Written by Linda Selby
Sunday, 11 October 2009
As a writer and a tutor/professor in a local university, I have been appalled at the lack of preparation new freshman have as they enter college for the first time. I cannot count the amount of times I have had young men and women cry and say, "High School never prepared me for this!"
I have talked with High School teachers and they realize that they are lacking the support needed to teach and train students for a college career and a career in the professional world.
These poor teachers have between 25 and thirty students in a classroom. You might say, that's not so bad. Now take these 25 students and multiply that by six or seven. Now you have approximately 150-175 students.
Students coming into English in their freshman year in college are expected to write 4-5 5 page compositions the first semester and the same the second semester to prepare them for the essays and research papers they will be writing for the next four to five years. Ok, if a high school teacher prepared the student to write these papers, that teacher would be grading 5x150x2 each year. That's a lot of papers. We need smaller classrooms, more teachers and more work to prepare students for the college experience.
Ok, so you have a teacher willing to grade 1500 papers a year. That isn't all the English teacher has to teach though. What about great literature, combined with the history of the era being taught and maybe throw in some music to represent European literature, British literature and good ole southern literature. How about African literature, Native American or African American literature.
Some of these students have dedicated teachers that try to begin the discourse in these subjects and interest the students beyond the ability to test well. We need to get back to encouraging our students to think, to research and delve into the mysteries of the spoken, as well as written word. We as parents, teachers and students have to demand the best education we can get.
Teachers need to get paid a real living wage - teachers graduate from college and are in a profession that is training our young people for the future. Do we want to turn our kids over to a professional with credentials to teach our children or do we want to allow the system to hire anyone that is willing to keep our kids out of trouble for 6 hours? I think we need to make sure that our teachers are well-educated, well paid and accountable to what our children are learning in the classroom besides how to pass a state test. Our administrators, principals and other high-ranking officials better think about the future leaders of the community. Education is crucial.
Testing is fine, but there are many students unable to be tested because of language problems, learning disabilities or test anxiety. These tests are fine as a tool, but in reality, long term memory requires more demanding information.
As parents, grandparents and students, let's start looking at where we are putting our money, our trust and our faith.
