Wash Post:"I went to some of D.C.’s better schools. I was still unprepared for college."

[CrypticVillain]

By Darryl Robinson, Published: April 13

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.

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Okay, I have some crazy mixed feelings about this. My sister went to Georgetown and killed it; she graduated from Eastern Senior High School. Another sister went to Trinity University and killed it; she graduated from Eastern Senior High School.

Me, I am going to UDC, one could say that I am killing it. I graduated from....nowhere. I dropped out of school when I was 14, received my GED at the age of 16, worked for 2 years, and then started college at 18.

I say all that to say this, either Darryl Robinson is one of the most whiniest people in the county, or the DC School System is getting worst by the year.

I think it is the later, because, if you read this article you can tell that Robinson is someone who always gives his all and excelled at everything he did. I cried BS when I saw the title of the article, but after reading it, I think that the school system has let the students down.

Don't get me wrong, the students in DC could be terrible at times, but when someone like this is struggling this bad in college, it leads me to believe that he just wasn't properly prepared. I wonder if it is like that everywhere :whoknows:

[skins_fan1982]

Darryl should've went to Banneker.

[zoony]

I say all that to say this, either Darryl Robinson is one of the most whiniest people in the county, or the DC School System is getting worst by the year.

This happens to most everyone who goes to college. All of a sudden you're no longer surrounded by 3 stoners, 5 jocks, 7 slackers, 4 average people, 2 smart people, and 1 very smart person. You're surrounded by 22 smart and very smart people.

I would imagine that's a much more difficult change for that 1 very smart person who is used to having his/her ass kissed 24/7 for being the smartest person in the room. I think that's what I'm reading here.

BTW, good for you MLSkins! Keep after it

[renaissance]

It's not just a problem with DC schools. It's an issue with all schools. I went to a small liberal arts college in VA and the range of intelligence and basic knowledge that people possessed was astounding to me. My freshman year I took an elementary math modeling course which was probably the most basic math class you could take at my school. Three people had to drop the class because the concepts were too hard for them to understand. How these people ever made it through high school math I don't know. And don't even get me started on the writing skills of many college students. Do people not learn grammar skills in K-12 anymore? And god forbid we make sure that students learn about basic sentence and paragraph structure before getting to college.

Even in grad school, reading other people's papers and working with them on projects I couldn't believe how some of these people made it all the way through college. The problem is that we let students coast through middle and high school so long as they do enough to get by, and it is no different in college and beyond.

Also, I think this quote is very telling:

One of the biggest surprises has been discovering how academically independent I will have to be. No longer can I just listen to my teacher lecture for an hour and absorb everything. Now, I have to go out and get the material, reading more than what is required and doing exercises that I have given myself.

For a variety of reasons, I think high school education has gotten really watered down when it comes to individual learning. I admit that I didn't do much outside of class for high school because I didn't need to in order to get good grades. But I was able to make the adjustment fairly easily in college. This was due a lot to my environment (small school, good contact with professors) and the fact that I had a couple classes I really enjoyed in my first semester. Even in college, though, I think it's becoming easier at most schools to skate by with very little effort outside of class.

[RVAbrendan]

All of a sudden you're no longer surrounded by 3 stoners, 5 jocks, 7 slackers, 4 average people, 2 smart people, and 1 very smart person.

This sounds like my freshman year at WVU.

---------- Post added April-16th-2012 at 04:16 PM ----------

Even in grad school, reading other people's papers and working with them on projects I couldn't believe how some of these people made it all the way through college. The problem is that we let students coast through middle and high school so long as they do enough to get by, and it is no different in college and beyond.

THIS. Even in my capstone undergrad year, I would proofread classmates' papers in shock and awe. Some of that stuff was reminiscent of Middle School...

[zoony]

This sounds like my freshman year at WVU.

like most schools with relatively easy acceptance standards, those people are usually gone in the first semester / year. Getting in and staying in are two completely different things

[Corcaigh]

Just about every kid will have a mix of outstanding, OK and awful teachers during their education. Once a kid starts taking AP classes they should be able to determine which teachers are competent and work on their own to learn the material in the classes that aren't well taught.

