Kid I 'M Sorry But You' Re Just Not College Material Summary

Alfie Kohn’s Article “How Not to get into College” analyses many key factors of how the current school system does not work and how we as members of society need to work together extensively to remodel the system to ensure the success of future students by valuing education over grades. By looking at how students only join clubs and and worship numerical grades only to impress colleges; students facing pressure from parents, teachers, and society to get good grades and succeed in life; and how students live through many mental health implications due to a multitude of factors surrounding their educational life, we can determine that systemic factors of this society have turned students of this generation into grade grubbers.

Not many people realize the importance of education and how big it’s impact one one’s life. After reading “College Equals Success” by Latunya Jackson makes discover that we only can obtain education in school. I have been to two schools before I enrolled in Whatcom Community College. I have always wondered what makes them differ from each other and somehow, it has been a mysterious question that I can’t find an apparent answer to. Eventually, after I have spent some time thinking, I have found that both primary and secondary schools that I have been to, are pretty much unalike in terms of, where I was living in, whom I was living with, and .

In “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” Alfred Lubrano uses his personal experience with college education and his parents to come up with the statement: “Every bit of learning takes you further from your parents". In his writing, he goes over how his eyes were first opened to the idea that school could bring you further from your parents, when he read a book titled “Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez”, where the writer was quoted as saying: “Home life is in the now, school life exists on an altogether different lane, with an eye towards the future”. Alfred’s belief throughout his article is that school brings you to a reality that separates and distances you from your parents and home-life.

Education has always been an important part of our sustainable society in which everyone plays a role. The purpose of the education system is to provide a way for students to learn and gain knowledge. The current education system focuses more on evaluations rather than teaching, which creates a stressful and unpleasant high school experience. Alfie Kohn’s essay, How Not to Get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation describes the difficulties and purposeless school practices students face when preparing themselves for life beyond high school.

Colleges and Universities across America have enforced what they describe as strict admittance policies, that leave high school seniors fighting tooth and nail to receive an acceptance letter from the school of their dreams. As reports show however, once students reach this highest form of education, less and less reading, studying and academic related activities are taking place. President Obama implied that every American should have the right to a college-level education, in fact, he stresses the vitalness of a higher education in correlation to a prospering America. Chace gives us the perception that Americans today look at a college education as a leisure to middle class families. So with all of this tedious work to get admitted to a college, why are reports showing less studying going on within the school?

In “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” Alfred Lubrano uses his personal experience with college education and his parents to come up with the statement that “Every bit of learning takes you further from your parents". In his writing, he goes over how his eyes were first opened to the idea that school could bring you further from your parents, when he read a book titled “Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez”, where the writer was quoted as saying “Home life is in the now, school life exists on an altogether different lane, with an eye towards the future.” Alfred’s belief throughout his article is that school brings you to a reality that separates and distances you from your parents and home-life.

In today’s world, young people think that if they continue their tertiary education, they can access a better job, no matter which subject they take. This situation indirectly causes a huge enrollment of students into universities and colleges, which may drop off the quality of education. As the author says, “quantity trumps quality” (pg. 168) which certify that the environment is skipped from education to jobs; meanwhile, the knowledge part is ignored by the students. In detail, they do not expect to learn something but just to get a degree which acts as “a passport to consideration for a job”. (pg. 164) This condition gradually turns credentialing into the norm. Everyone only cares about the degree that they will receive rather than concerning about what they will learn and develop through their subject’s material.

Education gives common people the means to turning dreams into reality. Education allows common people to open up their minds to various possibilities, that will arise from becoming educated. But, yet there are times where our education systems do not uphold student/learners to a high norm. Although, problems with education systems rarely occur, inadequate performance in school can be feasible if there are issues within the child’s household. Nonetheless, students who face inconsistent dilemmas, fail since they attempt to solve both problems.

The school is testing ground for the brain. I believe that the student should be exposed to new ideas, experiences, techniques and methods so as to further develop their own capacities to adapt, change, learn, and grow as people. One of the most important goals of the school, if not the most significant, is to develop literate and productive members of society, who are able to converse with a variety of issues using varied methods of communication and media. All students should be encouraged to make thoughtful contributions to society, no matter how large or small they may be. Also, the school is not confined to a

The true value of education is lost as grades and numbers become top priority. In a spoken word, Suli Breaks shares that students have becomes zombies in schools that run everything in a routine. They lose sleep to hand in assignments and meet the dead-line yet by that time the students are also half dead. The grade is all that the student starts to care about because that is what the school is directing their efforts towards. With all of their focus on the grade no one remembers to remember what they learned and apply it in life. Thus, it is in one semester and out the next. In one study teachers witnessed “unprecedented levels of school-related anxiety, stress, and mental health amongst pupils, particularly at exam time”. People may think that only college students do all nighters but it actually is not surprising to find high school and sometimes even middle schools staying up late nights trying to finish up assignments. All of this leads to sleep deprivation which affects the student’s health and in turn propels their stress as time virtually elapses out of existence. Likewise, the school system runs in such a way that mistakes become feared in an unhealthy manner. It is fine to have the fear of failure but one must learn to accept it because once it is accepted, children are not afraid to take a chance at trying something new. Ken Robinson makes the point that “we

When I enrolled in Tabb High School, the administration was obsessed with teaching students two things, the Standards of Learning (S.O.L.) and the importance of college. As all of us were freshmen, the thought of college meant very little for us but by the time we became seniors, it was the only thing on our minds. We understood that knowledge is power and that we must find new knowledge to better ourselves personally and economically.

Secondly the purpose of a college education is to meet the student's liberal art’s needs so that they can compete and give them a well-rounded education that will enable them to earn

A very important part of life is education. In order to acquire a satisfying education, one should complete high school prior to college. College and high school have two different levels of education, but both are trying to further student’s knowledge. As recent high school graduates and college freshman’s many can clarify similarities and differences between the two. Some obvious similarities are that both have assignments, classrooms, and students. Although college and high school have many differences three of the main ones are the teachers, classes, and responsibilities.

This illustrates that many of us thought finish school would be the ending of life than we go out as adults we either go through more schooling or get a job. Our life in school can be a rough place with so many challenges we must undergo. Socrates told us that “he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent,”(Paragraph, Allegory of the cave). To demonstrate all students go through life with many problems but half of us try to get through all those hardships. Moreover, are education is always changing.

The article also discusses how the country’s highest achievers are increasing their performance in reading while the country’s lowest achievers are preforming at record lows. A survey produced by US News showed that only thirty-seven percent of high school seniors are scoring proficient or higher in reading. However, just twenty-five percent of the students score high enough in math. The survey also showed that the students in the lower performing percentile dropped four points in math and six points in reading when compared to the previous year. This survey and this article as a whole stand to prove that most high school students are becoming lesser prepared as the years’ tack on. As the survey supported, high school seniors are not performing proficiently enough to keep up with college coursework. If high school seniors are not performing proficiently enough, then they will not be able to make the transition from high school to college. Over time, this could possibly eliminate the high school students who do not perform efficiently from furthering their education at all. This can all be related to the high schools not preparing students for college. This is a very good argument and article because it proves that most high school seniors are not capable of succeeding in college because they are not adequately