Students Should Not Meet Real Standards for the First Time at 18
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Some students don’t even meet a real math class until college. And I’m not talking about the subject matter or how hard the math is.
What I’m talking about is, before that, everything had cushions. There were corrections, extra credit, the review sheet looks just like the test.
You get loads of partial credit for almost every single line of work you write down even if you have no idea what you’re doing.
You can pass a class if you just put your name on the assignment and upload it to Canvas with some work written down for each problem, even if it’s not right at all.
And then they go to college and they get into a course where the professor is a little more, you know, some might say a hard ass, but I would just say more honest, actually assigning grades on the basis of whether you have learned the skills or not.
There’s no extra credit. There’s no review sheets that tell you exactly what’s gonna be on the test.
You don’t get partial credit just for showing up and trying. You get it for results, for making real successful progress.
And now the student thinks that, you know, because of all that, that college math is just impossible. Can’t do it. Expectations are too high.
And maybe it’s challenging. I mean, I get it. The subject matter can be challenging, but often the overwhelm that they’re feeling is just that all this rigor and accountability arrived all at once.
And maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think students should be meeting real standards for the first time at age 18.
Further reading:
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