Trapped in Mediocrity by Baird Katherine;

Author:Baird, Katherine; [Baird, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

8

Exit, Voice, and the “Something for Everyone” Curriculum

There is tension in the premise that we hold our students to low standards; even a cursory acquaintance with high school students tells you that the competition for college spots can be ferocious. Countless parents go to extreme lengths to give their children a leg up in this competition.

Take Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, for instance. Eric recently lamented the steps he was taking to ensure that his son succeeded in school. Calling himself the “pushy, enabling father,” he argues with teachers and even his son’s principal over minor grade disputes; he runs out in the rain at seven in the morning to get a blank DVD for his son who had neglected to do so himself (thereby helping his son avoid turning in a project one day late); and he pays hundreds of dollars to enroll his son in an after-school program so that he will do better on an upcoming test. This is all part of his strategy to get his twelve-year-old into one of the nation’s best colleges or universities.1

I’ll explain shortly how Zorn’s preoccupation with his son’s success is consistent with a school system that doesn’t expect all that much from students. But first, let me make the point that Zorn is pretty typical of many parents. Parents today spend considerable time and money investing in their children’s future. Consider, for example, that today’s college-educated mothers spend a full nine hours a week more on child-care related activities than they did a couple of decades ago. The researchers who uncovered this trend attributed it to parents’ willingness to devote more time to improving the odds that their children have a good shot at a competitive college. These extra hours can be primarily attributed to mothers driving their children around to their various extracurricular activities.2 That is, this extra time is explained by parents’ growing willingness to do things for their kids (like arguing with vice principals and principals) that they didn’t do before.

In many ways, all of this extra time and effort by parents makes sense. As top students know, the most competitive American colleges and universities are becoming increasingly difficult to get into; and even the “second-tier colleges” have become so competitive that they are now sometimes referred to as “the new Ivies.” This trend is occurring because more students want to get into top colleges, but space in them has not grown much.

Several reasons explain why more students are seeking admission to top colleges. For one, the number of students going to college has grown. Students are also more mobile and are willing to travel longer distances to attend college; many top students who in the past would settle for a good state or regional college are increasingly applying to the nation’s top colleges. More parents can afford private or out-of-state tuition and are willing and able to make higher investments in their children’s education. Finally, there is at least a perceived increase in the rewards from admission to the nation’s top colleges.

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