoff for doing extraordinarily well, and there was a definite negative social cost. Curve-busters were (and still are, I hear) on a par with scabies.
So I coasted. I learned by remembering what the teacher said. If I read something, I had it. At that time I had almost a photographic memory and could tell you where on what page of the text something was written. It was all memory work, there was almost no “critical thinking” involved, so I did well enough. I did what I had to do to get by so I could go study things I liked. Again, except for Latin and Chemistry, it was a walk-through. (I’ve left out my advanced English Lit/writing classes, where I did work hard, but I ~liked~ those classes and wanted to be there, and that makes all the difference. I also grew pea plants in my back yard, trying to recreate the Mendel experiments. I built a radio transmitter and had a license by 15. I ground the lenses for my own telescope, and saw Saturn – I got this all out of books from the library. It wasn’t taught in school. I was also in love with Lord Byron. I didn’t get to Byron in school until my senior year of college….)
I left high school a year early to participate as one of the pioneers in an “early admission to college” program. The sole reason was to get out of high school, where I was just miserable. At college I was completely lost and bewildered. I literally did not know how to be there. From first grade up through high school the drill was “we’ll tell you what to think, what to do, when to do it, do NOT work ahead, color within the lines, line up when the bell rings, and be quiet.” All of a sudden the opposite was expected of me, after years of the drill. I was on my own and I floundered. Absolutely everything was new – even down to buying textbooks on my own. I was in a perpetual state of panic. After a time I gave up and found a job – there was nothing at the college that really held my interest enough to deal with the stress. Learning had ceased to be enjoyable, being there was torture.
After working in a laundry for a year pressing shirts and washing people’s stinky undies in a virtual steam bath all day six days a week, it became very attractive to me to go back to school. I saved every dime and did so.
I bombed out. It wasn’t for lack of motivation. You’d have to have seen some of those crotches to understand. I still had no clue how to manage it all and there were no advisors or support programs – or if there were, I didn’t know about them. I was on my own and was not capable of it. I got another job, worked my way up from an assembly line in the private sector for a good 10 years, and got to where I was making a decent living, was married, divorced. Had a kid in the mix. Was laid off. Couldn’t find work that paid both rent and daycare, so I went back to college. Again.
There were no support programs for low-income, single parents of toddlers at that time. I had been away from school for 10 years. This time I did make it. Everything was riding on it – we would have been homeless if I failed and lost the financial aid. I was also a LOT more mature than I was at 17. It was no longer “What do I like? What’s interesting?” but “Oh, my freaking gawd, what can I do to survive?” I took many courses that, to this day, remain completely uninteresting. It was necessary to keep my units up to the financial aid threshold. Incentive is everything. When you’re young, it’s very hard to find it. Some do, of course. But…
I guess what I mean to be saying is that kids are not clones of each other. Some are ready earlier than others. Some later. Even in a perfect world, that’s always going to be the case. Personalities come into play. The system, the culture, living conditions come into play. Support systems and the lack of them come into play. A kid’s own interests come into play. And that’s not even touching learning disabilities, especially the invisible ones.
The public education system we have does not serve anyone particularly well, it muddles by, and it fails many. For some it works well enough – many of my high-school classmates went on to live productive lives without finishing school (either high school ~or~ college, depending on the case). Some of them were able to go straight off to college and did well. It provided me with just enough so that 10 years after leaving it and after having lived on my own I could be successful in it when it was critically important to me.
If I could have bottled the 10 years’ experience and given it to Kiddo I would have and the kid would be a Rhodes Scholar or something right now, as the intellectual firepower behind those eyes is just stunning. But I can’t. I see the Kid the three hours a day we have always had together, and I do what I can, just as I always have. And it has not been enough.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Reply to AnAssociateDean and others:
I am a physics professor at a 4 year university with graduate program in the West. I have to agree that most students are not properly prepared with regard to English and Math skills, but there is more to the issue.
