This past Saturday, I attended my high school’s graduation as something I had never been before - an alumnus. During my high school career, I played “Pomp and Circumstance” as a member of the band every year (except for when I graduated, of course), so I knew what to expect, for the most part. One of the graduates had snuck me a ticket to the ground floor of the proceedings, so I had the opportunity to sit through the hour-long ceremony with a great view. The experience forced me to reflect on my own high school graduation, from which I am now exactly one year removed, and how high schools are both succeeding and failing to prepare graduates to study at the collegiate level, based on my own experiences.
My high school, I can say with no doubt in my mind, succeeded in preparing me for college – I haven’t flunked out yet. I was often reminded of how rigorous the academics were, either in comparison to other local schools or by simply doing the work. The level of academic competency that was expected of me, which I like to think I surpassed enough to not make it seem like I’m bragging, taught me how to write a paper without gaping holes in my logic and how to balance work, school, and free time. Looking at the class of 2015, I knew that most, if not all, of them were equally well-equipped to face college academics.
That is not to say, however, that I came into college as a perfect student, and many of my weakest areas reflect some systemic gaps in expectations between the two levels of study. I have to admit that I almost never studied for tests in high school. I was the type of student that could remember most of the required information from in-class review and a little cramming beforehand. So when it came time for my first test here at IU, I figured that studying for about an hour the night before the test would be enough, perhaps more than enough. While it was a fairly easy test for my Spanish class that semester, I had still made more errors than I had expected and had realized in the middle of the test that I had forgotten to study the vocabulary section. I knew that I would have to learn how to actually study for tests in order to get the kinds of grades I wanted, which was something that I was almost never forced to do in high school.
Similarly, I see many people of high-school age that do not know how to disagree with an opinion, evaluate their own views as well as the opposition in question and adjust their perspectives accordingly. I give you the example of One Direction. I am not a fan, and never will be, but I had to learn to recognize why others are fans of their music. I cannot credit this ability, something that I still struggle with, to any sort of lesson on rhetoric or other relevant topic. The Internet, especially social media, shows how this inability to discuss a topic – rather than argue – plagues our society. While there are a number of people able to carry out a civil conversation, many, from our leaders to our laypeople, cannot do so. This stems from a college preparatory system with evident failures. However, we must recognize its successes as well.
