community college
One Size Never Fits All
Dear President Obama:
I am a community college English teacher at Oakland Community College in Metro Detroit. Previously, I’ve taught at most of the community colleges in the area, including Henry Ford Community College, Schoolcraft Community College and Washtenaw Community College. I even attended Santa Monica Community College, in California, though I was raised in southeastern Michigan, so I understand this important segment of the public school system.
Working with entry-level college students, many fresh out of high school, I teach the last required English classes most students (outside of journalism and English majors) need to take in their lives, Composition I and II, and as a result I have much to say to K-12 teachers and administrators.
An education over-burdened with one size fits all reading and writing assignments results in students who hate reading and who can not think independently, students who are not likely to address local needs for new ideas, new growth and new jobs.
While the situation is critical, it is also fixable. The answer lies in allowing much greater choice when it comes to reading material and writing subject matter. My students design and execute their own projects like traditional grad students. Imposing high standards and not caving into grade inflation, particular as students are about to be set free from mandatory English studies forever after a lifetime of low standards and grade inflation, is not easy but the right path.
Unfortunately, too many of my peers are not interested in the present discussion. My biggest disappoinment does not concern negligent parents or lazy students, both of which are considerable problems, but with lazy teachers. If we can find a way to maintain teacher salary (if not increase it) and erase union protection that protects bad teaching and bad teachers, we may be able to make considerable improvements in our educational system. At present, far too often I am frankly either appalled or underwhelmed by my peers’ behavior.
The traditional means of assigning the same text and the same writing assingment to the entire room of students fails to serve a pluralistic society, our democratic ideals and the demands of the global marketplace. But is it an easier way to teach.
I just heard a commentator on NPR call books a disappearing technology that peole no longer care to use. We can’t let this trend that is pushing college graduates and all Americans away from reading to continue.
This post was submitted by Gina Fournier.
