The American Scholar

MANIFESTO

A couple of articles related to college have caught my attention recently. In both instances, the authors argue that for many 18-year-olds and those taking courses later in their lives, college may not be appropriate—or even feasible.

From an article in the Houston Chronicle two weeks ago:

Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later.

And from the latest issue of The Atlantic Monthly a Professor X argues:

I, who teach these low-level, must-pass, no-multiple-choice-test classes, am the one who ultimately delivers the news to those unfit for college: that they lack the most-basic skills and have no sense of the volume of work required; that they are in some cases barely literate; that they are so bereft of schemata, so dispossessed of contexts in which to place newly acquired knowledge, that every bit of information simply raises more questions. They are not ready for high school, some of them, much less for college.

I encourage the highly intelligent readers of this blog—extremely successful college graduates all—to read the articles in their entirety.