[lit-ideas] Re: education
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:01:50 -0700
Julie wrote
How much of an epidemic is this, and how do you, as College Prof's,
deal with students whose public schooling has left them entirely
unprepared for College-level study and subject matter?
I've never had a student who was entirely unprepared for college-level
work; some who were weak (not unprepared) in a particular discipline
maybe, but none who was completely lost. I'm not boasting when I say
this, just reporting the facts. I taught at two large research
universities, Indiana University (1962-63, and the University of Oregon
(1963-66), before I came to Reed, where I taught full-time until I
retired in 1996, thinking that thirty years was probably enough. I've
taught one course a year most of the time since I became emeritus (I
mention this to show that I'm still in touch with students).
Reed is well-known for its rigorous academic program and the commitment
of its students to it: it's often said that the problem here isn't
getting students to study, but getting them to /stop/ studying. How
prepared students are academically to come here is reflected in their
test scores; not that these alone confirm a student's readiness to come
to this particular school, but they're pretty good indications of how
well they were taught in high school or prep school. Why am I going on
about Reed, where /academic/ (as opposed to psychological)
unpreparedness would be extremely rare?
When I taught at Indiana. and Oregon, in the 1960's, most students could
write what used to be called 'workman-like prose.' Nothing fancy, but
grammatically correct and prima facie intelligible. Their answers might
sometimes have been wrong ('London is the capital of France') but one
could see /why/ they were wrong. They were not confused, they were not
gibberish. I'm no longer optimistic about the ability of American high
school students to express themselves; this, of course, carries over
into their first college/university experience, and accounts for the
growth of 'remedial' courses (mostly remedial English) for first-year
students. I'm depressed and frustrated by the disappearance of plain
speech and writing among young people, but I can think of no way of
bringing it back.
Robert Paul
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