For one I find that most students in my class feel that they work hard. In my evaluations I read frequently: This is the hardest class I ever took, which, when it is my first term freshman class, expresses that the students find the transition to university hard. It seems to come as a surprise to freshmen that in college you have to work and not get praised, if your work is mediocre or incomplete or off topic! It seems to me that students do not know how to learn. That issue would go back to the high school (and earlier schools!) and parent court.
At the same time, I am not convinced that we as universities make our best effort, or even an acceptable effort ourselves! For instance, we do not really follow through with our high expectations (not only with regard to grades but also with backing instructors up when it comes to disputed grades). I have talked to our Dean of Students office in depth about why one is not better backed up with hard decisions. They declare they maintain and support high standards, but they actually don’t. At most they deal with ten cases per term (in a 15,000 undergraduate population) and they let most of them off the hook.
This brings me to my main point: It is true that all kinds of involved people and institutions do not share the burden: Parents, high schools, high school teachers, ACT/SAT tests, admission offices, etc but let’s be honest here: We are ourselves a part of the problem!
It is difficult to swim against the mainstream and so we don’t, or at least we don’t do it anywhere to the extent we think is right.
In the bigger picture this is due to society not valuing education. What is being valued instead is a piece of paper that claims that a person has an education. The two are obviously by far not the same thing.
In a normal world which acted according to what makes sense, we would not pretend that at the beginning of the 21st century students do not have more to learn than at the mid of the 20th century. Degrees in ‘real’ academic fields can not be awarded after just four years of college study (I argue this without considering the additional problem of need for remedial courses), if being competent in the material is the goal. It takes at least five years, perhaps more.
In my own field, I see significant need for the university system as a whole to share blame in the under-achievement of students (which is, of course, not reflected in the grades). When I start a freshman calculus based physics course, the students are expected to have finished a course in calculus one.
In my experience, about 25% of students have not accomplished this and the consensus is to let them in anyway and see. But there is another aspect of this problem: By week two, I use frequently material from calculus two and near the end of term I use material from calculus three, elementary linear algebra, and differential equations.
When I have foreign students in class, they have of course all had a basic education in all these subjects. But how can I blame an average American kid fresh out of high school for not knowing the basics of these materials? What then? Should we teach fundamental physics classes at the end of junior year, when the students will have caught up with their math? Or should we dumb down the physics as is done in the so called ‘physics for poets’ classes?
Or could the material sequence of math classes be rearranged? I have tried this for years and the inertia of the system does not allow it to move an inch! In sum, I DO think that we share part of the blame and that we, as all the other folks we blame, try to ignore our part in it too.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
For HerMomSays:
Have your daughter apply to Northern Michigan University. We are located on the northern edge of the country, but have many strong programs (including Pre-Med, Pre-Law, Environmental Science, History, etc.) but also a strong support network for incoming Freshmen.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I went to an academically demanding high school and found college to be easier than high school during my freshman year. This was 40 years ago, however. I don’t think I would have the same experience now. I work at a four-year university, and the academic expectations put on students now are much greater than they used to be. The students who succeed are usually the ones who come academically prepared, self-motivated, and supported by parents and peers. They also have taken a lot of hard math classes! And, they are already excellent writers. Otherwise, they often struggle. Many eventually graduate, but not without a lot of heartache.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Better preparation would be to have all “marginal” students attend a community college for both sessions DURING THE SUMMER AFTER HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION. A HS degree isn’t enough to qualify for a 2 1/2 month “brain drain” experience. Expectations for college need to be in place in the first year of H.S.
Resposibilities:
Parents – Require books reports and written essays (Handwritten) each week before priviliges are given. Don’t fight their battles for them if they haven’t done what they needed to do.
High Schools – Do not let your Teachers or Students “slack-off”.
Colleges – Give marginal students one year to get their act together with written expectations as a contract.
Students – Be ready for college or get a job; put down the cell phones and listen/write down any advice you are given by qualified adults. Your memory isn’t that great and somebody did tell you; you just weren’t listening!
