Students

I asked them to write about their education and reading experience. They were to respond to some specific prompts/questions. They were very honest. Some said they don't like reading very much and haven't read a lot, that most of the reading they do these days is online (mostly Facebook). Some, though, said they love to read and read novels (the biggest author is Zane, whose writing is crazy awesome porn that is marketed as erotica; you should check it out).

I asked them to talk about elementary/middle/high school. Did they enjoy school? Did they ever feel pressure not to be engaged, or to be very active in class, because they would get labeled as a nerd or a ass-kisser, or something like that. Every one of my students responded that they never had trouble speaking up in class, that they were told they were smart, that they were good students, had earned A's throughout, and they never cared what other students thought of them.

This is in a college learning support English class, or, to be politically incorrect: a remedial reading and writing class. These students' placement scores kept them from entering English 101. From what I've read of their writing so far, they have some pretty severe inadequacies as readers and writers, as students in general. For a recent homework assignment only two out of 24 students completed the assignment; everyone else turned in half of it or less, or nothing at all.

What strikes me about all this is that I'm suspicious of something that many American students might be afflicted with: they have a whole lot of confidence, and no skills. Although they say that they don't have trouble talking in class, when I pose a question to the room, even the crickets hear crickets. If they earned A's in high school, my feeling is that there are a lot of high school teachers inflating grades, simply handing them out, without assigning any real work, or having their students suffer the consequences of not completing their work. Why would almost an entire class think it's OK to turn in half of an assignment? I have to ask the class tomorrow morning. Maybe there was some sort of mix-up? I doubt it. Unfortunately, this is not all that uncommon where I teach. In fact, I've dealt with it every semester at the beginning. I have to teach my students how to be students, then I can teach them how to read and write. My students have been under served their entire lives and now they're trying to get a college degree.

I teach at a community college. I teach in south Dekalb County, Georgia. The minority percentage of the zip codes surrounding the college is 93.89%. In my classes this spring, I have a total of 60 students in 3 classes. 13 are males. 1 is not African American. I could go more into the inequities in school districts in GA if I wanted to, but to put it simply: schools in Black communities in GA, generally, get screwed. The people who attended those schools are those I'm trying to teach, to help. But I don't think anyone was helping them by handing out A's in high school.