Why are high school grads still learning to learn?

Chris Rickert:

I'm not surprised more students are taking college-readiness and remedial courses at community and four-year colleges.

In the 1990s, I taught introductory composition at a private, career-oriented college and at a public university in Chicago, where it became clear that many of my students still hadn't learned the difference between "it's" and "its," for example, or proper use of a comma. Never mind critical thinking.

It was especially evident at the private college that many of these high school graduates were forking over thousands of dollars so some master's level English major with no formal training in education could teach them what they should have learned for free in public school.

The experience puts "Learning to Learn Camp," Madison Area Technical College's nine-week, $478.75 incarnation of the college preparatory class, in something of a darkly comic light.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 15, 2011 9:24 PM
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