This is very movingly written, but still makes me terribly sad. Every day at my college, I see people who truly do not belong there, and are not smart enough to be there. I mean that kindly and without judgment. They are sometimes very nice people, but they are just not intellectually ready for college. Some of them shouldn't have even graduated from high school.
There's this trend in all levels of education these days, of just passing students on from course to course, regardless of whether or not they've demonstrated that they've learned the material. This is something my mother complains about often; she's a professor at a community college and teaches basic reading classes. The classes are supposed to be for mostly ESL students, and there are plenty of ESL students in her class, but there are also a lot of kids who grew up speaking English and still can barely read at a sixth-grade level. How did they get out of high school? Who looked at them and thought that they should get a diploma? It makes me so angry, because it hurts everyone involved in the academic process and cheapens the value of higher education.
I don't know who's to blame for this. Everyone, I guess. The teachers, for not caring enough to actively enforce academic standards. The administration that pushes them to pass on students who aren't ready. Students, for having an attitude of entitlement and not being willing to actually work in college. And term paper mills for enabling them.
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There's this trend in all levels of education these days, of just passing students on from course to course, regardless of whether or not they've demonstrated that they've learned the material. This is something my mother complains about often; she's a professor at a community college and teaches basic reading classes. The classes are supposed to be for mostly ESL students, and there are plenty of ESL students in her class, but there are also a lot of kids who grew up speaking English and still can barely read at a sixth-grade level. How did they get out of high school? Who looked at them and thought that they should get a diploma? It makes me so angry, because it hurts everyone involved in the academic process and cheapens the value of higher education.
I don't know who's to blame for this. Everyone, I guess. The teachers, for not caring enough to actively enforce academic standards. The administration that pushes them to pass on students who aren't ready. Students, for having an attitude of entitlement and not being willing to actually work in college. And term paper mills for enabling them.