The same article could have been written about any school. And from what I've heard, DC schools could well be bottom of the heap. But most kids (other than those from elite private schools) who attend top colleges such as Georgetown will look around and realize that they are not in Kansas anymore. And for most that won't be a surprise.

---------- Post added April-16th-2012 at 12:21 PM ----------

This sounds like my freshman year at WVU.

From what I've heard it sounds like the WVU faculty.

[CrypticVillain]

Getting in and staying in are two completely different things

This is so true. I swear, UDC is one of the easiest schools to get into. So easy that people often make jokes. But you better believe that a good chunk of them flunk out within two or three semesters.

When it all boils down, I am under the belief that school isn't for everybody. Some people could handle and some can't and I don't think it is nothing wrong with that. Despite me thinking that, I still think that everybody should at least have a high school diploma or equivalent.

[Pick6]

Also, I think this quote is very telling:

For a variety of reasons, I think high school education has gotten really watered down when it comes to individual learning. I admit that I didn't do much outside of class for high school because I didn't need to in order to get good grades. But I was able to make the adjustment fairly easily in college. This was due a lot to my environment (small school, good contact with professors) and the fact that I had a couple classes I really enjoyed in my first semester. Even in college, though, I think it's becoming easier at most schools to skate by with very little effort outside of class.

Edit: Not your quote Ren, the quote you pulled from the article.

At least the way I read this quote is the person may not be very intelligent. They can work hard and prove they have the skills to get by, but have to work extra hard. I had a girlfriend like this in undergrad. It was a D1 school and she played soccer. That did take up a good amount of time for her, but the rest of the time she spent studying. She went to private school in NYC. She didn't struggle for lack of high school education. A majority of people are going to college now, but that doesn't mean college level work is for them.

[Busch1724]

One of the things not mentioned, unless I missed it, is that colleges today don't have the same admittance requirements they once did because they want to incease enrollment. Instead of the top 10 or 15 percent going to college, you now have the top 25-50% going to college. Of course with a larger sampling of students you are going to have a broader range of kids. The smartest kids from public, private, charter, homeschooling, and cyber schools are just as smart as they always were while being equally prepared.

Also there is a philosophical change in teaching between colleges and secondary schools. It takes time to adjust. Those that aren't prepared for college won't adjust.

[thebluefood]

like most schools with relatively easy acceptance standards, those people are usually gone in the first semester / year. Getting in and staying in are two completely different things

True story. We get a lot of those at East Carolina. I've seen plenty of freshman come in and spend their three semesters in a total haze, blowing off school work completely, and then mysteriously disappear. Acceptance is easy, but acting earning your degree is a different story.

[RVAbrendan]

like most schools with relatively easy acceptance standards, those people are usually gone in the first semester / year. Getting in and staying in are two completely different things

Oh, no doubt about it. Faculty actually told us, in orientation, that about 40% of freshman fail/drop out their first year.

It's crazy over there...my first day of class, I had a math lecture. Kid walks in 10 minutes late in his pajama pants and a red cup. They preach about alcohol safety, but I don't really see effort to curb any of it.

[renaissance]

Edit: Not your quote Ren, the quote you pulled from the article.

At least the way I read this quote is the person may not be very intelligent. They can work hard and prove they have the skills to get by, but have to work extra hard. I had a girlfriend like this in undergrad. It was a D1 school and she played soccer. That did take up a good amount of time for her, but the rest of the time she spent studying. She went to private school in NYC. She didn't struggle for lack of high school education. A majority of people are going to college now, but that doesn't mean college level work is for them.

It's also where I think a lot of first-generation college students are at a severe disadvantage. I think everyone agrees that high school and college can be quite different in terms of the amount of individual effort you have to put in if you really want to be successful. Unless someone tells you about this and helps you prepare beforehand, you're going to be somewhat at a loss while you figure it out on your own.

[Slateman]

I was homeschooled. I was fine in college. Probably would have been Dean's List if I had actually applied myself.

[gbear]

I haven't seen anyone point out "charter schools" are not universally great. Why do we automatically assume charter schools prepare our kids better. How many of them fail to maintain accreditation, and how do the others keep it?

