Finally, some work gets done

I've finally been able to get some work done. My College Comp kids have been chomping at the bit to get back their fourth set of essays (I had them write "How To" guides about one of the following: how to prepare for college, how to prepare for their senior year of high school (I have several juniors in the class), how to improve education either on a national scale or just here in our school, or how to make students better people). So I read a batch last night and finished them today. Most were okay. Some were poor. And a few were exceptional. I've taken a sample paragraph from an excellent paper and included it below.

"In communist China, the education gap between low-achieving students and high-achieving students is solved by offering an education only to whose who will perform. In America, this gap is bridged by setting a meager minimum and implementing No Child Left Behind testing. How can a high school give college-bound students an education that's competitive with the global economy without leaving non-college bound students in the dark?"

And later in the essay

"The first step to truly globalizing America is being able to understand and communicate with the rest of the world. America's way of teaching a foreign language seems to involve cramming basic translations of American words into a semester of structured language classes. I took the full two years of language required to get into many colleges, but i have trouble even counting to ten in the language. Our schools should steer away from this teaching strategy. Instead, teach a foreign language alongside English from elementary school on up, so students learn the language in depth and can speak the language fluently."

He also goes on to suggest a new type of high school that offers two types of degrees: one for college bound students and one for workforce bound students. Now this is nothing new. But his ideas and support blew me away. Most of the kids wrote about how they were worried they wouldn't be able to get up in the morning on their own and make it to their morning classes in college or how they are worried about making the most of their senior years. Sure, all worthy topics.

But none of them wrote anything this lucid and impactful. In 15 years, I wouldn't mind working under him. That's the kind of direction and thinking we need around here.