I went to some of D.C.’s better schools. I was still unprepared for college.
Entering my freshman year at Georgetown University, I should have felt as if I’d made it. The students I once put on a pedestal, kids who were fortunate enough to attend some of the nation’s top private and public schools, were now my classmates. Having come from D.C. public charter schools, I worked extremely hard to get here.
But after arriving on campus before the school year, with a full scholarship, I quickly felt unprepared and outmatched — and it’s taken an entire year of playing catch-up in the classroom to feel like I belong. I know that ultimately I’m responsible for my education, but I can’t help blaming the schools and teachers I had in my early years for my struggles today.
Here we go ... again.
ReplyDeleteIt's all the teachers' fault.
One student is dissatisfied so reason to condemn the entire enterprise.
And, of course, it's all the teachers' fault.
Another snowflake soliloquy where the student put in all the effort but those mean ol' teachers kept standing in his way.
Because, it has to be all the teachers' fault.
Yes, it sounds like the young Mr. Robinson may have had some unpleasant experiences with a few less-than-stellar educators of the 75 or so he encountered through his K - 12 years.
But don't forget, its the fault of all teachers.
He apparently did well enough to be admitted to Georgetown and that was to the credit of ...
Certainly not his teachers.
And, not to put to fine a point on it, but shouldn't a HS grad feel some sort of challenge upon entering college -- it is called higher education for a reason, right?
To be fair, A&S, "as the twig is bent..."
DeleteThe teachers he describes, the ones he remembers most vividly, are the ones who trashed him, who accused him of cheating simply because he did well, who would not teach. He describes being challenged in ONE. COURSE. And he remembers it gratefully.
This guy doesn't appear to be a 'flake. He's working at it, he's adapting, he's doing OK or better than OK now.
I found the comment thread on the follow-up editorial interesting, especially the contributions of "Mrs. D."
Sorry Introvert.prof
DeleteSince the third grade, my teachers told me I was exceptional, but they never pushed me to think for myself.
... my teachers often ignored me because it took me longer to get my words out
One teacher stopped me with her coffee-stained smile ...
When they told me of their doubts, I often credited their superb teaching skills for allowing me to “excel.” Soon my teachers came to admire the fact that I could so quickly respond to their put-downs.
My social life isn’t as exciting as I hoped it would be because I’m spending so much time studying.
Sorry, I'm not filled with admiration for this student's "success."
Yes, he may be adapting and (apparently) succeeding now. But the overall message of the essay still strikes me as a expansion of the standard "I earned the A" versus "You failed me" drivel.
Well, as someone with firsthand knowledge of the DC public school system, I have to admit that much of what he says is true. However, I think that his ire is indeed misdirected. The "blame the teachers!" thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth; it feels too much like blaming the victim. A more incisive article might look at the conditions that created the DC school system in the first place--60 years of neglect and "white flight," gross malfeasance and mismanagement of the school system, an inept and nepotistic local government, and an unending cycle of poverty. But of course, none of these answers is as satisfying as "my teachers and schools failed me."
DeleteBad teachers are merely one piece of this puzzle. Mostly, they're on the receiving end of a shit storm. Sure, some are terrible, but others have been dealt a really bad hand. As instructors, we all know what it's like to get a particularly remedial class and have to adjust our lessons to reach the lowest common denominator. In DC, that's compounded by a factor of 12. Imagine walking into an eleventh-grade class where several of the students don't read on the third-grade level. Or a pre-calculus class where the students don't know decimals and fractions. That's the order of the day in DC. And I'm not even talking about the behavioral issues.
Basically, I think that Mr. Robinson is still processing what happened to him his first year at Georgetown. He probably felt terrible at first--like it was all his fault that he couldn't keep up and that he was stupid--and now, for the first time, he has a different perspective. But he still isn't considering the bigger picture.
And as a sidenote, I have a difficult time believing that a teacher would just walk up to a student and say, "You didn't deserve that student-of-the-day award" without some kind of provocation. There's got to be more to that story.