August 12th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Interesting thread. I teach undergrads at a prestigious university – most are prepared and do quite well. Some do not. Those that do not do well in classes tend to complain bitterly that they are being unfairly treated, but I just trot out the old “bell curve” again. When students enter our college they are in the “top 2%” of high school graduates. This distribution must then be “thinned out” so that some of those really, really bright kids will be in the “bottom 2%” – otherwise there would be no fair way to compare the best of the best against the rest. They are not really failures, they are just not living up the the higher standards that are being set by their peers. So, I tend not to think that kids are failing, I tend to think that they are failing to remain at the top of the pile in a pile of smart kids. One must scramble to stay at the top, and some are not able to do that,for whatever reason…..
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he makes reference to the fact that the qualities that predict success in life are often different than the qualities that predict success in school. While we are most certainly teaching “subjects” at college, we also have to teach those success qualities such as persistence, perseverance, commitment, creativity, innovation, ability to read and understand rules and directions, etc. So, I guess a better question might be “how do we define failure” and how can we all design systems that teach students the qualities that will help them succeed in both school AND their chosen career? I suspect that we often lose sight of that goal…..
August 12th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Many good points in the responses so far. A couple more:
1. The size of an institution can make a difference, as can the level of instructor one has as a freshman. At the large
university, good programs probably exist to help those who need remedial help as well as counseling help.
But the onus is more typically on the freshman to recognize the problem for what it is and seek that help; there may not
be adequate communication between the program personnel and the instructors on the front lines. Add that to the fact
that even experienced teachers–much less graduate assistants–require training to recognize which problems need
extra help. Some students, frankly, need the smaller college environment with smaller classes and more “local-parent” nurturing (and nudging).
2. In my part of the world (the Midwest), even very good high schools create the expectation that one can always make-up work missed or that extra credit assignments are available, especially toward the end of the semester. So many college freshmen are shocked to find out that the requirements and syllabus handed to them at the beginning of the semester actually mean what they say concerning, the number of assignments, deadlines, late work, and points available for each assignment.
August 12th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I have taught & tutored mathematics for years, everything from remedial math to Calc II. This year my child enters 7th grade and did not score high enough on state assessments to be placed in the highest math class. As a researcher, I realize the importance of math and the importance of parents working with their children. I have tried diligently to change my child’s class to the higher level math class, but to absolutely no avail due to a state assessment score. Though I tried to teach her at home what I KNOW she will need to succeed in Algebra and Geometry, this was not covered on the state tests. Furthermore, I never saw a math book from elementary school come home – they don’t believe in sending home work. Though I have offered to work with her and the teacher, it’s like hitting a brick wall. Thus, despite my drive as a parent to help, the school system is very difficult to change. They want her in the middle class, that’s where she stays.
I really wish that while she’s still young and listens to me they would allow me to help her out now. Education, though, is too big of a machine… really makes me want to home school.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:12 am
I love the blame game — we can all spend an inordinate amount of time figuring out who is to blame so the correct party or parties can be sued OR we can look toward finding solutions to the problem. In my experience as a student, a parent, a computer professional and a college instructor, I have found that the most significant issue is that students are ill-prepared to handle life on their own. They have little experience with having to take personal responsibility for their actions (or lack thereof), and they are often very ignorant as to just what is required for success at the college level. Perhaps a concerted effort by the high schools, the parents and the college advisers, working together to set expectations for the student so he or she knows exactly what kind of effort and sacrifice is needed to be successful is the approach that is necessary. If a student shows up at the college or university in the freshman year and does not understand what is expected of them, then everyone involved is to blame, and the last thing we need to do is spend energy finding ways to make lawyers richer.
August 13th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Thanks newportprof, that’s really good advice. Yes, the cream of the crop in high school is the average in college. I think that’s a good thing to tell students as a kind of ‘reality check,’ and we need to be sensitive to student feelings of failure, giving extra help when needed and wanted by the students as well as telling students they need to step up their game and put in extra time. You are right about success in school versus life, too. The skills and values students learn will stay while most of the content they learn will be forgotten. That’s why many employers just look for a degree of any kind. There’s often more attention putting on having students memorize large amounts of information and not enough on the skills. A student may not remember what they wrote essays on during college, but they will remember basic research, writing, self-editing and peer-feedback skills.
