Orsak, Tori: Paglia

                                                Proper Preparation

            "Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek."- Mario Andretti

Proper preparation for any achievement in life comes from experience. As high school seniors we faced the question: are we ready to tackle what college brings to the table?  Paglia says that failure experienced after college is due to the institutions. The failure she describes can be traced back to the lack of preparation in high school. The differences in those levels of education can cause shell shock. At the high school level more is given to students than is expected. In high school students are taught all of their lessons by their teacher in the time period of one class without their being expected to learn on their own. At the college level more is required from students. Students in college level courses are only given so much from instructors and expected to learn the rest of the material on their own time. The failure experienced by one in four freshmen entering a university can be traced back to their high school experiences.  At the high school level public school teachers are required to teach according to state guidelines. This requirement limits their ability to be as open minded and as challenging with students as they would like.  Whereas college professors are not so limited in their teaching methods, causing students to possibly experience something quite the opposite of what they were used to in high school.

            

Another aspect of this failure can be traced back to the importance institutions place on the American College Test. The score students make on this test determines their future at the university. While this test holds so much importance, it doesn’t in any way give students a preview into what college work will consist of. The American College Test is a multiple choice test that in no way challenges a student’s critical thinking. This test is used to determine if a person is ready for college while the test in no way reflects college level work.  In the pre-college stage putting so much clout into a test that is inadequate can cause false expectations.

            

Being able to change your frame of mind completely is a challenge that most individuals can’t accomplish. High schools should focus more on gradually getting students ready for a change in responsibilities and less on cramming what they are required to by the state. If in High School students were required to start slowly to depend on themselves for learning and only receive the aid of a teacher when needed, then those students would be better prepared for the challenges that a university will force onto them.