COLLEGE PREP
Today was the first of a three-day evaluation of our after-school program. The big topic of discussion, which we've been batting back and forth for months, was whether or not we are academic (think "college prep") or enrichment (think "drop-in lab"). Even as we've evolved over time in the sophistication of our curricula and the enforcement of our policies, so as to become more academic than enrichment, our dialogue today reminded me just how far we are from truly preparing our youth to succeed in college.
I thought back to my own teen years. I was fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood whose public school was excellent; in fact, Newsweek recently ranked my alma mater in the top 100 high schools in the nation. (The honor was diminished for me, though, as our arch rivals ranked three notches above us.) Simply paying attention in class, in combination with decent and loving parents, would have adequately prepared me for life in a four-year college. I grew up in a competent and ambitious environment, and pushed myself academically and extra-curricularly, and so I was able to elevate myself to the status of Ivy League student. Did I put in the effort to get there? Partly; and partly it was luck, good parenting, and a emotionally healthy and intellectually challenging school environment.
For many of our youth, college prep would involve much more than the two or three hours of classroom training we offer them in business and entrepreneurship, more still than all the college resources, training events, and available coaching that we could possibly offer. The typical student at the high school where we draw most of our youth enters the ninth grade with a second-grade reading level . . . and graduates with a fifth-grade reading level. And don't get me started on the math skills.
The typical funder I talk to is pleased as punch with what we're doing with our students. I work myself into a religious lather expounding the power of entrepreneurship to turn students onto investing in themselves and making a category in their head for something that used to be so unattainable and unnecessary as college. And people I'm trying to sell on my program believe me. I believe me. I still do, even after today's revelations.
But I am realizing it's not so easy as that. Do we get our kids more ready for college? Yes, undoubtedly yes. Kids who were maybe on the college track are excited to take business classes and squeeze every ounce of productivity out of their university experience, because they know they need more -- knowledge, contacts, maturity -- to achieve the kind of success their entrepreneurial dreams have caused them to want. Others who never gave a second thought to higher education, stuck as they were in survival mode and poor self-esteem and negative stereotypes of inner-city kids, are all of a sudden looking into what it takes, financially and academically, to pursue a four-year degree.
But getting our kids more ready for college is not the same thing as getting them ready for college. Not to say that one program, by itself, can undo an atrocious public school education and emotional baggage and racial stigma. But it is deceitful to say that our program gets kids ready for college. It would have to do a lot more than it currently does, or even than it possibly ever could do, to do that.
Today was the first of a three-day evaluation of our after-school program. The big topic of discussion, which we've been batting back and forth for months, was whether or not we are academic (think "college prep") or enrichment (think "drop-in lab"). Even as we've evolved over time in the sophistication of our curricula and the enforcement of our policies, so as to become more academic than enrichment, our dialogue today reminded me just how far we are from truly preparing our youth to succeed in college.
I thought back to my own teen years. I was fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood whose public school was excellent; in fact, Newsweek recently ranked my alma mater in the top 100 high schools in the nation. (The honor was diminished for me, though, as our arch rivals ranked three notches above us.) Simply paying attention in class, in combination with decent and loving parents, would have adequately prepared me for life in a four-year college. I grew up in a competent and ambitious environment, and pushed myself academically and extra-curricularly, and so I was able to elevate myself to the status of Ivy League student. Did I put in the effort to get there? Partly; and partly it was luck, good parenting, and a emotionally healthy and intellectually challenging school environment.
For many of our youth, college prep would involve much more than the two or three hours of classroom training we offer them in business and entrepreneurship, more still than all the college resources, training events, and available coaching that we could possibly offer. The typical student at the high school where we draw most of our youth enters the ninth grade with a second-grade reading level . . . and graduates with a fifth-grade reading level. And don't get me started on the math skills.
The typical funder I talk to is pleased as punch with what we're doing with our students. I work myself into a religious lather expounding the power of entrepreneurship to turn students onto investing in themselves and making a category in their head for something that used to be so unattainable and unnecessary as college. And people I'm trying to sell on my program believe me. I believe me. I still do, even after today's revelations.
But I am realizing it's not so easy as that. Do we get our kids more ready for college? Yes, undoubtedly yes. Kids who were maybe on the college track are excited to take business classes and squeeze every ounce of productivity out of their university experience, because they know they need more -- knowledge, contacts, maturity -- to achieve the kind of success their entrepreneurial dreams have caused them to want. Others who never gave a second thought to higher education, stuck as they were in survival mode and poor self-esteem and negative stereotypes of inner-city kids, are all of a sudden looking into what it takes, financially and academically, to pursue a four-year degree.
But getting our kids more ready for college is not the same thing as getting them ready for college. Not to say that one program, by itself, can undo an atrocious public school education and emotional baggage and racial stigma. But it is deceitful to say that our program gets kids ready for college. It would have to do a lot more than it currently does, or even than it possibly ever could do, to do that.
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