Experience... A Prerequisite for College?

Instructor: “What is meant by the term “Unilateral,” in terms of a nation's action?

Student A: “They do it themselves?”

Instructor: “Um..., Ok, anyone else?”

Student B: “It's like, when they don't feel like they have to get permission from anyone else?”

Instructor: “Um..., Ok. Can anyone add to that description? Anyone?”

Student C: “When they do whatever they want?”

Instructor: “Uh..., Ok. Sort of. Anyone else? Yes, there in the back with your hand up?”

It seems like this scenario plays out in many of my classes at least once a week. Students responding to questions with incomplete sentences. Worse, the responses are generally phrased as questions.

In class, when an instructor asks a question and students respond with incomplete questions in return, the discussion falters and dies. The actual learning experience is wasted because the information students are providing is not adequate. Instructors are forced to accept less detail in order to move the discussion along, or give up the discussion for a lecture format. Education suffers and the classroom becomes like reruns of the Daily Show with John Stewart-vagueness, misconceptions, and overplayed stereotypes.

In many of my classes, I have noticed that it is the “returning” students who respond to questions with complete answers. Almost always, these are correct answers that are expressed in a way to show that the student comprehends the information, they are not just regurgitating what they read or what the instructor said a few minutes earlier. These same students are the ones who do not miss class all semester. They do all their work. They do well on tests. They show up to study groups. And why?

Because work prepares a person for college so that college can prepare a person for a career.

I belong to the group of students labeled “returning,” a term I most emphatically dislike. The truth is, the learning never stopped. When I returned to the classroom, I treated it as though I was showing up to a new job. I think that the majority of students who fall into my category do the same thing. The new job experience can only be gained one way, and it can't be taught in a high school classroom.

I think more students should take a few years right after high school to live a little before college. Getting out in the workforce and having to provide for ones own self is an essential life lesson I think many people are not getting until they are finished with college. Learning this lesson only gets more difficult the older we become.

I have often wondered what my classes would be like if the majority of students were in my situation. I wonder if the experiences would change their perspective of college.

I have to think that it would be so. Far more of the students in my category have the same goals and drive that I have. I think it is because many of us know what life is like out there sans-education. It is a tough world, and it's only getting tougher.

Back in the classroom;

After the first few vague, incomplete responses, I raise my arm and wait to be addressed. When I am, I respond in a full and complete sentence. I want my instructor to know that I am doing my job.

Me: “A nation is acting unilaterally when it pursues national interests without regard to the interests of fellow nations.”