Shortcutting an Education

I have students who take so many dual credit (for both high school and college credit earned on a high school campus) and online classes that they often begin college with their first year already completed. Now, I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not.

For the parents, it is a good thing because their children could complete college in far less time than four years, and that could be quite a savings. I keep saying could because it is still up to the student to complete the subsequent on-campus classes successfully and in a timely manner.

I have seen students start college way ahead of the game, then crash and burn during their first semester of on-campus classes. They are either having way too much fun or they are taking higher level classes for which they are not prepared, able or willing.

There is an epidemic going on in America right now. College sophomores are failing out in droves. In my day, Freshman English was the class in which they weeded out the kids who really did not belong. Today, colleges are struggling financially, so they open their doors to just about anyone. Then they water down the freshman classes in hopes of keeping students in school and paying, but when they advance to “real” college classes, they just can’t or won’t do the necessary work.

I still have high school students who don’t believe that they could have more than a 1,000 pages a week to read. Many are still banking on getting degreed by use of Spark Notes or Cliff Notes (what we older folks called them). What a shock these lazy and work adverse students are in for.

The problem of ill prepared students who don’t really want to do college level work and don’t really want to work hard at a job either does not bode well for our country. Every generation looks to the one that follows to not only carry on, but also to lead us to a higher level—a better standard of living and greater quality of life. I doubt the ability of this generation to do so. There is far too much self-centeredness and far too little competence and drive. Even the brightest among them will cheat to achieve rather than work.

In order for America to be great again, we must have an informed, educated and competent group leading us on. Will this generation that doesn’t read a newspaper, that doesn’t study history or civics, that cannot communicate above an eighth grade level be ready for the task? I think not.

And what is the older generation’s contribution to the problem? We are the ones who have coddled our children, excused their behavior, and enabled the decline. America is in trouble, and we are all to blame.