I have also seen very little mention of what I consider to be a huge failing of our primary school system; we teach to the test. The test is which ever standardized test we are using to evaluate a teacher's/school's performance. Heck, my dad is a high school English teacher, and he runs some basic stats on previous standardized tests every year to look at what areas his school needs to focus on to give them the best chance of scoring well. I've told him many times I think this dies the students a disservice. His answer is many of the kids need the higher scores to be competitive when applying for colleges. I think this belittles the students abilities and sets them up to have a much harder time in college or elsewhere in life if they never go to college. I've said for years the best thing my high school did was teach how to think, not what to think. As MS has robbed me of some memory, I am still confidant in knowing where to go to get the knowledge I need (again) and how to apply it.

I went to college and thought it was easier than high school, and as a result, most of what I learned in college was social. The book stuff and how to research and write a paper was old hand by that time, though I did have some friends who dreaded the 3 page paper due next Tuesday. I was used to having one or two of those a night, and they weren't the homework which took me the most time in high school. Latin was. Even high school, memorization was not my forte.

[Special K]

That's the brakes, kid.

Hell, I went to college and grad. school...and was still unprepared for LIFE.

[No Excuses]

I can sympathize with him somewhat. I took general level physics in high school and when I took the required physics 11/12 in college, I was completely lost. This was largely because my high school physics teacher was either a pothead or simply didn't give a crap (probably both). I had an absolutely terrible background in physics and this was with getting an A in high school physics. I think almost everyone, with the rare exception of the incredibly smart, struggle in a few classes.

But in the article it sounds like he struggled in just about every class. His high school was either unbelievably bad, or he cultivated bad study habits, which weren't the teachers fault. I remember from my own experience in IB and AP classes; to really learn the material instead of getting A's, you have to go beyond the required effort.

[Major Harris]

J

From what I've heard it sounds like the WVU faculty.

what have you heard that leads you to believe that?

[DCSaints_fan]

I have also seen very little mention of what I consider to be a huge failing of our primary school system; we teach to the test. The test is which ever standardized test we are using to evaluate a teacher's/school's performance. Heck, my dad is a high school English teacher, and he runs some basic stats on previous standardized tests every year to look at what areas his school needs to focus on to give them the best chance of scoring well. I've told him many times I think this dies the students a disservice. His answer is many of the kids need the higher scores to be competitive when applying for colleges. I think this belittles the students abilities and sets them up to have a much harder time in college or elsewhere in life if they never go to college. I've said for years the best thing my high school did was teach how to think, not what to think. As MS has robbed me of some memory, I am still confidant in knowing where to go to get the knowledge I need (again) and how to apply it.

Yes, I think this is part of it. With all the emphasis on math/science, I think our students writing skills leave something to be desired. I went to TJ... still my freshman year at JMU I struggled a bit, had to bust my but to make the dean's list. Except for the math and CS classes, which were pretty easy for me. . Of course JMU is no Georgetown

[renaissance]

But in the article it sounds like he struggled in just about every class. His high school was either unbelievably bad, or he cultivated bad study habits, which weren't the teachers fault. I remember from my own experience in IB and AP classes; to really learn the material instead of getting A's, you have to go beyond the required effort.

This is why I posted the one quote from the article.

"One of the biggest surprises has been discovering how academically independent I will have to be. No longer can I just listen to my teacher lecture for an hour and absorb everything. Now, I have to go out and get the material, reading more than what is required and doing exercises that I have given myself."

I know that he's not the only college freshman to experience this realization, it just so happens that he's one of the ones who wasn't prepared for the change when he went to college. It's not the fault of any one person, it's the fault of the K-12 system which puts less and less emphasis on individual learning and skills outside of class, and yes, partially his fault for blaming his past and not just stepping up and realizing that most kids go through this transition. And I'm guessing he's a first-gen college student which means he didn't have mom and dad or older sibling to tell him how different things would be.

