All You Community College Students Are Failures, Apparently
I’ve seen worse than this guy’s article, but link to point out the tone of the guy. He doesn’t talk much about the students who are succeeding. The ability to use education, and to a lesser extent certification, to change social status is a rather important part of America. Every example he uses at the end of the article to show the effect of literature is as a push in only one direction, and when I read it I see a writer who thinks of his students as not only dumb as rocks but also hopelessly unfeeling and lacking compassion.
It does suck that the professor has to teach people skills for which the student is clearly unready. If I were in the position described by the hapless professor, the first thing I’d do is establish an entering gate; failing that, an entering test to make it clear what a student will need to be able to do in order to succeed in his class so that the unready student realizes the world of hurt about to happen. Maybe the knowledge of the student is not the quality the professor likes. Maybe the professor is part of the problem too.
5 Responses to “All You Community College Students Are Failures, Apparently”
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June 12th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Community college students? Heh. I’ve worked with graduates of top-tier universities and business schools who couldn’t write a simple declarative sentence if their lives depended on it.
Some folks can’t do college-level work. Them’s just the facts.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:02 am
“Some folks can’t do college-level work”…but there are a lot of people who *would* be able to do college-level work (especially at the minimal level described in the article) had their first 12 years of education not been mismanaged by the kind of people who dominate the K-12 schooling establishment.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
David – Agree absolutely, but that’s not the professor’s responsibility, or problem; he can only work with what he’s presented with, and having to teach remedial/fundamental English at the college level is an absurdity.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Well, I think the professor could be doing some things he isn’t doing right now to correct some of the problems he has in his classes, like building a prerequisite or entry test, building a screening process, or at the very least throwing out something on day one that addresses some of the problems he describes and letting the students know what the odds are on day one while they can still withdraw. He could also be working on curriculum changes and so forth for those who are ignorant of what they need to get into his class.
I find it poor form for this guy to be wasting the time of him and the students without trying something other than admiring the problem in public and maintaining standards. I understand the system problem the prof is trying to address in the essay but this other problem is potentially solvable.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I had a slightly different read. Maybe there is more the prof could do, but maybe he’s tried with little success. Besides, the theme of his piece wasn’t “what can we do to make everyone ready for college,” but rather “why should we expect everyone to go to college?” This is a theme I somewhat agree with. I believe, as a society, we have developed certain measures of “goodness” that are incorrectly tied to material wealth and education. I don’t want to come off sounding exceptionalist, but there is something wonderfully refreshing about a person who truly knows their place, understands their litations and does their best within them. If a man (or woman) can’t read Kant but does a wonderful job keeping the dining room of the local McDonald’s clean and pleasant for the customers, that is a worthwhile and necessary role. Further to the perceived importance of higher education in all aspects, I’m sure you remember a few MCPONs ago when an Associates or Bachelors Degree was being made a requirement for selection as Chief. I’m sure you also remember whenthe new MCPON came in and basically said that if you get a degree it’s great accomplishment and will have a positive effect upon your career, but the emphasis on Chief selection needs to be on superior competency in one’s rate and demonstrated leadership, a criteria I completely agree with.
As David and Barry said, though, this is indicative of a problem with public compulsory education. I was disgusted when then President Clinton in a SOTU set a goal of everyone having at least two years of post-high school education due to the higher technological demands of the modern workplace. Hell, if the taxpayer funded public education system isn’t doing the job of preparing kids then change the public system.