College admissions are generally done based on school records showing the GPA (grade point average – a numerical average of the students’ grades through high school) and often including a scale showing how the student compares to other students in the same school. Also, most colleges require scores from standardized tests in Math and Reading/Writing skills (and sometimes Science) that are administered by private companies, not schools – these are the “SAT” and the “ACT”. Then the college also asks for personal essays, recommendations from teachers, and information about the students’ extra-curricular activities. Some schools also require a personal interview.

In my state, you need to take classes in: Math (you must pass three years), English (must pass 4 years), Science (must pass 2.5 years), and Social Studies/History (must pass 4 years). The state-wide test which decides whether or not you actually graduate tests only Math and Reading comprehension/Writing, but there are talks in the works to change them to include Science and History. These tests are not intended to compare between students and are not released during the process of college admissions. Rather, they’re only intended to make sure the student has actually learned a minimum level of information in those basic subjects (you have to get a 50% to pass). For most students in middle-class and upper-class areas, these tests are time-consuming, but easy. However, students with serious learning differences and a huge proportion of students in lower-class neighborhoods often don’t pass this test and then they have the chance to try to pass it two more times. If they still don’t pass, they take a completely different test that allows a teacher to sit next to them and basically “prompt” them through it. Most students who fail the first test will get through on this one.

re the learning at school; you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot realistically expect it to enthusiastically suck back brown sludge seems fair.

sorry, can i be obtuse and ask what subjects you need to pass to graduate? also – you do college admission on the basis of a standardised test and those confounded essays (personal statement? agh), don’t you, not a state wide test across the mandatory subjects? other than the standardised testing, is there anyway to compare between students?

I always experienced school more like day care rather than a concentration camp. Not the best years of my life, occasionally mind-numbingly boring perhaps, but I did learn things that I appreciate knowing and I occasionally had teachers who were really inspiring and motivational (and taught me about feminism!). But it seems like family income is directly proportional to enjoyment of school/access to inspiring teachers.

so in CA you had to attend school, but you didn’t have to learn anything in particular? no designated math or science or arifmatic? you could be learning how to line up, not to talk, that the earth was made in six days and so forth, and nothing else – and that’s ok? it’s the attending that matters?!

oi oi oi

::waves back to Spirella Bones:: thank you for adding me to your blogroll!

Alderson Warm-Fork, I never knew about Firestone’s specific ideas about school systems and how they create an oppressed class out of children. Thanks for sharing that, I had never thought about it that way.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Baroness Blossom was claiming that one has to either acknowledge the gruesome reality/history of the Holocaust OR recognize the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, exclusively. This supposed conflict between these two causes was created in this discussion by folks arguing against Baroness, from what I see. Anyway, this conflict in the Middle East is NOT a religious conflict (“Muslim vs. Jew”), it is an ethnic conflict over land, period. I only mention that since some people are still discussing the issue and conflating “Arab” with “Muslim” and “Israeli” with “Jew.” I don’t want to make this about one or several specific commenters anymore.

Back to the subject of schools and their prison-like character and function, I can’t even describe how many times I have been loudly called out and embarrassed in the main hallway by the high school principle for supposedly wearing “low-cut” tops, and he would say this loudly in front of other students going by (probably just to humiliate me). And I am lucky because I’ve gone to relatively good schools compared to most other American kids. Schools are often a site of abuse, humiliation, and tension for many students, especially female students (of all races) and male students of color. I don’t think we should get rid of schools altogether, because that’s just easier said than done. Plus, as someone mentioned before, our communities and parents by themselves are not always the best role models either. I think school systems, and their function/purpose, just need to be changed A LOT. Better teacher training and pay, the emphasis of lessons on critical thinking skills and conceptual analysis instead of memorization and busy work for students, and I think students should be strongly encouraged/required to learn at least 2 or 3 languages, among many other changes that need to be made. It is sad that many students in the U.S. do not even have a safe environment to learn in.

But one son unschooled from birth through age 14 when he voluntarily went to public high school for a couple of years before dropping out and heading off to Harvard (Harvard was entirely his idea, I wasn’t particularly thrilled about it; I’d raised my kids to be scruffy vagabond musicians who lived in their cars, not “Ivy League kids,” but he was always the rebellious one and anyway it was his life). The other son unschooled from birth to age 17 when he started taking classes at a local community college. He then transferred those credits to the University of California and was able to graduate with highest honors in two years, while working full time.

We got around the compulsory attendance laws (it’s NOT compulsory education, by the way, just attendance) by filing an affidavit to create our own private school. For the first six years we called it Midvale School for the Gifted (a la Gary Larson), and for the rest of the time we called it the Molari & Kerli Academy. This nearly drove the state of California insane.