THE GAP

College is an educational experience on a higher level, and, contrary to popular opinion, college is NOT "for everyone." Because the public school systems believe that every child will learn the same academic content to the same degree of proficiency, regardless of the myriad variables that both affect and determine educational success, generations of younger people believe that they deserve a college education so they can be given a better job at higher pay. It's an exercise in futility to explain that's not how the system works: you EARN a college degree based on the successful completion of increasingly demanding academic coursework, and not everyone is capable of doing so.

The first two years of a college education require the determined and correct usage of all those pesky basic skills that one should master during the middle school/high school curriculum. However, mastery of basic skills is not accomplished when the task of teaching test-taking overwhelms other skills, such as written expression, scientific experimentation, and advanced mathematical calculations. The four-year high school curriculum has become a repetitious cycle of reteaching the same basic skills, without upping the ante to higher levels of application of the skills. Thus, a student may recognize vocabulary words and application definitions, but have no idea whatsoever how to use those words to write a coherent, meaningful sentence, much less string an endless parade of well-written sentences together to compose either a paragraph or an essay.

The students who are "getting it" are those whose parents push, push, push their students to earn good grades and, therefore, qualify for the advanced classes. High schools used to delienate appropriate educational placement based on academic performance, but that criteria no longer applies: everyone takes the same courses in an effort to leave no child behind. In the process, the curriculum is so diluted that the majority of students who should be doing more/doing it better are left behind, waiting for the under-performing students to squeak through another semester with a barely passing grade based on simple skill 'n drill educational activities. Application of the basic skills in a meaningful setting is limited to the select group of students who can already do that prior to arriving on the high school doorstep.

If there is an adequate number of advanced classes to handle the students who no longer need the basic skills classes, there will continue to be a graduating class that prepares at least some of its educational product to succeed beyond the high school diploma. Unfortunately, however, due to skill-based testing requirements and/or budget allocations, the great masses of students are endlessly repeating what should have been mastered no later than 8th grade.

Eventually, even the most marginally prepared student will enroll in college, based on the widening gap between the educated work force that gets it and has it, and the poorly-prepared day laborer who is stuck in a job that mirrors the high school experience: endlessly repeating the same basic action while expecting to be promoted to a position of more responsibility that is rewarded with a higher salary. Not going to happen, and the jobs that used to be termed menial are going to continue to dwindle as automation of the assembly line becomes the standard for the physical labor. A professional job earns a professional salary, as well as professional responsibilities, while a menial job remains menial both in task and paycheck.

The gap widens: well-prepared college students succeed, while unprepared college students drop-out and/or fail classes. The classrooms are packed with students who want more, but don't have the educational skills to achieve more, sometimes to the point of excluding the well-prepared student -- who works during the day and cannot show up between 8 and 5 for priority registration. The lie is that everyone deserves the right to attend college because not everyone is "college material." A person who spends at least two years retaking high school curriculum before mastering enough competency to squeak by the required college-level coursework takes up space that could be filled by another student who already mastered the high school curriculum and can actually complete a college degree within the expected four-six years. Professional careers require the first degree to be completed before the advanced degrees; some students can accomplish that task, while others will endlessly sign up for, drop, fail, retake the same courses ... and finally give up, while blaming the schools for their failure.

All men are not created equal, and neither are all students equal in aptitude, ability to learn and retain knowledge, and application of skills to actual tasks. Some people take longer to learn, but retain the knowledge for a lifetime; others take a lifetime to learn, but fail to retain what they have been taught. There are going to be professional careers that pay high salaries and menial jobs that pay minimum wage. The individual determines who makes it and who doesn't, not the educational institution. Some students endlessly complain, "I don't understand this," while others vow to keep redoing until they do get it. At the end of the semester, the student who gets it moves on, while the student who does not understand stays in place. Sooner or later, both the educational institution and the floundering student run out of time, energy, and resources, leaving the student with unpaid student loans for a failed run at an inappropriate educational choice.