Cheating the Students - Part 1 of 3

2 separate articles in the NY Times today:

In the Education section:
At 2-Year Colleges, Students Eager but Unready by Diana Jean Schemo
and
In the Technology section:
If You Can Click a Mouse You Can Help on Homework by Alina Tugend

There's a strange split in the media, and in the schools themselves, about "kids" in the schools (that is in elementary, middle and high schools) and students in the universities. The split is both in expectations for students and in knowledge about the system. Students also face the split, and the reaction to discovering it exists ranges from anger and denial to embarrassment and perserverance.

So first, the problem: "A" students in high school are getting to college to discover they need not just remedial math, but remedial reading and writing. Community colleges are finding that they need to tutor these subjects not only at the high school level, but at the fundamental elementary and middle school level. Students are needed to be taught the basics of grammar (the difference between "there" and "their", for example) and arithmetic. And, in the schools, parents and their kids are faced with mountains of homework and and endless assortment of activities that are necessary to "prepare their students for college".

My first reaction to the two articles is annoyance about the split, as a student. My own awareness of the problem while I was growing up in it leads from the culture of cheating and test-taking. When introduced to college, the standards changed, and not according to how I thought they would. The article on community college articulates the problem. I can also describe the various reactions of students to the change, as well as my own. Finally, the notion that 'school is hard' applies across the split, but in very different ways. What is to be done?

More coming soon...

posted by Sarah @ 12:41 PM