What the F*** is wrong with the people in my night class?
Wednesday night was a major exam. Monday, I handed out a sheet with almost identical problems. I stopped the class 45 minutes early to give them time to work on the problems and get extra help. All, except for two left.
One girl showed up tonight after missing the last three classes and leaving early on the one she attended. She spent the first 45 minutes trying to teach herself the material and then requested extra credit or a chance to take the exam tomorrow. She couldn't understand why I said no.
Another girl left her calculator home.
One boy tried to go to the lab an hour before the exam but found it crowded with no one available to help him.
Another guy told me he is too tired to study.
Only two came in with the review sheet completed.
The list goes on and on.
These people have no business in school. Not everyone is meant for college. Now, I'm not saying they aren't bright enough because they very well might be intelligent. They lack a work commitments and study skills.
Open enrollment (started int he 70's) was one of the worst things that ever happened to education. Now, NCLB is compounding the problem. A nation of incompetents is being created.
4 comments:
I don't think open enrollment is the worst thing that ever happened to education. I work at a community college and I completely believe in the philosophy of open enrollment. Everyone deserves a chance to go to college, regardless of their past history. Maybe they dropped out of high school and now, 30 years later, have decided they are motivated to obtain a college degree. When they are ready, we are here, and they shouldn't be doomed to a lifetime of no further education because of decisions or mistakes that were made earlier in their lives.
To me, the key is that students should not pass their classes if they haven't demonstrated mastery of the material. The problem is not with open enrollment, the problem is allowing students to pass courses who have no business passing. The problem is making the standards in a course so low that even a monkey could pass. If you have students in your course who have no business being in college, then hopefully they're not going to pass your class. They will come to realize they are not ready for the work and commitment that is required in college (which, I am sorry to say, is often a huge shock to the system for students coming from secondary schools where they are used to getting good grades for doing next to nothing). At some point in their lives if they decide they do indeed want to go to college and they are ready to do the work that is required, I am glad open enrollment community colleges are there for them. It would be a shame to deny someone who really wants to learn the opportunity simply because they were not motivated as a teenager.
You are right--I was just so pissed at that class and the lowering of standards.
But, even some of the older students, the ones that study, just don't belong in college. School is not for everyone.
Open enrollment gave me the opportunity to go to college. My parents did not think it was a good idea because my sister decided to quit college and get married. They saw that as 2 years of money down the drain. The marriage ended badly too!
So I was encouraged to take commercial courses. Thanks to open enrollment, I was able to attend a community college as a non-matriculated student during the evening. I met many hard-working people who also took advantage of the program.
Once you are in college, it's up to the students to pass the courses. It's not supposed to be a "free pass".
Schoolgal
Yes, I do agree that college is not for everyone. I read an appeal in "This Old House" magazine some years ago for carpenters, masons, electricians, etc. They were saying that our country is in desperate need of people in these and other trades. With so many students going to college right out of high school, we are losing qualified people in other fields.
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