August 13th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I have read through a number of these posts with great interest. I work with students in a 4 year college setting and have a 19 year old daughter who has decided after two disastrous semesters of community college not to return to school. My husband and I both have stressed the importance of school to both of our children since they entered preschool, and we have held them accountable for their performance on midterm and semester grades. I have worked with my children to assist them with studying, communicated with teachers to be apprised of their progress, and I have discovered the following facts about my daughters and many of their peers regarding their attitudes towards school work and academic plans.
The biggest factor that plays a role in my children’s education is their lack of drive and ambition to do well and study hard. The amount of homework given to my children at both the middle school and high school levels was appallingly low. They are resentful if they hit a teacher or a course that requires them to study a good deal, because it has been the exception, rather than the expected rule. None of the schools my children attended ever taught a study skills class or advised students on note taking and studying – I have done these things myself. The school system where I live is devoted to teaching the HSA tests and other state mandated assessment classes that involve state and federal funding. Lessons in math and English are not taught in a sequential, rational method – those topics covered on the assessment class for that year are covered and more than one teacher has told me regrettably that he or she had to “teach the test” rather than follow all the chapters in sequence in a textbook. This method allows the student to remember some information at the end of the year for the assessment tests, but is not build on a secure foundation, and is almost ephermeral in quality. My older daughter passed all tests required by our state, but has performed very poorly at the community college where she enrolled and was required to take not one but two remedial math classes, the second of which, she has failed on her first attempt.
There is a reason that the word “work” is included in assignments. Just going to class, showing up, and not creating a disturbance is not reason enough to pass the class. Many of my daughter’s peers will do the least amount of effort to get by rather than to strive for a high grade on an assignment, and classes are selected based on the expected level of socialization that will occur, rather than academic interest.
Many of my children’s peers are very immature. I wish that the school did more exploration of vocational training and other options beyond college for high schoolers. My daughter was not mature enough to make the commitment to college at any level, and it is no one’s fault but her own. Once she grows up a bit, I am hoping that she will go back to school, but she will have to be driven by her own desire to do this, not by any advice or offers of financial aid. I could force her to attend, mandate study hours, and even proof read her work, but I can give her the desire to do well and the ambition to complete an academic program. This drive must come from within.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Many good comments. Having a child just flunk his first year I am very sensitive to the main cause…himself. Great SAT, Presidental scholar, but NO skills for college level work. When he got to the ivy league school he was on his own, really for the first time in his life. Dorm socialization consumed him, his roomate was a bad influence, his professors didn’t care if he did assignments or even came to class. In short it was a long (and very expensive) vacation. With no disciplinary actions untill way too late from school administrators – or even his dorm advisor – the student was almost oblivious to the consequences of his poor choices. He barely passed the first semester and wrongly though the same behavoir could get him through the second, which lead to his dismissal.
As a concerned parent I was frustrated because I could not get his performance data – you know, “privacy” – even though I was paying the big bucks.
When asked all he could tell me was, “I think I’m doing OK.” He got caught up in drinking alcohol because the college allows. more correctly endorses, underage drinking. There is no curfew even for freshman. More than once I discovered he had been out for a day or two. Dorm advisor could care less and would not discuss any problems with the parents (privacy, again).
I think the final sentenace from Lisa says it all: “The drive must come from within.”
Thinking back on my college years I did almost the exact same thing so history repeats. Fortunately for me the spector of Vietnam when I got a low draft number and a mandated physical leading to 1A inspired me to commit to a B+ average.
For my student there is only his desire to play computer games, guitar hero and eat.
