Thursday, November 15, 2012

It Has Got To Be Taught In High School



My class of freshman are pretty good kids.  They do homework, ask questions and get to class on time.  They don't pack up to leave until I tell them the class is over and most are passing, quite a few are running A's. 

Notice I said most are passing.  There are several who haven't made the transition from high school to college.  They are used to sliding along and then doing a bunch of extra credit at the end to bring up their grades.  They are used to make up exams and make up home works.  They expect their lowest grades to be dropped.  They are used to an environment where passing means jumping over a bar barely above ground level.  They don't understand work starts day 1 and assignments have due dates that are not negotiable.

The ones not passing have caught on to what college is like.  I hope they have enough time and enough of a work ethic to recoup and make it through, but I have my doubts.  It is almost impossible to make up and learn 2.5 months of work in 4 weeks.   All the chances in the world won't get these kids high enough grades on the next exams to squeak through.  Hopefully, they will realize that hard work right from the start is what is needed to succeed in college and get next term off to a better start.

High schools need to do their part to prepare students for college.  They need to start treating seniors like real students and make them earn that diploma, make them take responsibility for their actions.  Maybe then, they would come to college prepared.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I worked very hard when I taught high school to instill these very traits into my students so they would make it in college. Some got it,some didn't. I still get messages from students who tell me how glad they are that I pushed so hard.

Anonymous said...

If we do as you ask, they will close the school and we will all become absent teacher reserves.

Laura said...

It really pisses me off that most high schools limit college prep to "take these ACTs/SATs, and maybe an AP/CLEP or two." I aced both the ACT and the SAT, got 24 hours' worth of AP credit, and I still flunked out my first semester of college and had to start over somewhere else.

And, of course, nobody is going to call you if you're not doing well in any 4-year university or in most 2-year institutions. Nobody is going to give you extra credit that's worth more than maybe 1% of your final average. Nobody is going to do your caring about school FOR you.

As an educator, I'm deeply disappointed at how badly the education system in general has dropped the ball on this. They don't even offer vocational courses like wood shop or auto repair anymore for the students who don't plan to go to college--so they're really hurting both college-bound and non-college-bound students very badly!