College for All

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As a democrat, and a liberal one at that, I like our new president. I am happy to see a black man hold our nation’s highest office. I would have been happier to see a woman in that spot, not because she is a woman but because I believe that she is slightly better qualified for the job, but overall I think that Obama is making the most of a very difficult position. Let me also state that, as an educator, I do firmly believe that everyone should have the right to equal access to education regardless of age, race, gender, or socio-economic status. However, while I feel that Obama’s “college for all” mantra is admirable, perhaps our country would be better served by encouraging some of those individuals who are currently entering college coursework, both online and in the traditional classroom, to first make a quick trip back in time to review and ingest some valuable skills that they missed the first time around in high school. Adult students returning to school after a long break in education as well as recent graduates who were underserved or under motivated during their time in school are, quite often, setting themselves up for failure from the start because they are entering college completely unprepared for the rigors of post-secondary education. They lack a basic command of the English language (and this is true of native as well as non-native speakers), they have poor organizational skills, and they are unable to comprehend the practice of following directions. As a result, they fail before they even have a chance to try.

Oral and written communication skills are at the center of every academic endeavor. If a student cannot write a simple sentence, one that includes a subject and a verb and culminates in the creation of a complete thought, he or she is not going to be able to write a paper. A baby must learn to crawl before that child can walk. A writer goes through the same learning curve. A frightening number of older adults and even teens with the ink still wet on their high school diplomas cannot write a sentence. Many older students have forgotten the art of writing because they have not had to do so in a long time. Coming from low-skill jobs, they have not been asked to write. Many of them have become comfortable with abbreviations, slang, and colloquial language to the point that they are not aware of any problem with their discourse. For younger students fresh from high school, recent efforts to insure that “no child is left behind” have made secondary education a haven of “fill in the bubble” style learning. It doesn’t matter if a student can compose a complete thought. He or she only needs to know how to color in the right circle on the test form. Additionally, the tendency toward text messaging and instant messenger as primary forms of communication have entered into common language an entirely new set of “words” and word derivatives that, while culturally acceptable, are not a part of academic and professional rhetoric. When students are not penalized for the usage of “net-speak” in high school, they are not prepared to distinguish between casual and academic/professional rhetoric at the college level. As a result, they do not know what language to use in which setting.