So who is to blame? Helicopter parenting, a school system that is not stimulating to bright students, no practical senoir high college prep courses, indiferrence to stuggling college freshmen, the relative isolation from guidance for the student and a generation of students given too much play and not enough responsibility.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Today’s students are being forced between a rock and a hard place. There are no jobs out there for them, all are told they need a college degree to get one, tuition is sky high so they must work while going to school, standards have increased on all fronts so they are expected to know more, and no one takes the time to help them understand that if they did not learn it well when young, the critical foundation that supports increased learning is not there to support them so they often make the mistake of forced memorization without understanding just to pass their classes which understandably turns them off with nowhere to go. IF we want to make the point to them that not all students are sufficiently prepared to do well in today’s colleges, then someone must take the time to genuinely help direct (or redirect when necessary) so that all students may succeed where their talents and goals lie. Many just don’t know there is a system in place and that the “rules of the game” have changed on them after high school, not to mention that it can be more than frustrating to attempt to navigate it all now that these institutions have put massive technology routes in place to avoid speaking directly to student inquiries attempt to resolve it all. Let’s try to own some of this.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I know my first comment was quite long, but I noticed an important typo in the last paragraph. What I meant to say was that I cannot give her the desire to succeed.
In a follow up comment, I just wanted to describe the path my daughter has taken after leaving community college. Once it was clear that she was not going to go back to school, I told her that if she wanted to live with me, she had to find a full time job, or at least work at two part time jobs for a total of 40 hours per week. She was not going to get a free ride indefinitely and work 20 hours at a part time job and watch cable tv for the rest of the week. I printed out the address and phone number of our county employment office and told her that the ball was now in her lap. She had to get a full time job or pick up a second part time job within a month or start paying me rent from her part time job. Money, or the lack of it, is a strong motivator. Suddenly, she had determination and purpose to accomplish something. She took advantage of the services offered by the county job counselors and employment officers, tracking down and following any leads the counselors gave her, and she was lucky enough to find a full time job. She is proud of the fact that she did all the steps that led to her landing this job on her own, beginning with figuring out the directions to the employment office. Every time she asked me about driving there, my response was “you figure it out.” And she did.
I am hopeful that seeing and talking with other employees with two year college degrees will motivate her to go back to school at some point – at least, when it is meaningful for her to do so. It will take time for her to realize that an education separates her from those other employees who are making more money doing almost the same job that she is performing. There is no substitute for real life to teach such a lesson. The more we, as parents, give to and do for our children, the less it makes them want to achieve for themselves. If you want something badly enough and no one is willing to give it to you, you will work to earn it for yourself.
August 13th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
One of my friends who used to visit the “mostly Hispanic” high schools in the Orange County, CA area to give the students some incentive to get out of their rut and think about college as an option. He would share his story about bouncing around like a pinball as he tried to get into the University of California system for his B.A. It took him 4 years of community college work and outstanding grades to convince the UC system than he was worthy. He said that there were two career choices open to these students: you could work hard and get into and graduate from college, or you could ask “Would you like fries with that?”
August 13th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Ooops…type alert: I meant to type–”It took him 4 years of community college work and outstanding grades to convince the UC system THAT he was worthy.”
August 14th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
The fault, dear Carin Ford. . . .
Having acknowledged personal responsibility, though, I have to wonder about where person starts and social reality ends. Surely the nature of the society in which we live has some importance in what our kids do. For better or worse, we live in a society where education is said to be important only in the context of preparation for a vocation. And even then, education is always always secondary to more important things, sports being the obvious think in particular. I always think of Huck Finn’s attitude to book larnin’ as defining the way American culture views education, but the vocational end of things surely gives us many of our cultural heroes, from Thomas Edison to Bill Gates.
And then there are the more arduous facts of contemporary American social life. My wife teaches in an inner-city elementary school. Her kids negotiate AIDS-ridden fathers, crack-addicted mothers, random shootings in the hood. And for the ones with “good” parents, two-parents at work every day of the week makes it highly unlikely that anyone will be at home to take them to the museum, the opera, the art gallery. None of them go off to Paris for the weekend. I get those same kids, or their epigones, eight years later, at the college where I teach. By then, if they’ve survived the society, they’ve been standardized-tested into intellectual submission. The problem with such tests are myriad, but the most global of the problems, IMHO, is that the students have come to expect that everything has a specific response. Ambiguity and its contextualization are entirely alien concepts for most of the kids I deal with.
