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College preparation disturbs professors |
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Thursday, 08 February 2007 |
Many college professors do not think students are prepared for their classes when they enter college.
Even well into sophomore or junior level classes, professors can be found complaining of a complete lack of the skills necessary to perform up to college expectations.
Though
there are many factors in a high school classroom that impede a
student’s preparation, does a college education finish the job?
Class clowns and strict curriculums for end-of-course tests press the
teacher to force an epic amount of information onto an unwilling
audience each day.
High school teachers try desperately to prepare students for the EOC
tests, but they also try to tell us what we need to know for college or
for the rest of our lives.
College professors get angry when they have to finish the job, but that
should be part of their job as a realistic answer to the facts of
public school education.
This is most vivid when you look at the format, length and topic of essays for high school compared to college.
Most college essays are either to make a case for your opinion about a
topic or research papers with 10 citations and MLA format throughout.
Compare this to high school essays focused on learning to research
material and analyzing classic literature to form the base of knowledge
that professors expect.
College professors rarely inquire as to why their students are not meeting their expectations.
They simply jump to the tried and true excuse that high schools have failed to prepare their students.
College professors do not take into consideration the base of knowledge
that is instilled in their students. They would rather focus on the
knowledge that is lacking.
The middle school education brought into high school is a far leap from
what they are expected to know coming into college. For that, high
school teachers should be commended.
That the students learn anything with all the hormones raging is a modern miracle.
I feel even the knowledge I acquired from my small, under-funded high
school coupled with a love for reading prepared me for college.
I question whether I will be fully prepared for the workplace when I leave college. Is that not the job of these professors?
Though some of the lecture classes and discussion classes I have
attended have been well taught, it is not the minority of teachers that
could stand to take a lesson in expanding and intriguing young college
students’ minds.
Instead, some professors rush through the material that will be on the
department-made examinations and off the student’s mind before they are
home for break.
I want to be challenged, but not by a four- or five-page exam. I would
like new and interesting ideas. I want college to expand my mind like
the Greek philosophers of the past did at the earliest colleges.
With the expanding global economy, the majority of American jobs
require college educations. But how much will I really have learned
after college? Most of the jobs will require on-site training, so it
seems like the employer will teach me most of what I need anyway.
What is it about the college diploma that really deserves the earnings gap?
We are supposed to learn to think outside of the box, but it is not
often a student has time to think outside the box in the average
semester. It makes me wonder how much memorizing a textbook for one
semester is really going to teach me for my future job.
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Following my failure with my first attempt through college, I went into the local work force here in Boone. It wasn't college that got me ready for a job, granted the jobs that I've had don't require a college degree, what got me ready for the jobs was the fact that if I don't work and put in 110 percent, I'm not going to be here very long. If I don't have a job, I don't have a roof over my head or food in my belly.
Since working, I've become tired of my current job and decided that I was mature enough and ready to make it back in school. I've been back now for going on two years and will hopefully be graduating in a year and a half. I'm not too worried about my preparation for the job market or the "real world" because I've been there, as many other ASU students have, or like me, still are. It is not the responsibility of the University and its faculty to prepare students for a specific job market. The purpose of the University and the academy as a whole is to provide an education with the tools necessary to AID an individual in their life pursuits whatever they may be. And if a student is not sure of their life's pursuits, college can open many doors. Yes, jobs can open up just simply because of a degree, or there are any number of graduate/professional programs that students can go in to.
If a student is going to college simply for job training, that money spent on education at a four year institution could be saved and that individual should look for an apprenticeship of some kind or even attend a technical school or community college.