More Higher Ed Dire-ness

Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, OR

Twas a beautiful day in the Rogue Valley. Clear air, spectacular shadows and color. Ah, The Shire.
Hmmm, trying to put together a coherent thought regarding this article in today's NYT about big lenders dropping student loans to "community colleges, for-profit universities and other less competitive institutions." Among the schools being dropped by a major lender is one of SOU's sister schools, Eastern Oregon University. Uh oh. That can't be good.

I'm too tired to think clearly, though. More later.

Too F**ing Much Perspective

OMFG, as people say. I came across this article by in the Atlantic Monthly written by an anonymous adjunct professor who teaches introductory writing courses at a community college. Read it and weep, I suppose. On a good day, I'd say about 65% of the students at my college are capable of doing actual college-level work-- on a bad day, I'd say it's closer to 10%. More on this later, as teaching is starting to gnaw at my soul a little bit.

(He'p me, Yahweh! He'p me! )

Anyhow, here's an excerpt from the Atlantic article.

Class time passes in a flash—for me, anyway, if not always for my students. I love trying to convey to a class my passion for literature, or the immense satisfaction a writer can feel when he or she nails a point. When I am at my best, and the students are in an attentive mood—generally, early in the semester—the room crackles with positive energy. Even the cops-to-be feel driven to succeed in the class, to read and love the great books, to explore potent themes, to write well.

The bursting of our collective bubble comes quickly. A few weeks into the semester, the students must start actually writing papers, and I must start grading them. Despite my enthusiasm, despite their thoughtful nods of agreement and what I have interpreted as moments of clarity, it turns out that in many cases it has all come to naught.

Remarkably few of my students can do well in these classes. Students routinely fail; some fail multiple times, and some will never pass, because they cannot write a coherent sentence.