Is that the kids’ fault? The end of the quotation is, “in ourselves, that we are men [and women].” Humans are certainly not fully determined by our social context. But in thinking about why we’re educationally so screwed up, it would be silly to ignore the interplay of individual and society.
August 15th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Our youth these days have a great sense of entitlement, because in good measure life is easier and we haven’t taught then good work ethics. One of the main places we try – and have some success – is in our schools. But school is in many ways an artificial environment where achievement is more abstract than substantive (which is why athletics are so attractive to our youth, where achievement has real and visceral meaning). It is hard to see value in school work.
I was blessed to grow up in rural America 60 years ago, and realized only recently how many of my experiences, like digging irrigation ditches for our family garden, unloading hay bales for a neighboring farmer, and feeding farm animals really were profound. All of these experiences taught me the value of work, and I recall calculating in my head that because I could get all the hay into the elevator which carried it into the barn, that my dad and the farmer in the hayloft of the barn and doing that job twice as fast – just because of me. I had some awareness that I was a productive individual, of the value of my work to my family and to others I worked for, and to myself. I actually received little for my labor, except for selling my 4-H pigs, or earning some wages as a high schooler. But cows get really cranky when they aren’t milked on time, and watering the garden quickly and easily with my irrigation system seemed far more rewarding than having to move the hose and sprinkler so many times.
So high school went well, even if I didn’t study all that hard, because my work ethic carried over to my school work. I went off to college, and without really thinking about it, I had the drive to work toward success, and when I found myself in graduate school, the means-ends process demanded that I read the most obtuse material sometimes, and papers had to be typed into the middle of the night sometimes to meet deadlines – which just seemed to happen naturally, as had sandbagging the flooding Missouri River when I was in the 6th grade. I was luckier than the students I teach in my college classes these days, because I had an internal work ethic.
I read a statistic recently that nearly half of high schoolers from wealthy families have part-time jobs, but less than 10% of low income high schoolers do. We make employment of these teenagers almost illegal, yet upper income people find ways to get their children work experience. And I was doing real work from the time I was 8 years old – sometimes for pay, most times not. But work at an early age was for me the biggest “teacher” or instiller of a work ethic. I have reflected many times in the last decade how lucky I was for that learning experience, and I wish I could have had a more concrete realization of that and emphasized it much more for my own children. And I really think our society needs to re-think such work issues, change laws, and help our young people see the value of work in their own life experiences, and do ir earlier than high school or college.
David Carlson Northern Michigan University
August 19th, 2009 at 8:51 am
My emotional reaction is that responsibility goes to the student, parents and the school system that awarded the diploma. Again HigherEdMorning has written yet another incomplete article. No profile on the student. There may be genuine issues on the part of the student that aren’t revealed.
K-12 school districts also are under enormous pressure to SOCIALLY PROMOTE marginal students because the teacher’s meager pay and continued employment depend on NUMBERS of graduating students. There, I said it.
In my local school district, students NEVER get lower than a 50 for any grading period. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that one way or the other the student will be moved along to the next grade. Garbage in, garbage out.
My pragmatic response to the question of who’s responsible is ‘ALL OF US’. It takes a whole village to raise a child.
August 19th, 2009 at 11:26 am
This is in response to David (8/12, 2:20 p.m.). Sorry if this seems off-topic.
I agree with most of what you’ve said but one thing has changed over the past 25 years. Nowadays, most corporations will only hire people with college degrees. And many will not even consider promoting a person to a supervisory or management position unless the person has a B.A. or higher. There is very little grandfathering in or promoting up non-college degree staff in the corporate world to higher positions.
Where a person’s abilities, experiences and employment longevity used to matter for promotions, now the business world will only consider those with college degrees as being promotable.
So a college degree has become a necessity in the modern-day world. It is no longer optional. And high schools need to prepare kids for 4+ more years of hard work.
