Public school system creates dumb college students
March 6, 2007
By JORDAN DANIEL
It happens every day on every campus across the country. It's inevitable, much like the rising sun or Dwyane Wade flopping around on the hardwood trying to get a foul called.
Some student in your class is going to raise his hand and say something stupid, and in my college years, the number of stupid people and the stupidity of their questions seem to get more significant with each passing semester.
This begs the question: "Is college really for everyone?"
In the past few decades, teachers, principals and parents have been telling everyone they have to go to college and that the key to success is getting that rolled-up parchment so you can mount it on your wall, point to it and say, "Hey, look how smart I am!"
Many students go to college just to get a degree or to socialize.
They have no intention of using their degree, expanding their horizons or even getting smarter; they just want to ease on by.
Unfortunately, the state of our education system allows them to do just that. Most kids breeze through elementary, junior high and high school because they've been "taught the test" and nothing else.
They arrive their freshman year of college woefully unprepared for basic math, English and history courses. Part of the reason is standardized testing and the other reason is that college students as a whole simply just aren't as smart as they used to be.
Right now, sitting next to you in class is probably someone who has no right being in college in the first place.
Some students just don't want to work hard and have trouble writing two-page essays on what they plan to do over spring break.
Why are we encouraging everyone in our society to go to college? All we're doing is diluting the value of a college degree and flooding the job market with a poor representation of what a college education should be.
A recent study by Stanford University revealed that 88 percent of high school students aspire to go to college. It also showed that nearly half of students who do attend college have to enroll in remedial courses.
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of college? Should someone be in college if they have to take remedial courses when they enroll?
But it's only partly the fault of students that they're unprepared. Teachers and counselors in high school typically focus on the students in upper-level and Advanced Placement courses.
Thus many students don't know what to expect from college. They think they'll be able to breeze through like they already did in high school.
I know that's the way it was when I was at Waco High School.
There's a lot wrong with higher education in America.Great potential is being squandered and valuable space is being occupied by apathetic nonachievers.
Jordan Daniel is a senior journalism major from Waco.
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