Do you remember electives? I recently learned that one of the community colleges I’m employed at has made the decision to implement a program that eliminates one of the most cherished aspects of community colleges.
Guided Pathways is a well-intentioned program designed to get students out of the community college and on to 4-year college with the skills they will need in a specific industry. And as community colleges are often referred to as 2-year colleges, the goal is to get the students out and on their way in two years. An admirable goal. Except for that pesky word on the marquee at the institute of higher learning where I sometimes work – college.
Listen up! You’re starting college in one week. I am going to pay for this “education,” and as such I believe I have the right to voice my opinion on your course of study. You’re going to be a doctor.…if you had/have such a parent, you probably didn’t go to college to do any of the aforementioned activities, especially to make friends. Allow me to add at this point that I am not a doctor. Allow me to add further that, given the number of years I spent in college, I probably should be a doctor. My point – yes, there is finally a point to all of this – is that, given the two extremes I’ve just presented, the idea of “guided pathways” is in all likelihood…misguided.
Example one: Dr. Eyeleadamiserableexistence knew exactly what he/no-way-this-is-a-she was going to do with his time in college and what career path he was going to pursue.
Example two, myself. I needed the time and freedom provided by the traditional college experience to figure out what I might be interested in doing. Neither I nor the doctor benefits from a “pathway.”
| Copyright © 2020 by James Knudsen |
James, it didn’t occur to me until I read this again this morning that it might be a problem for your employment if your employer reads today’s column?
ReplyDeletePublic schools have been doing this for years. They offer only courses which are designed for the ones who wish to go on to college, or I should say, can afford to go, everybody else has to take these courses that they will never have any use for in the rest of their life. When Moss and I were in school and writing on stone tablets, we did have electives. We had wood shop, auto shop, speech class, I found great enjoyment in these, the idea of going to college never crossed my mind, that cost money. Schools today have done away with electives. That maybe the reason for so many dropouts or the reason that kids are being past though grades who can't even read. For those that come from poor families the only college that welcomed us, then and today, with open arms was the U.S. Army. During Vietnam those who families could afford it sent their kids to college and did so more for the deferment than the education. Those families that couldn't stood at the train station as their kids went off to war. The only thing that has changed is it's an airport now. I'm not anti-college, I just believe there should be better choices for those who can't or don't want to attend. For those who go to college to make friends and find themselves--try the Army.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry if this steps on toes, but there is always two sides to a coin.
Ed, forgive me for reply-commenting only now. When I was an administrative assistant at the University of North Carolina Office of the President, North Carolina joined a federal program called GEAR UP, which stood (and still stands) for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, "a discretionary grant program...designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. GEAR UP provides six-year or seven-year grants to states and partnerships to provide services at high-poverty middle and high schools. GEAR UP grantees serve an entire cohort of students beginning no later than the seventh grade and follow the cohort through high school. GEAR UP funds are also used to provide college scholarships to low-income students."
DeleteI was privileged to help the administrators and staff of North Carolina's GEAR UP program, but it seemed to me that it overly emphasized preparation for particular jobs or types of jobs, rather than for a rounded "liberal education" (of the sort I had felt called to pursue as a high school student, and DID pursue as an undergraduate). HOWEVER, I deeply respected the administrators of our GEAR UP program, who were undoubtedly better able than I to judge the needs of North Carolina's "underprivileged" students, so I won't argue that I was right and they were wrong.
There was never any doubt I'd get to college one way or another. Without it there was very little chance of making a living, much less doing any interesting work. My parents offered no suggestions about my major, even after I declared for astronomy. Many years later my mother said she wanted me to be a doctor. Now she tells me....
ReplyDeleteIt would have been good if I could have used some of my school time to find myself. Lacking that, it took decades. But money, Vietnam, and a desire to start my career before middle age ruled otherwise.
Sorry. My signature was published as "unknown". I should have added that plan B, lacking a scholarship, was to start with community college. My parents couldn't help much.
ReplyDeleteChuck, that point about "lacking a scholarship" is SO IMPORTANT. Even in-state tuition at state colleges & universities can be prohibitive for students from poor families, which mine was too. Your personal story (told as "Unknown") is...hard to find the perfect word to do justice to a life earnestly, eagerly lived. PLEASE, in the tradition of Jim Rix's "My Life," develop that "Unknown" comment into at least a short essay of reminiscence about your life. I would be honored and privileged to edit and publish it. Thank you, Chuck!
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