[The Sisko]

It's not just a problem with DC schools. It's an issue with all schools. I went to a small liberal arts college in VA and the range of intelligence and basic knowledge that people possessed was astounding to me. My freshman year I took an elementary math modeling course which was probably the most basic math class you could take at my school. Three people had to drop the class because the concepts were too hard for them to understand. How these people ever made it through high school math I don't know. And don't even get me started on the writing skills of many college students. Do people not learn grammar skills in K-12 anymore? And god forbid we make sure that students learn about basic sentence and paragraph structure before getting to college.

...For a variety of reasons, I think high school education has gotten really watered down when it comes to individual learning. I admit that I didn't do much outside of class for high school because I didn't need to in order to get good grades. But I was able to make the adjustment fairly easily in college. This was due a lot to my environment (small school, good contact with professors) and the fact that I had a couple classes I really enjoyed in my first semester. Even in college, though, I think it's becoming easier at most schools to skate by with very little effort outside of class.

I agree, it's not just DC schools. I moved from Florida to "Da Uhrhea" between my Jr. and Sr. year of HS and graduated from Bladensburg HS. When I arrived it didn't take me long to realize that almost all of my classes were covering material I had taken the year before, or even two years before in some cases. I made the best grades of my life and barely attended class at all. When I did, all I was really doing was knocking out the homework so my evenings would be free. I didn't learn anything but man I had a great senior year!

In fairness I'll point out that I transferred from one of the best HS in the Orlando area and possibly statewide, but damn! Really? I think that was the year my eyes finally opened to the fact that some kids were destined to head down one track and others down another and still others down a dark hole...just like my Grandmother had always tried to tell me. I found that more than a little depressing.

BTW, if you live in much of the south, you'd better be prepared to send your kids to private school. Our niece goes to a charter school here and she's really a very bright kid and gets excellent grades. However the kids she's around at school are knuckleheads and the instruction is such that she struggles with some basic concepts in english, math, etc. We went to her talent show a few months ago and the teachers/administrators running the show could barely put together complete sentences. I expect that our niece may have a similar experience to that of the Georgetown kid.

[Corcaigh]

what have you heard that leads you to believe that?

I know of a number of kids who transferred out once they got a bit more serious about their academics and realized that the majors offered aren't that strong.

WVU is easy to get into (how many good students would have it as their first preference?), and the academic teaching standards reflect that.

[No Excuses]

This is why I posted the one quote from the article.

"One of the biggest surprises has been discovering how academically independent I will have to be. No longer can I just listen to my teacher lecture for an hour and absorb everything. Now, I have to go out and get the material, reading more than what is required and doing exercises that I have given myself."

I know that he's not the only college freshman to experience this realization, it just so happens that he's one of the ones who wasn't prepared for the change when he went to college. It's not the fault of any one person, it's the fault of the K-12 system which puts less and less emphasis on individual learning and skills outside of class, and yes, partially his fault for blaming his past and not just stepping up and realizing that most kids go through this transition. And I'm guessing he's a first-gen college student which means he didn't have mom and dad or older sibling to tell him how different things would be.

The initiative to actually learn the material, instead of just getting the A has to come from inside. If you enjoy the subject material, you'll likely go beyond the bare minimum and actually make the effort to learn. But I agree, and I think you are right in saying that being a first gen college kid left him unprepared more than others.

I still wonder how he passed AP classes by not independently studying. My high school had IB instead of AP, and I remember how tough and time consuming some of those classes were (especially IB English).

[Major Harris]

I know of a number of kids who transferred out once they got a bit more serious about their academics and realized that the majors offered aren't that strong.

WVU is easy to get into (how many good students would have it as their first preference?), and the academic teaching standards reflect that.

ok, so in other words you were taking a stereotype and a few stories you've heard from some kids and making the completely logical conclusion that the faculty at wvu are a bunch of drug using bums and ex jocks.

or you were being sarcastic, or an *******, or both...lol....i never can tell.

[Corcaigh]

ok, so in other words you were taking a stereotype and a few stories you've heard from some kids and making the completely logical conclusion that the faculty at wvu are a bunch of drug using bums and ex jocks.

Don't forget the "7 slackers, 4 average people, 2 smart people, and 1 very smart person." Are you saying that there aren't any stoners and jocks on the WVU faculty?

And lighten the **** up, Francis.