Reflections
For me, the transition to college was fairly easy. I grew up in an unstable household with a literally absent parent, leaving me to do everything on my own (or not). I did online classes for most of my freshman year and my entire sophmore year, and I barely did any coursework which meant I failed most of my classes. I eventually attended a physical classroom at my local high school dedicated to students taking online courses where I had more structure and an authority figure looming over me if I didn't do my work. It took me five years to finish high school, but in my final year I was back at home doing coursework online totally self directed. My high school GPA overall was in the low 2's, but based on my final two years alone I had a 3.8. After high school I took several years off before finally enrolling in college. I'm paying for my school on my own, which makes me feel extra motivated to do well. If I fail a class, I don't have parents to pay for me to take it again. I take a lot of pride in my grades and enjoy learning new things, so even though I struggle with ADHD and executive dysfunction it is very important to me to push through and get things done. I learned a lesson from my first two years of high school that I've carried with me, and my life before college has forced me to be able to adapt to constantly changing situations.
High school now focuses mostly on standardized test scores and passing these tests, which leads to a curriculum designed to teach students how to take tests instead of how to learn. Standardized test scores have a big impact on the funding that a school receives, and consistent low performance can even lead to a school being shut down. Strategies that worked well in high school for this type of learning don't translate as well to the college environment. Each professor has their own grading criteria, their own testing style, their own teaching style. In high school, in order to make sure all the essentials are covered there is less flexibility allowed in the way that teachers can teach. If there is no time allowed to delve deeper into subject matter, then students won't be able to do so even if they would benefit from it or feel engaged by it. The ability to adapt to each professor, class and semester is vital to success in college.
High school teachers also often talk about college in a way that misinforms new students, either intentionally to scare them into better behavior or unintentionally. I had high school teachers tell me that college professors would not tolerate certain styles of clothing (No pajamas! Unprofessional!), keep tight schedules ("The bell does not dismiss you - I do!") or talk about college classes like they are high stakes job interviews instead of unique learning environments. This is in stark contrast to the experiences of my friends who have attended college, where professors cancel class because they're hungover or spend entire class periods talking about new movies instead of math. As Hjortshoj says, high school teachers prepare students for a "mythical college" - one that doesn't actually exist. A student may spend four years preparing to attend this college, only to be woefully unprepared once they're two weeks into classes.
Listening, reading and writing are essential, interconnected skills. Being able to take in and understand information being given to you through listening and reading are difficult skills - you can spend hours reading a textbook and not be able to explain the concepts you just read, or spend an hour in lecture before going home and finding out you heard the words the professor was saying but didn't really understand them. Writing can be used to translate what you're taking in, like taking notes in your own words, or to communicate an argument in an essay. Fundamental to these three concepts is understanding. To effectively communicate, you must understand what it is you're trying to communicate. This goes both ways. Communication is not only telling someone something, but also receiving what someone is saying to you. A professor may lecture for an hour about a concept, and although they are speaking to you if you don't understand what they're talking about they haven't really communicated this idea to you.
First year writing courses in college prepare students for the different environment they have now entered, since they are often taken in the first year if not the first semester. Writing is something that students will do throughout their college careers no matter their major, and improving your writing skills can bolster your skills in listening and reading. Beyond college, students will continue to write either in e-mails to coworkers, press releases to customers, or to themselves and their coworkers when charting and tracking patient symptoms. Even if writing is limited, learning to be a good writer means working on listening and reading which are also essential skills for anyone to have.
High school now focuses mostly on standardized test scores and passing these tests, which leads to a curriculum designed to teach students how to take tests instead of how to learn. Standardized test scores have a big impact on the funding that a school receives, and consistent low performance can even lead to a school being shut down. Strategies that worked well in high school for this type of learning don't translate as well to the college environment. Each professor has their own grading criteria, their own testing style, their own teaching style. In high school, in order to make sure all the essentials are covered there is less flexibility allowed in the way that teachers can teach. If there is no time allowed to delve deeper into subject matter, then students won't be able to do so even if they would benefit from it or feel engaged by it. The ability to adapt to each professor, class and semester is vital to success in college.
High school teachers also often talk about college in a way that misinforms new students, either intentionally to scare them into better behavior or unintentionally. I had high school teachers tell me that college professors would not tolerate certain styles of clothing (No pajamas! Unprofessional!), keep tight schedules ("The bell does not dismiss you - I do!") or talk about college classes like they are high stakes job interviews instead of unique learning environments. This is in stark contrast to the experiences of my friends who have attended college, where professors cancel class because they're hungover or spend entire class periods talking about new movies instead of math. As Hjortshoj says, high school teachers prepare students for a "mythical college" - one that doesn't actually exist. A student may spend four years preparing to attend this college, only to be woefully unprepared once they're two weeks into classes.
Listening, reading and writing are essential, interconnected skills. Being able to take in and understand information being given to you through listening and reading are difficult skills - you can spend hours reading a textbook and not be able to explain the concepts you just read, or spend an hour in lecture before going home and finding out you heard the words the professor was saying but didn't really understand them. Writing can be used to translate what you're taking in, like taking notes in your own words, or to communicate an argument in an essay. Fundamental to these three concepts is understanding. To effectively communicate, you must understand what it is you're trying to communicate. This goes both ways. Communication is not only telling someone something, but also receiving what someone is saying to you. A professor may lecture for an hour about a concept, and although they are speaking to you if you don't understand what they're talking about they haven't really communicated this idea to you.
First year writing courses in college prepare students for the different environment they have now entered, since they are often taken in the first year if not the first semester. Writing is something that students will do throughout their college careers no matter their major, and improving your writing skills can bolster your skills in listening and reading. Beyond college, students will continue to write either in e-mails to coworkers, press releases to customers, or to themselves and their coworkers when charting and tracking patient symptoms. Even if writing is limited, learning to be a good writer means working on listening and reading which are also essential skills for anyone to have.
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