When High School leaves students unprepared for college
Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: Op-Ed
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By Lindsay Potts
The TARTAN
As I look back and recall the first half of my first semester here at McHenry County's finest community college, all I keep thinking about is high school.
I remember how less than a year ago, my teachers at Johnsburg High School were always talking about how everything is done in preparation for college. Lots of homework one week was all to prepare you for the amount you would receive in college. Long essays or finals were to prepare you for the test you would be facing in college. Teachers who talked so quickly and expected you to know what to write down as notes - you guessed it - more preparation for teachers or classes that you may have to take in college.
I think my teachers did a relatively good job of preparing me for college, but only in some aspects. For example, the homework, tests, and the expectancy of students to learn to take notes without having to spoon feed them all were good for preparation. There is a flipside to the preparation, though.
There are other things where I think preparation was completely neglected. During these past couple of months, I have been learning to adjust to my 17-hour credit schedule and still have not fully mastered it. Whether it is getting the luxury of sleeping in one day, and then getting the short end of the stick and having to get up at 7 a.m. the next, I am not sure of. I do not think, though, that there is one single solitary thing that I could pinpoint to blame for my inability to master this.
If there is one thing that I had to guess is giving me the most grief, it would be adjusting to the classes that I am taking. Actually, it really is not the class material itself; it is the length of some of the classes I am taking.
Having finished high school in June, I realize now how much more I should have appreciated those fifty-seven minute, ten class period days. Fifty-seven minutes seems like such a short amount of time in comparison to those two hour and fifty minute eternities MCC tries to pass off as being just one class.
The TARTAN
As I look back and recall the first half of my first semester here at McHenry County's finest community college, all I keep thinking about is high school.
I remember how less than a year ago, my teachers at Johnsburg High School were always talking about how everything is done in preparation for college. Lots of homework one week was all to prepare you for the amount you would receive in college. Long essays or finals were to prepare you for the test you would be facing in college. Teachers who talked so quickly and expected you to know what to write down as notes - you guessed it - more preparation for teachers or classes that you may have to take in college.
I think my teachers did a relatively good job of preparing me for college, but only in some aspects. For example, the homework, tests, and the expectancy of students to learn to take notes without having to spoon feed them all were good for preparation. There is a flipside to the preparation, though.
There are other things where I think preparation was completely neglected. During these past couple of months, I have been learning to adjust to my 17-hour credit schedule and still have not fully mastered it. Whether it is getting the luxury of sleeping in one day, and then getting the short end of the stick and having to get up at 7 a.m. the next, I am not sure of. I do not think, though, that there is one single solitary thing that I could pinpoint to blame for my inability to master this.
If there is one thing that I had to guess is giving me the most grief, it would be adjusting to the classes that I am taking. Actually, it really is not the class material itself; it is the length of some of the classes I am taking.
Having finished high school in June, I realize now how much more I should have appreciated those fifty-seven minute, ten class period days. Fifty-seven minutes seems like such a short amount of time in comparison to those two hour and fifty minute eternities MCC tries to pass off as being just one class.