And one of Darryl's high school teachers wrote in, which I thought was telling:
I was Darryl's sophomore English teacher at Cesar Chavez, Parkside. In his section of English 10, there were 1-2 other students reading and writing at or above grade level, a few students 1-2 years below grade level, two students not yet fluent in English, two students who had difficulty with focus and written and oral expression because of learning or behavioral disorders, and a few students who read and wrote at a 5th or 6th grade level. To construct a curriculum that met the needs of all of these students was a considerable challenge. One often-favored way of doing this is through differentiated instruction -- grouping the students by ability level and providing appropriately challenging materials to each group (essentially constructing 2-4 different sets of materials for each lesson). A number of factors prevented me from doing this, notably lack of time to construct materials (I was already working 65+ hours per week), and the inability of several members of the class to function effectively in self-directed small groups even with ability-appropriate materials (a deal-breaker for the kind of small-group classroom work differentiated instruction requires).
I was all set to mock this dude, but I can't bring myself to do so. I -- a rural white boy from an intact family in a decent school district -- also wasn't really challenged in high school, save by a handful of teachers whom I remember with gratitude and who are my role models even today.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is too much like students we see here, at a school rather below the level of Georgetown: kids who are just not prepared for college-level work, and who have been shunted around courses that could have at least approximated some level of rigor. Some of 'em, it's their fault: the true college-prep courses will be hard work, and might result in less than an A, so they skip 'em. But not all: some of them are tagged early and never expected to live up to any potential, including their own.
When we get kids matriculating in pre-med who skipped their high school's physics and chemistry courses, not to mention any higher math courses, I wonder what their guidance counselors are smoking. High school kids don't necessarily know any better. But their adult guides should.
I read parts of this to my class yesterday.
ReplyDeleteHe's not trashing his teachers: he's pointing out the flaws in the system, which my students also see. It is an epidemic. Teach to the test. Spit back. Listen passively.
I thought he was admirable in taking responisbility for his own education.
I thought this was brave and long overdue. I have had quite a few so-called "straight A" first year students weeping in my office because I broke it to them that summary was not analysis and that their grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and/or argumentation was not up to the college level. As I hand them a kleenex, I say as gently as possible that their high school, and possibly junior high school, did them wrong by giving them A's. And this student is talking about not only the disaster of public schooling in our nation, but the continuing presence of racism directed especially toward African American boys.
ReplyDeleteIn good faith, a year or so ago I toured 15 public schools in my city (we have a choice system). In all of the kindergarten classes I saw, the kids were coloring photocopied line drawings, learning the ABCs, and finding objects of a certain color -- all things my kid did in the nonacademic program for two-year-olds she went to. The curriculum was so dumbed down it was pathetic. We got a good aid offer to a progressive private school, where my kindergartener learned about things like color theory, multiplication, and electricity as she did various holistic classroom projects.
The gap between the educational haves and have-nots is horrifying.
Sorry, I know I'm shaping out as the outlier on this one, but I did teach for nearly 10 years (7 - 12) in a major urban center and I see this as proactive flaking.
DeleteOf course there are systemic issues ... there are in any large enterprise. Yes, we have suffered with the false egalitarianism of mainstreaming.
But in my front-line experience, having encountered nearly 3,000 students, there were many (MANY!) more students trying to play the system than were held down by it.
I once had a parent accuse me of racially discriminating against her slacker child after she had one of his assignments "independently" graded. It was a science problem set; there was no subjectivity involved.
I had a student, who simply could not keep himself from disrupting my class, dual register for the same course a "sign up and pass" night school. Lo and behold, he passed and actually mocked me as he prepared to graduate.
It was during this time I became familiar with "No one complains when they pass" and the futility of feedback when I repeatedly witnessed a parade of students simply scan the grade and throw out returned assignments.
And, yes, I had several outstanding students who, to a person, all demonstrated some measure of self-motivation.
Mr. Robinson's essay seems to suggest that he alone lit the fire under his butt to rise to Georgetown levels. Why did that fire seem unignited for the preceding 12 years?
Sounds to me like Georgetown is doing well by Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Robinson is doing well by himself. The only thing I'd question is whether his more-privileged classmates are, in fact, better-prepared for independent thinking than he. Some of them may be; some may just be faking it better, or complaining more about professors' "unfair" expectations (and so not getting as much out of their educations as he is). Despite the painful experiences that created it, Mr. Robinson's awareness that he still has much to learn will, I think, be a tremendous help to him in the long run. It's also a sign of intelligence, and an attitude that will serve him well in life past college. Kudos and best wishes to him.
ReplyDeleteI was especially interested in the follow-up by a teacher, that said (essentially) "everything this student says is true."
ReplyDeleteDid you all miss the last line of his first paragraph? "Having come from D.C. public charter schools, I worked extremely hard to get here."
ReplyDeleteCharter schools.