Re: Something to.../split in education?

[Peter Schoch <pschoch@NAC.NET>]

Zach, I encourage the "bucking of the trend" wholeheartedly!  As an
educator, it is VERY distressing to have students who are undereducated
(especially in this respect).

In our county it seems as though the educational system is becomming two
tiered (a class structure-like stratification).  Some of our students
are extremely bright, and we have opened an "Academy for Engineering and
Science" at the local Vo-Tech for them.  They are "earmarked" for better
colleges, etc. -- we at the college only see them because we have an
articulation with the Academy.  The remainder of our students at the
college come from the lower end of their high school classes, and show
this woeful under preparation.  If we are lucky, we see them in our
developmental classes, where they become discouraged and almost half
leave.

So, "today almost everyone goes to college" may be true, but many don't
finish!

As I talk to my HS colleagues, they say that their classes are showing
more and more of this type of split too -- with very few "middle of the
road" students any longer.  They also see tremendous stress in the high
achievers, because they are being pushed so hard to be that way.
Unfortunately, they also see a true defeatism in the other (lower)
students -- they are lower and resigned to that, and the bitterness it
engenders in them.

What are we to do?  Some suggest lowering the standards to give the
lower tier a feeling that they are "worthy", etc.  I keep my standards,
and work like mad to raise everyone to that level.  Neither seems to be
the best answer.  All I can say is that my averages in my physics
classes over the last 6 years have declined almost 28%, and I'm still
working as hard now as then -- as are my HS colleagues.

What are we to do?  I don't have an answer, I just keep trying.  All I
do know is that if this stratification continues, we're going to have
trouble in the near future.

Peter Schoch
SCCC




Zach Wolff wrote:
> I hope I'm not that far above average.  If average
> students are ignorant of most of these things, perhaps
> we need to add all this discussion to the "grade
> inflation/dumbing down of modern culture" thread,
> rather than listing it as a "we're getting older"
> thread.  A fact that I don't think was discussed fully
> on that thread: today almost everyone goes to college.
>  Society might not be dumbing down, it's just that a
> University is no longer an elite sample.  I'll do my
> best to buck the trend.  Up with intellectualism.
>
> Zach Wolff