Friday, May 1, 2015

Sid from Santa Fe With a Report on Pre-Requisites and Getting Around Them.

This is me.
Every day.
For 9 million years, our intro level 101 course required - for students who couldn't pass some god-forsaken entrance exam that any monkey could ace - a prereq course called 099.

As someone who's taught a LOT of both classes, I know that 099 is important. It's basic stuff, college level reading, critical thinking. It's HARD. It's NECESSARY. And the students who passed my 099 were actually ready for real college work.

9 million years we did it this way.

But, the winds of change and all that, and now this summer, in 8 weeks, mind you, students can take BOTH 099 and 101 at the SAME TIME. They get credit for both. They PAY for both, and all the department has to do is find part-timers willing to condense 30 weeks of work into 8. (Oh, they found them all right...my shitty community college is FULL of people who'd jump off Niagra falls for the $2450 each class pays. Oh, wait, while students pay TWICE for this accelerated and condensed course, the part-timers just get paid ONCE. Another feature!)

Had it been April 1st and not April 29th when I found this out, I would have thought some nutty Dean was having a go.

But it's real. And once again, my college has done something - among a litany of things - that shows they give not one shit about education, students, or instructors.

Viva L'Academie!

3 comments:

  1. Oh, wait, while students pay TWICE for this accelerated and condensed course, the part-timers just get paid ONCE. Another feature!

    WHAT!?!? There are a million and one things wrong with this plan, but this one -- it's got to be illegal, right?

    Well, it should be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel for you, Sid, but I also worry about the poor instructor who has to teach these kids in the 102 class. They won't be prepared at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Uhg. Advising time always yields some students being delayed by prerequisites, and the urge to help them is strong. But this nonsense isn't help, it's "help" and it will only harm the students as well as the poor teachers and employers who receive them next.

    ReplyDelete

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