Why I'm not going into academia (Reason #567)

The Chronicle of Higher Ed published an article in the issue dated March 10, 2006 contrasting high school teachers' and college professors' perceptions of college preparedness of high school students entitled "A Perception Gap Over Students' Preparation."

I never held the bitter 'ivory tower' perspective of university faculty until I came to graduate school. Jumping between my summer internship in Queens, NY and this esteemed and expensive institution of higher education gave me vertigo and radically lowered my tolerance of college instructors who bitch about the laziness/inadequacy/stupidity of their students. I help lots of students at the reference desk, and it's clear to me that at the very least, many students don't know how to use a library. I can understand this gap in knowledge; our university library pays its librarians peanuts, choosing instead to cultivate a dizzying array of library resources that are worthy of admiration and bewildering to me in my first year working at the reference desk.

I also admit to not knowing what it's like to teach college freshman. I do know that I went into college full of hubris and got taken down a few notches by my fairly challenging college courses. High school wasn't exactly a cakewalk, but I'd been a big fish in a smallish pond. But here's the thing. College professor are paid large, large salaries (despite what PZ Myers and Co. may bitch and moan) in comparison to what K-12 teachers are paid. College professors are not subject to losing their jobs because of asinine federal legislation that judges students success by some arbitrary 'standardized' test scores that are biased in too many ways to mention here. College professors get kids that have essentially made it--they have the means (financial, emotional, intellectual(?)--to get into college, whatever that may mean. Yet the way this article expresses their opinions makes professors sound so put-upon, and makes it clear that they think high school teachers are just phoning it in when it comes to teaching. Example:

"I teach composition, and many of my students do not understand the very basics of formulating an argument — for example, you must support a claim with evidence. High-school teachers need to emphasize writing skills and critical-thinking skills. Colleges should organize seminars for high-school teachers to help them understand an institution's expectations of first-year students."

— An English professor at a public university in Georgia

I agree one billion percent that kids need to learn critical thinking skills. Sadly, federal 'standards' are more interested in ramming the 3Rs down kids' throats to the exclusion of everything else so that tests can be passed and grades can be made. I just think it is really, really unfair to level the blame at teachers when the whole educational system is fucked. I think everyone is on the same side here--everyone wants kids to get educated (or something) so they can be 'successful,' whatever that means. I just think that some folks are out of touch with what it's really like out in the world of public K-12 education. I can tell tales of being denied 5 minutes of classtime to tell students about summer reading at the local library because teachers must, must adhere to schedule to meet 'standards.' While it may be helpful for high school teachers to do something to get a better of idea of what's expected of college students, I think it would be more beneficial for all instructors to get together and look at what's really happening with our educational system.