Post article..outstanding high schooler not prepared for college

[jamajo]

I just happened to read this article this morning as my kids are eating breakfast. I think a lot of us already know this but it is a dose of reality.

 

What are we doing or what materials are we using in our high school to make sure "our" kids are prepared?

 

My favorite quote from the article (I'm looking at the print copy but online article should be the same):

 

"one of the biggest surprises has been discovering how academically independent I will have to be. Now, I have to go out and get the material, reading more than what is required and doing exercises that I have given myself."

[jamajo]

Darn, I just tested my link. You get the whole article except for the last page unless you sign up for free at Washington Posts' website to get the last page.

[regentrude]

There was a recent thread on the General Forum, discussing the same article.

 

What you cite is exactly what I observe in many (not all) of my students: high school conditions them to expect sound bites, spoon feeding, hand holding. Many do not know how to work with a textbook and take notes; they just show up for class and expect this to suffice.

[Dana]

There was a recent thread on the General Forum, discussing the same article.

 

What you cite is exactly what I observe in many (not all) of my students: high school conditions them to expect sound bites, spoon feeding, hand holding. Many do not know how to work with a textbook and take notes; they just show up for class and expect this to suffice.

 

And if they spend class time texting, because they're in class, they should pass. :glare: I really have a bone to pick with how students are graduating from high school in our area. Some are definitely prepared (from a friend who's at the university... I don't see those students).

 

I'm giving my son plenty of opportunities to fail and to struggle with material that's too hard for him - or just a stretch. I'm fed up with students who think that even though they've failed every test, they can still pass at the end of the semester. I hate assigning Fs - especially when if they just would work, they could pass.

 

But I suppose that's more of the difference between cc and 4 year than anything else :)

 

Our 4 year has lectures open to the public on occasion. I plan to take my son in high school to a number of these - give him exposure to what college can be like.

[Miss Marple]

My boys have talked about this, too, since they've been at college. They live in the Honors Dorm and most of the kids are NM (my boys are not). They have roommates who won't even bother going to class because they were out too late the night before and are tired. Ds#1's roommate scored a 35 on the ACT (he also just scored in the top 2% of the nation on the MCAT but is having trouble getting into med school), but was failing several classes in his freshman year. My son was awed by this fella's ability! He could read something once and remember everything about it. My son took it upon himself to "big brother" this young man and make him get up in the morning, turned off the x-box or computer games after midnight, etc. I was worried about resentment, but they ended up rooming together all 4 years.

 

Ds#3 is taking concurrent courses locally. He was approached by a young lady who asked for math help because "you look really smart". So my son helped her and asked what text she was using. She stated that she had a book, but had never read it. He was shocked!

 

I think that training our kids toward an independent learning attitude is one of the best things we can do. That doesn't mean just tossing the books at our kids, but teaching them how to learn in spite of a bad teacher by using online resources, digging through the textbook, and knowing where to go for help at college.

 

Even my boys struggled their first year. They had taken CC courses in high school so they should have known what to expect. But the reality is that our CC coddles the students and makes every student "successful" in spite of the student's work ethic. My kids went to the state university expecting that they would glide through. But at least they had the ability to use a textbook and search online for answers.

[regentrude]

I think that training our kids toward an independent learning attitude is one of the best things we can do. That doesn't mean just tossing the books at our kids, but teaching them how to learn in spite of a bad teacher by using online resources, digging through the textbook, and knowing where to go for help at college.

 

:iagree:

You summed it up very succinctly.

Ultimately, I think the above is even more important than covering a particular content.

[G5052]

There was a recent thread on the General Forum, discussing the same article.

 

What you cite is exactly what I observe in many (not all) of my students: high school conditions them to expect sound bites, spoon feeding, hand holding. Many do not know how to work with a textbook and take notes; they just show up for class and expect this to suffice.

 

I always feel a bit melancholy as the end of the community college semester approaches, because I know that a fair number of my students will fail because they didn't want to work. Last semester I had several students who came to class nearly every time, and they still failed because they didn't put in any work. This semester over half of the class has stopped attending, so it is more cut-and-dried. I did the course evaluation last night, and I had 8 out of 18 students present. I've been in email contact with one student who has horrific personal problems that hasn't attended consistently, but she's keeping up and is actually my top student right now.

 

The class I teach is very black-and-white, lots of homework, but it is computer-graded and they get five chances to improve their score. I do a lot of before-and-after class tutoring, and I structure class so that there is almost always a good amount of time at the end to address problem areas. It isn't a hard class. Really.

[memphispeg]

My dh was someone that got all As and v. high test scores in a hugely competitive NYC high school. He "studied" on the train and bus rides everyday but, did v. little "homework" once he got home. He got to college at a state university and was completely blind-sided by the "work" that he had to do on his own to prepare for his STEM classes. It took him 5 years to graduate b/c he kept switching majors.

He worked for 8 years and then went back to school for a masters. He worked really hard at developing his study skills, taught himself all that he needed to learn if he needed to. He often wondered if he might have been more successful if he had known how and why to study as an undergraduate.

As a homeschooling parent, I have tried to create paradigms for learning difficult subjects so that dd will be able to "teach herself" in the future as necessary. Dd often resents my little exercises in "learning strategies" but, some have been really effective for her. I'd like to think that I will send her off to college at least knowing about how to negotiate her way through her academics.

[jamajo]

Anyone have the link to this same discussion on the general board? I couldn't find it.

[regentrude]

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=369256&highlight=college

For all of this kid's preparatory failures, he did have the gumption to realize what he didn't know, that he didn't know how to learn in college, and he went and figured out how to learn himself. Someone, perhaps his parents, perhaps his teachers, did instill in him these important meta-lessons. I do have to give the student a lot of credit for standing up for himself, when it would have been easy for him to think himself stupid, and just quit.

[memphispeg]

Just read the article. My dd found a similar experience at her LAC. She had to teach herself how to write a decent paper. She is a jr. and is "finally" producing "A" work that she is proud of. Her ps was all about memorizing and regurgitating. She was excellent at that but, she loves the thinking and analyzing better.

[butterflymommy]

I don't think this gentleman is unique. Many students are unprepared for some aspect of college-- academically on some level, or socially, or both. Particularly in a competitive school like Georgetown. You go from being the best in your class to mediocre among those better than you. It can be a real shock to the system, but the ones who are motivated will find a way to catch up. I got into a highly competitive college only to discover, once there, that I was functionally illiterate in math. So I avoided STEM classes except for the core requirements and went to the tutoring sessions offered for the ones I had to take. I got straight As in everything else so my GPA was decent. It ends up being a game of best playing the cards you're holding.