August 19th, 2009 at 11:27 am
It is some of both. For selective universities, the admissions process is imperfect, and some students will be admitted who cannot succeed. Or one can view this as giving marginal students a chance to succeed. In my experience teaching freshman, the blame primarily falls on K-12 educational malpractice, particularly in math and science. College freshman struggle in the math and science I learned in high school. Fixing this costs money – putting the curriculum requirements in place, then spending the money to hire and retain the STEM teachers to teach these courses, and holding the students to college-level expectations. Ultimately, the blame falls to parents who do not demand that their local schools achieve high standards and willingly pay for it.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
How can parents hold their schools to higher standards for math and science, when they, more than likely, don’t have the science or math background themselves. In fact, many if not most parents, are “science and math-phobic.” I know of some science and medical professionals who have gone back to high school as a kind of “public service” to try to raise the caliber of STEM in K-12, and they have taken a massive pay cut to do so. But as I said, they have done it from a personal commitment to service.
When I went to junior high and high school, my parents supported my interest as a “girl” in the sciences. The academic advisor-counselor, however, when I told him my plans were to go to college and become a scientist, his response was, “No, you can’t. You are a girl.” Yes, I admit that this was in the early 1960′s, BUT many girls and young women still meet this attitude from their peers as well as their teachers, although it may be more subtle than the advisor I experienced.
I think it is going to take small steps from all constituents in the K-12 community: students, parents, teachers and administrators, for things in the US educational system to improve.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I agree with many of the comments about high schools underpreparing students and colleges/universities not doing enough to help the students. However, another approach should be considered.
As students are about to leave high school and enter college, there should be workshops for them to prepare for this journey. Often times the freedom given to the student who is away at college is too much and the student (no matter how smart they are) may struggle academically. High schools should have university students give a panel talk to discuss some of the obstacles that lie ahead for incoming freshmen.
Students may get involved in student organizations, clubs, fraternities/sororities and become distracted from their studies. Another issue is that low-income students may have to work in order to pay for school, and then focus more on work instead of school since they need to pay the bills. Just a few other alternatives to throw in the mix instead of just focusing on the preparation, or lack thereof.
January 13th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
While many have raised a variety of valuable points, I am yet to see anyone point out the potential problems caused by:
1. Teacher’s Union — bad teachers hard to be fired. My child’s high school physics teacher could not teach and everyone knows it, but the school board had hard time firing her. My child went to a nationally ranked top 5 school for engineering. In her freshman year, he got all As for his classes (including math and computer programming), but a C in his physics. Why? He did not have a good physics foundation to success.
2. Affirmative Action/Diversity Plan in college admissions — giving academically underprepared students a free ride for college ends up hurting them in the long run.
January 14th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Preparation for college should start from grade school, with all parties involved: students, parents, teachers and schools.
High standards at schools, with parental involvement. Teachers should also be given the “authority” and respect they need in class with support/care/follow up from parents at home starting at early years so the students learn the importance/value/impact of school/learning in their lives as they grow up. A love for learning should be instilled in the young mind so it can carry over on the adult adult life.
Also, students should not pass to the next grade if they have failing grades. They should “repeat” the grade. I know this would be a burden on the government, but parents should take the responsibility to “pay” for the repeating grade costs.
November 11th, 2010 at 9:05 am
I agree with Marko and other great comments here. Fta you’re not the only one with a unmotivated kid nore is this lack of motivation limited to any ethnic group in America. It is unfortunately a part of our culture. Many of our youth are simply not motivated to work hard and we need to determine why. Part of the problem is that teachers and profs are forced to give high grades and curve to make parents and kids happy. Another problem is that we want everyone to go to college. 35 years ago, when I went to college, only motivated kids succeeded. The unmotivated ones went to lesser career options that did not require college. Now those lesser career options no longer exist (e.g. manufacturing jobs). College isn’t for everyone, and it’s especially not for the unmotivated. I know because my son is one of those, and I am a college prof.